For roughly 24 hours, between the afternoon of September 17 and the evening of September 18, the United States Marine Corps couldn’t find one of its F-35B stealth fighter jets. The pilot had ejected, but it took the military a spell to find the jet, and in the process it put out a call for […]
Get ready for the robotic fish revolution
This article was originally featured on Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. Human technology has long drawn inspiration from the natural world: The first airplanes were modeled after birds. The designer of Velcro was inspired by the irksome burrs he often had to pick off […]
This wormy robot can wriggle its way around a jet engine
A new wormy robot could help with jet engine inspections at GE Aerospace, according to an announcement this week. Sensiworm, short for “Soft ElectroNics Skin-Innervated Robotic Worm,” is the newest outgrowth in GE’s line of worm robots, which includes a “giant earthworm” for tunneling and the “Pipeworm” for pipeline inspection. Jet engines are complex devices […]
Drones offer a glimpse inside Fukushima nuclear reactor 13 years after disaster
A team of miniature drones recently entered the radioactive ruins of one of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors in an attempt to help Japanese officials continue planning their decades’ long cleanup effort. But if the images released earlier this week didn’t fully underscore just how much work is still needed, new footage from the tiny robots’ excursion […]
A four-legged ‘Robodog’ is patrolling the Large Hadron Collider
Traversing through the dark, underground areas of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland isn’t for the faint of heart. The world’s most powerful particle accelerator violently smashes protons and other subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light, which can emit radiation at levels potentially harmful to humans. If that weren’t enough, […]
Wendy’s wants underground robots to deliver food to your car
Wendy’s announced this week that it is going to try using underground autonomous robots to speed up how customers collect online orders. The burger joint plans to pilot the system designed by “hyperlogistics” company Pipedream, and aims to be able to send food from the kitchen to designated parking spots. Wendy’s seems to be on […]
This helpful robot uses a camera to find items for people with dementia
Researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo have unveiled a new program for personal assistance robots. This new program utilizes episodic memory and object-detection algorithms to help locate lost items. Although designed specifically to aid patients suffering from cognitive issues, the team believes their advancements could eventually find their way onto people’s smartphones or tablets. Dementia […]
This lawn-mowing robot can save part of your yard for pollinators
This month marks the fifth anniversary of “No Mow May,” an annual environmental project dedicated to promoting sustainable, eco-friendly lawns via a 31-day landscaping moratorium. In doing so, the brief respite gives bees and other pollinators a chance to do what they do best: contribute to a vibrant, healthy, and biodiverse ecosystem. To keep the […]
NASA is headed for the moon next week, and it’s bringing lots of weird stuff
A rocket stocked with scientific instruments, technological gadgets, and… bitcoin (literally) is about to head for the moon’s surface. United Launch Alliance’s NASA-funded Vulcan Centaur is slated to lift off in the early hours of January 8 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to begin its nearly two-month journey. After traveling roughly 238,900 miles, the nearly 2,829-pound […]
A fleet of humanoid, open-source robots could change robotics research
Immense strides in human-robot interactions have been made over the past few years. But, all of these robots tend to be quite different. The lack of an affordable, generalized, modular robotic platform hampers many researchers’ progress, alongside their ability to share and compare findings. The National Science Foundation, an independent US government-funded agency supporting research […]