At least 83 moons orbit Saturn, and experts believe its most reflective one could harbor life underneath its icy surface. To find out, NASA scientists hope to send a massive serpentine robot to scour Enceladus, both atop its frozen ground—and maybe even within a hidden ocean underneath. As CBS News highlighted on Monday, researchers and […]
To build a better crawly robot, add legs—lots of legs
When traveling on rough and unpredictable roads, the more legs the better—at least for robots. Balancing on two legs is somewhat hard; on four legs, it’s slightly easier. But what if you had many many legs, like a centipede? Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have found that by giving a robot multiple, connected legs, […]
Stunt or sinister: The Kremlin drone incident, unpacked
Early in the morning of May 3, local Moscow time, a pair of explosions occurred above the Kremlin. Videos of the incident appeared to show two small drones detonating—ultramodern tech lit up against the venerable citadel. The incident was exclusively the domain of Russian social media for half a day, before Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
Researchers built a ‘SoftZoo’ to virtually test animal-inspired robots
There are so many animal-inspired soft robots out there at this point that you could easily pack an entire zoo with them. Although an adorable idea, it’s unlikely any such program will find its way into the real world soon—that said, a virtual zoo filled with digital soft robot prototypes will soon become available to […]
Robot plants could be used to grow infrastructure in space from scratch
This article was original featured on MIT Press.This article is excerpted from Dario Floreano and Nicola Nosengo’s book “Tales From a Robotic World.” In the early 2010s, a new trend in robotics began to emerge. Engineers started creating robotic versions of salamanders, dragonflies, octopuses, geckos, and clams — an ecosystem of biomimicry so diverse the Economist portrayed […]
Seals provided inspiration for a new waddling robot
It might be difficult to see at first, but if you squint just right, you can tell the latest animal-inspired robot owes its ungainly waddle to seals. Researchers at Chicago’s DePaul University looked at the movements of the aquatic mammal and its relatives for their new robot prototype—and while it may look a bit silly, […]
This agile robotic hand can handle objects just by touch
The human hand is amazingly complex—so much so that most modern robots and artificial intelligence systems have a difficult time understanding how they truly work. Although machines are now pretty decent at grasping and replacing objects, actual manipulation of their targets (i.e. assembly, reorienting, and packaging) remains largely elusive. Recently, however, researchers created an impressively […]
Tony Stark would love this new experimental materials lab
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has recently announced the completion of its ‘A-Lab,’ where the ‘A’ stands for artificial intelligence, automated, and accelerated. The $2 million lab is complete with three robotic arms, eight furnaces, and lab equipment all controlled by AI software, and it works around the clock. If it seems like a real-life replica […]
The Marines are getting supersized drones for battlefield resupply
On April 11, the Department of Defense announced that it was allocating just over $8 million for 21 new delivery drones. These flying machines, officially called the TRV-150C Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft Systems, are made by Survice Engineering in partnership with Malloy Aeronautics. The TRV-150C is a four-limbed drone that looks like a quadcopter on […]
Robot jellyfish swarms could soon help clean the oceans of plastic
The oceans are inundated with plastic. Despite the numerous flashy proposed solutions, there unfortunately still isn’t any surefire way to clean it all up. One of the most buzzed about ideas—underwater vacuuming—has recently come up against intense scrutiny for its potential collateral damage to marine ecosystems and wildlife. Meanwhile, even the more delicate alternatives often […]