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Paper power: Origami technology makes its way into quadcopters

Over the past decade, researchers all around the world have been finding new and exciting use cases for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Commonly called "drones," UAVs have proved their worth across many fields, including ...

Trotting robots reveal emergence of animal gait transitions

A four-legged robot trained with machine learning by EPFL researchers has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking—a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists interested ...

Researchers use ChatGPT for choreographies with flying robots

Prof. Angela Schoellig from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) uses ChatGPT to develop choreographies for swarms of drones to perform along to music. An additional safety filter prevents mid-air collisions. The researcher's ...

A six-armed robot for precision pollination

Over the past decades, dozens of animal species have become extinct, while thousands of others are now at risk of disappearing. Endangered species include various pollinators, including bees and some types of moths, butterflies, ...

Underwater robot pioneers new energy-efficient buoyancy control

A remotely operated underwater robot built by a team of Rice University engineering students pioneers a new way to control buoyancy via water-splitting fuel cells. The device, designed and constructed at the Oshman Engineering ...

Why can't robots outrun animals?

Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that many animals are capable ...

Virtual sensors help aerial vehicles stay aloft when rotors fail

No crystal ball is needed to envision a future that engineers have in mind, one in which air taxis and other flying vehicles ferry passengers between urban locations, avoiding the growing gridlock on the ground below. Companies ...

People, not design features, make a robot social

It takes a village to nurture social robots. Researchers who develop social robots—ones that people interact with—focus too much on design features and not enough on sociological factors, like human-to-human interactions, ...

Octopus inspires new suction mechanism for robots

A new robotic suction cup that can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team, based at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, studied the structures of octopus biological ...

How 3D printers can give robots a soft touch

Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates ...

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A rimless wheel robot that can reliably overcome steps
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A magneto-pneumatic hybrid-driven soft actuator with bidirectional torsion
Robotics
Why robots can be culturally insensitive—and how scientists are trying to fix it
Robotics
Adding a telescopic leg beneath a quadcopter to create a hopping drone
Robotics
Tiny AI-trained robots demonstrate remarkable soccer skills
Robotics
Engineers quicken the response time for robots to react to human conversation
Robotics
A miniaturized vision-based tactile sensor based on fiber optic bundles
Robotics
Better battery manufacturing: Robotic lab vets new reaction design strategy
Robotics
Making robots more flexible and reducing their energy consumption by up to 25%
Robotics
Helping robots make a better first impression
Robotics
A fusion SLAM system that enhances the sensing and localization capabilities of biped climbing robots
Robotics
Engineers design flexible 'skeletons' for soft, muscle-powered robots
Robotics
Eye gaze and facial expression of robots are essential for interaction with humans, finds researcher
Robotics
A scalable reinforcement learning–based framework to facilitate the teleoperation of humanoid robots
Robotics
Elon Musk says Tesla will unveil robotaxi in August
Robotics
A framework to improve air-ground robot navigation in complex occlusion-prone environments
Business
Apple explores making personal robots: Report
Robotics
'Smart swarms' of tiny robots inspired by natural herd mentality
Robotics
Teaching robots to walk on the moon, and maybe rescue one another
Robotics
New robot swims and jumps like a Chinese rice grasshopper

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Earth Sciences
Atmospheric 'teleconnections' sustain warm blobs in the northeast Pacific Ocean
Astronomy
Citizen scientists help discover record-breaking exoplanet in binary star system
Astronomy
New observatory in Chile—the highest in the world—aims to reveal origins of planets, galaxies and more
Astronomy
Researchers explore an old galactic open cluster
Plants & Animals
Mimicry allows lesser necklaced laughingthrush birds to benefit from living among larger related species
Cell & Microbiology
Study uncovers the secret of long-lived stem cells
Plants & Animals
Alpacas found to be the only mammal to directly inseminate the uterus
Archaeology
Scientists show that ancient village adapted to drought, rising seas
Ecology
How polyps of the moon jellyfish repel viral attacks on their microbiome
Polymers
Organic electrochemical transistors: Scientists solve chemical mystery at the interface of biology and technology
Environment
Activity in a room stirs up nanoparticles left over from consumer sprays, study shows
Plants & Animals
Study dispels myth that purebred dogs are more prone to health problems
Earth Sciences
Study shows climate change and mercury pollution stressed plants for millions of years
Archaeology
Archaeology team discovers a 7,000-year-old settlement in Serbia
Nanophysics
Exploiting disorder to harvest heat energy: The potentialities of 2D magnets for thermoelectric applications
Plasma Physics
New instrument could help scientists tailor plasma to produce more fusion heat
Astronomy
Novel calculations peg age of 'baby' asteroid
Environment
Should chatbots chime in on climate change? Study explore potential of AI platforms for climate literacy
Astronomy
Clouds blanket the night side of the hot exoplanet WASP-43b
Astrobiology
Enceladus spills its guts through strike–slip motion

Research could advance soft robotics manufacturing and design

Soft robots use pliant materials such as elastomers to interact safely with the human body and other challenging, delicate objects and environments. A team of Rice University researchers has developed an analytical model ...

Harsh field tests shape robotic design in unexpected ways

Auke Ijspeert and his team in the BioRobotics Lab (BioRob) in EPFL's School of Engineering had operated their bio-informed robots in natural environments before, but this was more for demonstration purposes than for scientific ...