Researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Technische Universität Dresden have recently designed a new type of inflatable robot for space navigation. These robots, presented in a paper published in SPIE Digital Library, were created using dielectric...
One of the key problems confronting researchers in the field of microrobotics is designing and implementing reliable controllers for insect-scale micro air vehicles (FWMAVs), which are tiny flying robots typically inspired by insects. In fact, although these...
In recent years, researchers have been trying to develop methods that enable robots to learn new skills. One option is for a robot to learn these new skills from humans, asking questions whenever it is unsure about how to behave, and learning from the human user's...
Researchers at Rutgers University have recently developed a probabilistic approach for building 3-D models of unknown objects while they are being manipulated by a robot. Their approach, outlined in a paper pre-published on arXiv, uses a physics engine to verify...
Many animals and microorganisms are able to complete complex tasks, such as finding food or building nests, as a team, or "swarm." One of the most obvious examples of this is bees, as their survival as a group heavily depends upon cooperation with other members of...
Numerous countries worldwide are currently facing major problems related to waste collection, particularly in urban areas, due to the large amount of waste generated daily by the population. Technology could play a significant role in tackling these issues, for...
In recent years, aerial robots have become increasingly popular, with potential applications in a variety of fields. Many of these robots are primarily designed to fly around and collect visual data from their surrounding environment, yet some are also able to grasp,...
Researchers at the University of Utah have recently developed a probabilistic grasp planner that can explicitly model grasp types to plan high-quality precision and power grasps in real time. Their supervised learning approach, outlined in a paper pre-published on...
In order to complete complex everyday tasks such as using equipment, cooking or building furniture, robots should be able to plan their actions and manipulate objects in their surroundings. So far, however, teaching robots to complete complicated tasks, such as those...
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have recently developed an interactive drone designed to assist humans in indoor environments such offices or laboratories. In a paper prepublished on arXiv, the researchers presented the results achieved by...