Climbing robots could have many valuable real-world applications, ranging from the completion of maintenance tasks on roofs or other tall structures to the delivery of parcels or survival kits in locations that are difficult to access. To be successfully deployed in...
The effective operation of robots from a distance, also known as teleoperation, could allow humans to complete a vast range of manual tasks remotely, including risky and complex procedures. Yet teleoperation could also be used to compile datasets of human motions,...
Robotic systems have so far been primarily deployed in warehouses, airports, malls, offices, and other indoor environments, where they assist humans with basic manual tasks or answer simple queries. In the future, however, they could also be deployed in unknown and...
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have already proved to be valuable tools for tackling a wide range of real-world problems, ranging from the monitoring of natural environments and agricultural plots to search and rescue missions and the filming...
Robotic systems have become increasingly sophisticated over the past decades, evolving from rudimental stiff robots to a wide range of soft, humanoid, animal-inspired robots. Legged robots, particularly quadrupeds, have been found to be particularly promising for...
Researchers at the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology recently developed Granulobot, a new modular robotic system that can change its physical shape to best navigate different environments.
In recent years, roboticists and computer scientists have been trying to develop increasingly efficient methods to teach robots new skills. Many of the methods developed so far, however, require a large amount of training data, such as annotated human demonstrations...
Researchers at University of Michigan recently developed SKOOTR, a tri-pedal skating robot that can efficiently move around in its surroundings without repeatedly flipping over. This robot, introduced in a paper posted to the preprint server arXiv, was...
Home robots could assist humans with the completion of various chores and manual tasks, ranging from washing dishes or doing the laundry to cooking, cleaning and tidying up. While many roboticists and computer scientists have tried to improve the skills of home robots...
In recent years, materials scientists and engineers have introduced increasingly sophisticated materials for robotic and prosthetic applications. This includes a wide range of electronic skins, or e-skins, designed to sense the surrounding environment and artificially...