Robotics

Soft materials, such as rubber or polymers that can endure drastic changes to their shape, are promising for applications where flexibility and shapeshifting abilities are paramount. For example, these materials can be used to create soft robots suited for specialized tasks, ranging from medical devices that could navigate around inside the body to robots for search-and-rescue missions that can squeeze through small openings.

While the eyes of the world are on the novel coronavirus, East Africa continues to struggle with another crisis of biblical proportions: growing swarms of ravenous locusts. Both crises are extraordinary in scale, and both foes multiply so quickly that governments are struggling to contain them.

A research team has developed NeuroPod, an automaton that simulates the activity of a six-legged insect. The model, which walks, trots and runs, uses efficient and cost effective materials. It could therefore pave the way for the creation of prostheses or structures for the rehabilitation of spinal cord injuries at a reduced cost compared with those currently in use.

IDTechEx have released a new report covering the market, technology and players in hearables. It finds that the hearables market was worth $24.5bn in 2019 and will continue to grow at a forecasted 14% YoY from 2020-2025.

Algorithm development is central to autonomous driving. The progress here has been unleashed by the rise of train deep neutral networks which enable addressing hitherto inaccessible problems.

Mobile robots and autonomous vehicles are impacting every step of the logistic and delivery chain from the warehouse and fulfillment centres to the customers' hand. In this article, we consider grid-based robots which automate the goods-to-person step.

Robots passing cognitive tests such as recognising themselves in a mirror and being programmed with a human sense of time are showing how machines are being shaped to become a bigger part of our everyday lives.

With the launch period of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover opening in 13 weeks, final preparations of the spacecraft continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the past week, the assembly, test and launch operations team completed important milestones, fueling the descent stage — also known as the sky crane — and attaching the Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft in history to attempt power-controlled flight on another planet.

Underwater robots are regularly used by the oil and gas industry to inspect and maintain offshore structures. The same machines could be adapted to gather extra scientific information, thus boosting environmental and resource management capabilities, an Australian-led study has revealed.

When electronics need their own power sources, there are two basic options: batteries and harvesters. Batteries store energy internally, but are therefore heavy and have a limited supply. Harvesters, such as solar panels, collect energy from their environments. This gets around some of the downsides of batteries but introduces new ones, in that they can only operate in certain conditions and can't turn that energy into useful power very quickly.

Just like humans, when robots have a decision to make there are often many options and hundreds of potential outcomes. Robots have been able to simulate a handful of these outcomes to figure out which course of action will be the most likely to lead to success. But what if one of the other options were equally likely to succeed - and safer?

An estimated 150-foot siphonophore-seemingly the longest animal ever recorded-was discovered during a month-long scientific expedition exploring the submarine canyons near Ningaloo, Australia. Additionally, up to 30 new underwater species were found by researchers from the Western Australian Museum aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor.

Tiny biohybrid robots on the micrometer scale can swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors or provide other cargo-carrying functions. The natural environmental sensing tendencies of bacteria mean they can navigate toward certain chemicals or be remotely controlled using magnetic or sound signals.

Karma's new L4 E-Flex Van achieves 320 trillion operations per second of deep learning. The Karma L4 van is the latest in a series of platform development projects featuring the Karma E-Flex Platform.

Engineers have developed a new method that doesn't require any special equipment and works in just minutes to create soft, flexible, 3D-printed robots.

What is the technology and commercial status of Autonomous mobility, and what does the future market deployment look like?

By harnessing the power of strong winds at higher altitude than turbines reach, airborne wind energy could be another key source of renewable energy, but it will need a combination of successful designs, more robust software and good storytelling to really take off.

For the first time in the US autonomous vehicles are being used to transport medical supplies and COVID-19 tests at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

The microelectronic robot is 0.8 mm long, 0.8 mm wide and 0.14 mm tall. To compare: a one cent piece has a diameter of around 16mm. The micro-robot is extremely flexible, motile and equipped with various functionalities.

Robotic turtles used for surveillance could help prevent escapes from salmon farms. The "turtle robots" are paving the way for a technology that improves monitoring inside sea cages.