NewsIf instructed to “Place a cooled apple into the microwave,” how would a robot respond? Initially, the robot would need to locate an apple, pick it up, find the refrigerator, open its door, and place the apple inside. Subsequently, it would close the refrigerator door, reopen it to retrieve the cooled apple, pick up the apple again, and close the door. Following this, the robot would need to locate the microwave, open its door, place the apple inside, and then close the microwave door. Creating robots to safely aid disaster victims is one challenge; executing flexible robot control that takes advantage of the material’s softness is another. The use of pliable soft materials to collaborate with humans and work in disaster areas has drawn much recent attention. However, controlling soft dynamics for practical applications has remained a significant challenge. 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 Design Kitchen over the course of a year-long senior design capstone class, offers a more power-efficient method of maintaining neutral buoyancy—a critical component in underwater operations. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and robots are becoming increasingly advanced, exhibiting capabilities that vaguely resemble those of humans. The growing similarities between AIs and humans could ultimately bring users to attribute human feelings, experiences, thoughts, and sensations to these systems, which some people perceive as eerie and uncanny. A three-year research project at Mid Sweden University has made several advancements in creating the airport of the future with safe and cost-effective solutions, including autonomous measurements of the runway surface as well as more opportunities to monitor vehicles and drones at airports. 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 of feats that would be impossible for robots that exist today. 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 are already prototyping and testing such hybrid electric “flying cars” that take off and land vertically but soar through the air like winged aircraft to enable efficient flight over longer distances. 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, the contexts where they happen, and cultural norms involving robots, according to an award-winning paper from Cornell and Indiana University scholars who specialize in human-robot interaction. Four-legged robots, also known as quadrupedal robots, have advantageous characteristics, including the ability to rapidly walk on challenging terrains and keep a low center of gravity. Some four-legged robots can also manipulate objects in their surroundings, yet this is typically achieved using arm-like structures mounted at the top of the robots, rather than the limbs they use to walk. EPFL researchers are targeting the next generation of soft actuators and robots with an elastomer-based ink for 3D printing objects with locally changing mechanical properties, eliminating the need for cumbersome mechanical joints. |