Robotics

When it comes to developing robots that can move efficiently through water, scientists regularly turn to creature’s like jellyfish for inspiration, and a UK research team has just produced one that can swim with the best of them.

Moley Robotics steps beyond robo-mixers and grocery-tracking refrigerators in developing a robo-kitchen built to provide a full cooking takeover. The automated kitchen system is ready to find its way into actual homes.

We've already heard about small flying or wheeled robots that cooperate on tasks by working in collaborative "swarms." Harvard University researchers have now gone a step further, by developing tiny underwater robots that school together like fish.

Swimming in pools may be fun, but using a dip net to skim leaves off of them can be a tedious chore. That's why the solar-powered Ariel robot was created, as it autonomously does the job for you.

Beekeeping can be an arduous task, as keepers have to repeatedly bend over and lift wax/honey-laden honeycomb panels out of each hive. The Hive Controller is designed to help, by robotically lifting and collecting the honeycombs.

Boston Dynamics is sending off 2020 with its most impressive robot video to date – showing off its entire range dancing to the classic song “Do You Love Me?” in a fun demonstration of just how quickly this technology is developing.

As anyone who has grown climbing plants will know, the things are great at grasping onto thin objects such as strings or bamboo poles. A new robotic gripper, inspired by such plants, could find use in the handling of small, delicate items.

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a new soft robot that can walk at roughly the speed of a human, activated by light and magnetic fields. The robot can squeeze into tight spaces and pick up, carry and release objects on demand.

A startup created specifically to develop machines for first responders, Company Six, has now unveiled its first creation, a rugged, video-streaming robot called ReadySight that can be tossed into hairy situations.

If you want to know the local soil conditions, it would be good if you could just ask an earthworm. Given that that's an impossibility, though, scientists are now working on the next-best thing – earthworm-inspired soil-analyzing agricultural robots.

Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have developed a new type of spray-on coating they say can give regular objects the capabilities of magnetically controlled robots, with particular potential in biomedical applications.

Gardening is very therapeutic for many people, but there are nonetheless some yard-related tasks that can be a hassle. The Yardroid robot was designed to autonomously handle those jobs, utilizing artificial intelligence.