Robotics

In an effort to keep livestock safe from coyotes while not harming the predators themselves, researchers ran experiments with a remote-controlled vehicle. The solution worked, hinting at a future in which robot ranch hands could work night patrol.

For the past year, Uber-backed Serve Robotics' wheeled robots have been delivering food to customers in the Los Angeles area. The firm has now announced that up to 2,000 of the bots are set to enter use with Uber Eats in other North American cities.

Once again, technology has been inspired by nature. After examining how centipedes traverse rough terrain, researchers created a multi-legged robot that mimics their curved, side-to-side movement, providing greater stability and maneuverability.

In order to keep from hurting their human coworkers, many robots have sensors that detect contact with people or other objects. Scientists have now devised a high-tech sweater which brings this functionality to robots that don't have it already.

Researchers have taken another step forward in medical micro-robotics, designing a tiny sound-propelled bot with a unique design that mimics natural swimmers like bacteria. It can quickly move around the body to deliver drugs where they're needed.

In 10 years, Brett Adcock has gone from founding an online talent marketplace, to selling it for nine figures, to founding the third-ranked eVTOL aircraft company, to going after one of tech's greatest challenges: general-purpose humanoid robots.

At Tesla's 2023 shareholders meeting, Elon Musk showed some new video of the Optimus robot he believes will represent the vast majority of the company's value in the future – as well as the method through which the development team is training the AI.

Canada's Sanctuary AI has revealed a new humanoid robot, shooting for the "world's first human-like intelligence in general purpose robots." Phoenix builds on some very impressive earlier work and a neat "piloted" approach to training.

Equipping people with extra sets of robotic arms could definitely help them perform certain tasks, but what role might such arms play in social interactions? The wild-looking Jizai Arms were designed with that question in mind.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has engineered a self-propelled, autonomous robot snake designed to explore extreme extraterrestrial terrain. Its first-of-a-kind propulsion system means it can boldly go where no robot snake has gone before.

Although biped and quadruped robots may excel at traversing uneven terrain, they require multiple sensors and complex algorithms in order to do so. Scientists have now taken a "simpler" approach, by creating a robotic centipede.

When designing fish-like underwater robots, you want a means of propulsion which is both energy-efficient and reasonably speedy. A new tail-flapping system may fit the bill, paving the way for wider usage of such bots.

While quadruped robots may surpass their wheeled counterparts at traversing rough terrain, they still aren't able to move along narrow ridges. That could change, though, as scientists have devised a method of allowing them to walk on a balance beam.

While massage therapy is certainly helpful for some back problems, it also tends to be expensive. California tech company Flexiv has set out to change that, by getting a back-massaging robot to do the job.

Humanoid robots built around cutting-edge AI brains promise shocking, disruptive change to labor markets and the wider global economy – and near-unlimited investor returns to whoever gets them right at scale. Big money is now flowing into the sector.