Robotics

Increasingly, robots are being used to autonomously clean floors and other surfaces in places like airports and hospitals. You have to wonder, though … how do they know when a floor is sufficiently clean? A new module could soon tell them.

Pulling your stuff around in a cart is all very well and good, but … what if you want to keep your hands free? That's where the gita wheeled robot was designed to come in. There will soon be a smaller version available, known as the gitamini.

It goes without saying that the neutralizing of underwater mines is a risky task – definitely one that you'd avoid sending a scuba diver to do, if at all possible. That's why Pittsburgh-based RE2 Robotics is designing a robotic system to do the job.

Scientists pushing the frontiers of soft robotics continue to find inspiration in the animal kingdom, with the latest examples that move move like inchworms and earthworms deploying some novel sensor technology to give them proprioception.

When leaping geckos crash head-first into vertical surfaces such as tree trunks, they're able to hang onto that surface instead of bouncing off and falling to the ground. Scientists have discovered what allows them to do so, and copied the capability in a small robot.

At Tesla's AI Day presentation, Elon Musk has revealed that the company is working on its own AI-driven humanoid robot. The Tesla Bot is designed to "navigate through a world built for humans, and eliminate dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks."

New videos from Boston Dynamics present its famous Atlas robot performing the most complex parkour routine seen to date, while also offering a rare glimpse behind the scenes of this groundbreaking robotic company.

Engineers from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a prosthetic hand that precisely inflates individual fingers to take hold of objects, while also providing the user with tactile feedback.

When it comes to robots designed for traversing rough terrain, there are typically treaded and legged models. The new Tready robot, however, combines the best of both approaches, by utilizing its four treaded "flippers."

Ford Europe has taken automation a step further by introducing robot test drivers. No, this isn't an attempt to save a pay packet, but as a way of testing cars under extreme environmental conditions without risking the health of a human driver.

While we have seen eel-like swimming robots before, they've tended to simply copy the movements of their biological counterparts. AgnathaX is different, in that it utilizes simulated central and peripheral nervous systems for more robust performance.

Given that they're such good swimmers, the structure of fish is increasingly being copied in the design of underwater robots. Scientists have now discovered that by adjusting the stiffness of their tails, those bots can swim much more efficiently.