Robotics

Like something out of an early Transformers movie, researchers at Caltech have just demonstrated how a humanoid and a drone can team up to accomplish multiple forms of movement. The experiment opens new possibilities in robotic locomotion.

Imagine an oversized claw machine at an arcade, but instead of trying to grab cheap toys, your prize is the assortment of waste that sinks to the bottom of the sea. That's essentially what an autonomous robot has been doing at Marseille recently.

If you live in the Swiss municipality of Regensdorf, you may soon be getting packages delivered by a robot. The area is the location of a field test that was just launched by Swiss Post, grocery delivery company Migros Online, and robotics firm RIVR.

We're used to rovers exploring the Moon or Mars to have legs and wheels for moving around, but a team at Texas A&M led by Robert Ambrose wants to go more geometrical with a new mobile robot shaped like a ball for literally rolling about rough terrain.

Robots can already flip burgers, build cars, and perform surgery ... but we keep making them dance. Here's a little "evolution of robot dance" over the last 25 years or so.

Boston Dynamics probably has the most show-offy robots on the planet right now, and the company's latest video shows that its robodog, Spot, is no exception. Spoiler alert: he nails a septuple back flip that is wildly impressive.

In order for robots to operate safely around humans, they need to see that people are approaching and they need to know when they make physical contact with those people. A new system allows them to do both, using cameras located inside their arms.

We've seen robot dogs run up hills with luggage, and help fight fire. Now, researchers in Switzerland are putting these mechanical mutts through their paces on the badminton court, teaching them to play about as well as a seven-year-old human.

Although we've seen many robotic water striders over the years, scientists are still finding new aspects of the insects to replicate. Recently, for instance, researchers created a strider-bot that zips across the water's surface via fans on its feet.

For some time now, we've been hearing about "bistable" devices that can remain in either of two states without expending any energy. A new one, inspired by plant seed pods, takes the form of a robotic gripper which is strong yet easily activated.

Instead of going to the trouble of building tiny robots from scratch, some scientists are now turning insects into remote-control cyborgs. A new "assembly line" could help, by converting cockroaches into cyborgs far faster than can be done by hand.

Though robodogs are available for consumer purchase, most will be deployed to industry and research and maybe even security or rescue. Unitree's latest intrepid quadruped is tough, durable, fast and agile, and is ready for action.

It uses a completely customizable overhead lattice frame that the crane "base" attaches to. It has a series of individual grippers – each equipped with laterally-facing rollers – in a "tank track-like" configuration.

In a move that inches us just a little closer to the singularity, engineers have developed robots that can grow, self-repair, and morph by absorbing parts from other robots. They can also help their brethren do the same.

Robodog climbs chimneys while flexing its spine like it's got something to prove. Tokyo’s KLEIYN is ready to send a V5 – probably while hauling your gear and wishing it had fingers to show you how to really campus.