Autonomous

Back in July, the Japanese government outlined an intriguing idea to connect major cities with what sounded like a giant "conveyor belt" for cargo. Now we have a clearer picture of what that “Auto Flow Road” will look like.

Meet the EV equivalent of a full jerry can – a 141 kilowatt-hour battery charger on wheels, that can autonomously drive itself to wherever it's needed, flexibly extending charging networks and getting much-needed juice to stranded drivers.

Saronic, a defense-technology company based in Austin, Texas, has announced the Corsair, its largest autonomous surface vessel yet. It's a 24-ft-long sleek ship with customizable capabilities that can be deployed in "the thousands" for the US Navy.

In a world first, an autonomous electric ferry began commercial operation in Stockholm last year, transporting up to 25 passengers between islands in the region. Now the vessel has been remotely operated from 600 km away.

Nightmare fuel? Maybe – but in a historic moment for the dental profession, an AI-controlled autonomous robot has performed an entire procedure on a human patient for the first time, about eight times faster than a human dentist could do it.

The ratio of guide dogs to blind people in China is roughly one service pooch for every 40,000 people. Researchers are currently developing a six-legged, AI-enhanced robodog to close the gap and safely guide users to their destinations.

The Japanese government is planning to connect major cities with automated zero-emissions logistics links that can quietly and efficiently shift millions of tons of cargo, while getting tens of thousands of trucks off the road.

In a Stanford lab, researchers took a Unitree H1 humanoid robot, modified it, and used it to copy human movement with a webcam to train it to autonomously do tasks people would do – or don't want to do, like fold laundry.

Clear Robotics is expanding its fleet of autonomous marine trash collectors. Its Class 3 vessel boasts more onboard storage capacity plus towed barge potential for extended cleanup operations, and has also been designed to tackle invasive weeds.

Build, weigh, crush, measure, discard, redesign, repeat. All day, all night, never stopping. Boston College's autonomous AI robot MAMA BEAR has struck gold after three years and 25,000 attempts, with the world's most impact-resistant shape.

We've seen some impressive nature-inspired flying bots from the creative minds at Festo's Bionic Learning Network over the years, but the autonomous BionicBee is not only the smallest so far but also the first capable of swarming.

Penguins are fast, fantastic swimmers, so why not make an underwater robot inspired by them? That's just what German underwater tech company EvoLogics has done, with its new-and-improved Quadroin AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle).