Robotic

Whether you think it’s cool or unnerving, robots are becoming more agile – and Caltech’s LEONARDO looks like one of the most nimble examples yet. LEO walks on two legs, jumps and flies, can balance on a slackline and even skateboard.

For decades sci-fi has been promising us helpful home robots, but progress and uptake have been slow. Amazon may have heeded the call with Astro, its new Alexa-on-wheels – and whether this future is more The Jetsons or Black Mirror is up to you.

UC Berkeley engineers have created an insect robot that can scamper along quickly and turn on a dime – perhaps literally. The bot owes its fancy footwork to… well, its fancy feet, using varying voltages to alternate stickiness and make sharp turns.

Robots are great explorers, but one environment that’s tricky for them to navigate is through the ground. Now, engineers at UCSB and Georgia Tech have developed a snake-like robot that uses a range of methods to burrow through soft sand or soil.

Robots are invading our homes more and more, but (so far at least) their intentions seem nice. Enabot’s latest home robot Ebo looks to give video calls a bit more mobility, letting remote users drop in, roam around and chat.

On most consumer 3D printers, the print head moves by sliding horizontally along rails, and vertically along rods. The Plybot is different, though, in that it "holds" its head in two robotic arms.

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.

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 Yale team has developed a new “robotic fabric” that can change its shape and stiffness on demand or by sensing its environment. The material could one day be used in high-tech clothing, tents that set themselves up, or robotic parachutes.

Robots are an increasingly common sight in stores, and now they’re getting a bit more hands-on. Japanese company Telexistence has begun trials in convenience stores of a robot shelf-stacker that can be controlled by a human via VR.

One day microscopic robots could be crawling through your body, clearing out disease or delivering drugs. And now we’re one step closer to that future, as scientists from Cornell University have created tiny robots powered by pulses of laser light.

Researchers have created a new camera system that’s so small and light it can perch on the back of a beetle. From there, it can be wirelessly controlled to focus on different things, streaming video and photos back to a phone connected via Bluetooth.