Robotics

In a win for both bees and ecologists, a team of roboticists and biologists has developed a robotic honeycomb that both keeps the bees toasty during cold snaps and allows them to be studied unobtrusively.

Hyundai's automatic charging robot (ACR) is designed to connect and charge electric vehicles without the driver having to do anything. After showing a CGI animation of the design in 2022, Hyundai has now videoed the working prototype in action.

Researchers have created cutting-edge graphene sensors to produce an interface that allows for accurate robotic control using thought alone. The development has positive implications for healthcare and a range of other industries.

As part of its 2023 Investor Day, Tesla has given the world a glimpse of where progress is at with its latest-gen Optimus humanoid robot. Nineteen months since it was first announced, the Tesla Bot is now walking, picking things up and doing basic tasks.

Computers destroy humans at chess, but there's not a single one that could go into a house and feed the dog. Intel's research-grade Loihi 2 neuromorphic chips are working on it though, drawing inspiration from nature's greatest necktop supercomputer.

Robot pets have been a sci-fi staple for decades, and in recent years we’ve seen a glut of them with varying success. The latest is Loona, a quite advanced-looking bot with a lot of tricks up its sleeves and a personality straight out of a Disney movie.

DARPA has announced that it has given the green light to a new series of field tests at Camp Roberts, California, aimed at producing autonomous off-road combat vehicles that can keep up with crewed ones while driving at speed over rough ground.

As their sense of balance deteriorates, seniors are at an increased risk of potentially debilitating falls. A new wearable assistive robot could help, by detecting and preventing such falls before they actually occur.

Israel is gearing up to test a new robotic combat vehicle equipped with a 30-mm autonomous turret, an array of active sensors, and an onboard drone it can deploy and retrieve for reconnaissance missions. The missile launcher is optional.

We've been hearing a lot about synthetic skins made for robotic hands, which would give the devices human-like qualities. Scientists in Japan have gone a step further, by covering a robotic finger in a self-healing skin made from live human cells.

Milrem Robotics has rolled out its latest THeMIS Observe battlefield robot variant based on its modular THeMIS UGV platform, with an emphasis on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), as part of the EU's fourth iMUGS project demonstration.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois have demonstrated the world's smallest remote-controlled walking robot. These tiny machines can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn and jump without hydraulics or electricity, using shape-memory alloys.