Robotics

Engineers at the Fraunhofer Italia Innovation Engineering Center (IEC) in Bolzano, Italy, are developing software that would enable a robot assistant to carry out autonomous logistics tasks on construction sites.

In future, many diseases may be treated by tiny robots delivering drugs. Taking inspiration from white blood cells, researchers from the Max Planck Institute have unveiled a new micro-robot design that can move against the current of blood flow.

Milrem Robotics and InnoVfoam have teamed up to create a new family of foam-shooting firefighting robots that are designed to help or replace human firefighters in dangerous situations by using remotely controlled fire monitors and foam proportioners.

As electronic devices shrink batteries are becoming too heavy and inefficient for some uses. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new type of robot that powers itself by “eating” metal from its environment.

When two interlocking parts of a product are joined together in a factory, they typically make a satisfying "click" sound. By listening for such noises, a newly-developed system can detect when faults have occurred on robotic assembly lines.

Engineers at Stanford have developed motorized exoskeletons that strap to a user’s legs to make running easier. It's not something you’d wear down to the park for a jog, but it could eventually find use as a form of last-mile transportation.

NASA is building a Moon-mining robot and is asking for public help to improve it. The RASSOR bucket challenge is accepting new designs to tweak the technologies needed to mine ice and other materials to make a manned lunar outpost sustainable.

The British government is investing up to £2.5 million (US$3.2 million) to begin the development for the Royal Navy of an extra-large autonomous submarine measuring 100 feet in length – making it larger than the Boeing Orca XLUUV.

Boston Dynamics and OTTO Motors have teamed up to demonstrate where warehouse automation is headed. In a newly released video, a Boston Dynamics Handle robot picks boxes and builds pallets atop an OTTO Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) platform.

Shimon the robot is a marimba-mashing musical maestro we first saw back in 2017. Now he’s learned to sing, dance, write lyrics and compose his own melodies – and he’s about to go on tour to promote his first album.

Researchers at ETH Zürich have developed a robotic manipulator that can pick up and manipulate small objects without actually touching them. Using ultrasonic waves, the new manipulator could be used for handling tiny, fragile items.

Visitors to this year's Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center will have the option of chowing down on robot-made pizzas courtesy of an automated food assembly system that can create up to 300 bespoke 12-inch pizzas an hour.