Robots

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.

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.

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.

Chinese robotics firm Unitree has launched the R1 humanoid robot at a shockingly low asking price of US$5,900. It's hard to fathom that you can now get a walking, command-obeying machine that costs less than an enthusiast-grade camera.

It's fun to watch how quickly things are improving in home robotics right now. Sunseeker's new X5 robo-mower isn't perfect, but it does an impressive job with complex, multi-zone lawns thanks to its RTK-GNSS positioning system.

Until now, the robot workforce has had to either be plugged in all of the time, or spend some time cabled to the mains to top up its battery pack. UBTech has launched the Walker S2 humanoid, with dual batteries and the ability to hotswap on its own.

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.

We're a step closer to entering an operating theater without any human life besides ours, following the world's first surgery performed by a robot responding and learning in real time. Its precision and skill matched that of experienced surgeons.

Researchers have developed a way to use high-frequency electromagnetic waves to visualize objects that are hidden from view – such as a tool in a pile of junk or a vase in a cardboard box – with much greater accuracy than before.

Many persistent sinus infections involve biofilms – colonies of bacteria that group together to resist efforts to kill them. Now, researchers have developed biofilm-blasting bots that could handily deal with these, and other, bacterial infections.

Roboticists today are wrestling with the question of whether AI needs a body? If so, what kind? And then there’s the “how” of it all; if embodied intelligence is the way forward to true artificial general intelligence, could soft robots be the next step?

For the last few years, Italian engineers have been working on a humanoid robot for emergency response applications. The iRonCub3 has jets on its back and fire-breathers on its arms, and has now achieved stable take-off and hover for the first time.