Robots

Robotic ships have officially joined the US Navy. The Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants announced on July 22 that the Navy's Unmanned Influence Sweep System uncrewed minesweeper has been awarded Initial Operating Capability.

As part of a research effort looking into hands-free charging solutions for EV drivers and autonomous vehicles, Ford has started testing a prototype robot charging station aimed at making the top-up process easier for folks with limited mobility.

Subsurface oceans on moons are some of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. NASA is now funding a project to develop a swarm of small swimming robots that would explore these alien oceans for signs of extraterrestrial life.

Engineers at MIT have added a new ability to existing flying robots – they can now glow when they flap their wings. Inspired by fireflies, this fluorescence could help with communication or tracking of the tiny, lightweight robots.

This clever robotic EV charger will find a parking spot, reserve it for you, then sit behind you to charge your EV. It's a nifty idea, but we do wonder how Ziggy will cope with the brutally competitive environment of a mall car park on Christmas Eve.

If you say “jump” I say “how high?” – and a new robot from UC Santa Barbara says “over 100 ft.” The researchers say that’s higher than anything else has ever jumped, be it robot or animal, thanks to a unique design that multiplies its stored energy.

The West Japan Rail Company has released video of its new humanoid heavy equipment robot. Mounted on the end of a crane, this gundam-style robot torso mimics the arm and head motions of a human pilot, who sees through the robot's eyes via VR goggles.

In a typical sailboat race, the course is marked with a series of buoys that have to be anchored to the seabed, and which may get pushed around by winds or currents. MarkSetBot addresses those problems, with internet-connected robotic buoys.

Harvesting sea urchins by hand can be tricky, often resulting in painful pokes through diving gloves. That's where the C Disc and the C Bud come in, as both systems vacuum urchins off the seabed and into a boat, net or shore-located container.

MIT's mini cheetah robot has reached its fastest speed yet, hitting 8.72 mph thanks to a new model-free reinforcement learning system that allows the robot to figure out on its own the best way to run and allows it to adapt to different terrain.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has plenty of experience mass-producing industrial robots, and now we get to see some of its early progress into service robots, multi-purpose humanoids, and, for some reason, a rather silly-looking ride-on robot goat.

Researchers at Harvard and Emory have created a biohybrid fish out of human heart cells that swims autonomously for months at a time as the cells beat. The project is a sidestep on the way to eventually growing new functional hearts for transplant.