Robots

For more than five years, a team has been developing and testing control software under Alphabet's X moonshot factory, aimed at making industrial robots smarter and easier to use. Now the project has branched out into a new company called Intrinsic.

The ISS is about to receive its third robotic arm, which will be capable of "walking" around the Russian segment of the orbital outpost all by itself. It will do so hand-over-hand thanks to the flexibility afforded by its seven motorized joints.

Amazon is understandably keen to make the job of deliveries easier. The latest idea is a new patent for a system where delivery vans would carry items almost to their destination, then send out and direct ground drones to do the final drop-off.

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.

Back in January, we covered an autonomous plastic trash collector called Clearbot that was designed to remove waste from local waterways. Now the startup behind the project has partnered with gaming titan Razer for an updated design.

MIT scientists have developed a finger-like sensor with the ability to dig into granular media like sand or gravel to get a sense of objects buried beneath the surface, which could lead to better ways of detecting and disarming land mines.

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.

Researchers have managed to create a kind of cyborg, integrating the ear of a locust into a robot. The robot was then able to respond to noises that the biological sensor picked up, which could pave the way for more sensitive and efficient sensors.

Soft robots are gaining a lot of attention in research circles, and from an engineering lab at the University of California, San Diego comes an interesting new example of this technology in the form of a robot that can move without any electronics.

Although cleaning up the humungous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a daunting concept, removing trash from local waterways is much more feasible … and that's exactly what the Clearbot robot is designed to do.

A year after Volkswagen unveiled its mobile charging robot concept designed to make the charging of electric vehicles a completely autonomous operation, the company has given us a glimpse of the robot in prototype form.