News
Groundbreaking water-driven gear works without teeth or direct contact
3+ hour, 12+ min ago (775+ words) Two spinners inside a circular container and surrounded by liquid with bubbles that help to visualize the flows. The left spinner is actively driven to rotate with a motor (not shown) and the right one passively rotates due to the…...
Smarter tomato-picking robots learn to judge each fruit before harvest
6+ day, 11+ hour ago (986+ words) Tomato vines can look calm from a distance. Up close, they feel like a crowded maze. Fruit hangs in clusters. Stems twist in odd angles. Leaves hide what you need to see. For farmers facing labor shortages, that clutter has…...
Air-powered soft robots think, sense and move with no electronics
2+ week, 5+ day ago (998+ words) In a new study, Oxford engineers unveil air powered soft robots built from modular fluidic units. These brain free machines can hop, crawl, sort objects and avoid edges without electronics or software, hinting at a future where robot bodies handle…...
New soft armband uses AI to read gestures while you run
3+ week, 2+ day ago (1153+ words) Engineers at UC San Diego have created a soft, AI powered armband that can read your arm gestures even during intense motion and use them to control machines in real time, a step toward human machine interfaces that work in…...
Classical Indian dance is teaching robots how to move and use their hands
3+ week, 3+ day ago (1045+ words) Ashwathi Menon dancing with a robot. Researchers find Indian dance gestures reveal richer movement building blocks than natural hand grasps. (CREDIT: University of Maryland) Hands move constantly during conversation. They signal emotion, stress a point, and form full languages such…...
Soft 'muscle suits' for space may also help patients walk again
3+ week, 6+ day ago (842+ words) The exosuit was integrated into a spacesuit for the ADAMA space mission simulation in Adelaide, Australia. (CREDIT: University of Bristol) At the University of Bristol, engineers have built a soft robotic exosuit designed to slip under a spacesuit and feel…...
Tiny flapping drone matches insect speed with an AI brain
1+ mon, 2+ day ago (797+ words) An MIT team taught a micro-robot to fly like an insect. With AI control, the tiny flapping machine leapt to 447% more speed and pulled off 10 somersaults in 11 seconds, even in windy tests. (CREDIT: MIT) Tiny drones could one day crawl…...
MIT engineers give biohybrid robots a power upgrade with synthetic tendons
1+ mon, 6+ day ago (1188+ words) Researchers have developed artificial tendons for muscle-powered robots. They attached the rubber band-like tendons (blue) to either end of a small piece of lab-grown muscle (red), forming a "muscle-tendon unit." (CREDIT: Ritu Raman et al) A new study shows a…...
The future of surgery is learning from machines
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (1027+ words) A Johns Hopkins AI tool now guides medical students during suturing practice, pointing to a future where robots and software reshape surgery and training. (CREDIT: Shutterstock) A deep strain is running through hospitals around the country. There are not enough…...
Tiny spider inspired robot may replace painful gut scopes
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (1063+ words) A tiny spider inspired soft robot designed at the University of Macau can roll, climb, and even move upside down inside the digestive tract. Guided by magnetic fields and real time imaging, it may one day give doctors a painless…...