Robotics

A team of researchers at Draper first announced the DragonflEye programme in January, and it now has lift-off. DragonflEye is a drone that uses live dragonflies to fly. The DragonflEye is a real dragonfly that has been turned into a living drone, it was created by researchers at Draper and Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Janelia Research Campus. The dragonfly wears a tiny backpack fitted with electronics, sensors and a solar cell. A ...

Could robots one day be used to keep the elderly ‘company’ in care homes, or alleviate some of the struggles facing those in long term relationships? According to a report released today by the Foundation for Responsible Robotics (FRR), this could be the case in the next five to ten years. The consultation report, Our Sexual Future With Robots, presented an objective summary of the issues and various opinions about what coul...

Yesterday evening, Gatwick airport’s runway was closed and flights diverted after a drone was spotted flying in the vicinity of the airfield. Gatwick tweeted: "Unconfirmed reports of a drone sighting led to runway suspension for a total of 14 mins. Operations fully resumed and police investigating." EasyJet, the biggest airline at Gatwick, was the airline the worst affected. Its flight from Milan to Gatwick experienced over three ...

Robots that build walls, and 3D printers that print entire formworks for ceiling slabs – digital fabrication in architecture has developed rapidly in recent years. As part of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fab-rication, architects, robotics specialists, materials scientists, structural engineers and sustainability experts from ETH Zurich have teamed up with business partners to bring several new digital bu...

  Texas Instruments has introduced an innovative three-phase, Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based inverter reference design that helps engineers build 200V, 2kW AC servo motor drives and next-generation industrial robotics with fast current-loop control, higher efficiency, more accurate speed, and torque control.

The third annual Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Challenge has been won by engineering students from Bath University. The event encourages teams of undergraduates to undertake a full design and build cycle of a UAS, also known as a drone, with specific mission objectives – before competing in a final ‘fly-off’ and judging which took place on 19-20th June.

Engineering students from Bath University have beaten other undergraduate teams to be crowned overall winners of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Challenge. Now in its third year, the annual event encourages teams of undergraduates to undertake a full design and build cycle of a UAS, also known as a drone, with specific mission objectives – before competing in a final ‘fly-off’ and j...

Despite what pop culture would have us believe, modern day robotics are not the threat to mankind we see depicted in film, television and fiction. Since the introduction of robotic arms to automotive manufacturing in the 1960s, installing robotics and automation has become standard practice in manufacturing. Despite this, the United Kingdom is falling behind in the robotics manufacturing market. 

A marimba-playing robot with four arms and eight sticks is writing and playing its own compositions in a lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The pieces are generated using artificial intelligence and deep learning. Researchers fed the robot nearly 5,000 complete songs — from Beethoven to the Beatles to Lady Gaga to Miles Davis — and more than 2 million motifs, riffs and licks of music.

Power quality specialist REO UK has installed new robotic units into its production facilities to improve the accuracy of component and enclosure manufacturing. The new systems allow the company to maintain a consistently high standard of product, while also boosting production capacity in line with increasing demand for effective power quality equipment.