Robotics

An EPFL team is developing soft, flexible and reconfigurable robots. Air-actuated, they behave like human muscles and may be used in physical rehabilitation. They are made of low-cost materials and could easily be produced on a large scale. Robots are usually expected to be rigid, fast and efficient. But researchers at EPFL's Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) have turned that notion on its head with their soft robots.

European Circuits is delighted to announce its sponsorship of the Imperial College Robotics Society’s Eurobot entry for 2016/17! European Circuits’ Marketing Manager, Neil Johnston, explains the reasoning behind the move “We hope this initial sponsorship may be the beginning of a longer term relationship with the Imperial College Robotics Society.

With so much talk in the news about the autonomous vehicles that will soon be taking over the streets we drive on, let’s take a look at how autonomous vehicles have overwhelmed our Earth’s oceans too. Nicolette Emmino explains.

Anyone who’s watched drone videos or an episode of “BattleBots” knows that robots can break — and often it’s because they don’t have the proper padding to protect themselves. But this week researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) will present a method for 3D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements —...

The difference between the optimum robotic torch and an adequate robotic torch could mean the difference between hitting your weekly quality and productivity goals and scrambling to ensure on-time delivery. To help you select the correct torch for your application and to maximise Operational Equipment Efficiency (OEE), quality and profitability you should consider these 10 key points.

A small drone taught itself to judge distances using only one eye during trials aboard the International Space Station, ESA-backed researchers have reported. Although humans can effortlessly estimate distances with a single eye, robots still lack this capability. “It is a mathematical impossibility to extract distances to objects from one single image, if the object has not been encountered before,” explains Guido de Croon f...

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed functional elastomers, which can be activated by magnetic fields to imitate the swimming gaits of natural flagella, cilia and jellyfish. Using a specially developed computer algorithm, the researchers can now automatically generate the optimal magnetic conditions for each gait for the first time.

The exoskeleton VariLeg is the work of an interdisciplinary team of 11 ETH students and doctoral candidates. The first prototype was developed by nine Bachelor’s students from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering in the course of a focus project from autumn 2014 to spring 2015. The exoskeleton, which will now be put into action at the Cybathlon, is a further development of this prototype and grew out of a subsequent focus pr...

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), in cooperation with the Munich University of Applied Sciences and Wasserwacht (German Water Rescue Service) at Riem, have developed a technique for locating drowning people faster with support from Autel. Images captured by drones are expected to help in this respect. Researchers, however, still face many challenges.

Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is organising a seminar about Distributed Robotic Control in Stavanger, Norway on 12th October. All architects, project managers, engineers, and developers are invited to register for the seminar.