Robotics

Federal researchers returning from a 30-day expedition to study whales and dolphins around the Hawaiian Islands said they are looking for clues to help sustain healthy populations of the marine mammals. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists told reporters that gathering data on the animals is often difficult, especially around the windward coasts of the Hawaiian Islands.

Children at risk of cerebral palsy may get help for crawling and walking thanks to a robot assistant, in the form of a motorised device worn by the baby. Four researchers, Andrew Fagg, Lei Ding, Thubi Kolobe, and David Miller report on their development, with its potential to reduce functional limitations and potential deficits in cognitive development. If a young baby shows no signs of successful crawling, there are considerable risks ...

Using a rotating magnetic field, Drexel University researchers, led by MinJun Kim, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering, show how multiple chains of microscopic magnetic bead-based robots can link up to reach impressive speeds swimming through in a microfluidic environment. Their finding is the latest step toward using the so-called "microswimmers" to deliver medicine and perform surgery inside the body.

Today marks the start of golf’s final major of 2016, the US PGA Championship, this year taking place at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. Among this year’s hopefuls will be two time US Masters champion, and big hitter, Bubba Watson. His eccentric swing and trademark pink driver, makes Watson one of the most unique and popular players on the US PGA tour.

As the variety of applications suited to UAVs and drones has increased in recent years, so has discussion over their use as 21st century postman that are capable of making rapid deliveries to our front doors. However, tight regulations, high profile collisions and some unscrupulous drone users have proved a restrictive barrier to making delivery drones a reality and have made some of the general public very wary of them.

It looks like a bicycle chain, but has just twelve segments about the size of a fist. In each segment there is a motor. This describes pretty much the robot developed by the four bachelor students in Computer Engineering, Johann Schröder, Adrian Gucze, Simon Beyer and Matthäus Wiltzok, at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. The project was supervised by Professor Dr. Axel Schneider of the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences a...

EPFL scientist Selman Sakar teamed up with Hen-Wei Huang and Bradley Nelson at ETHZ to develop a simple and versatile method for building bio-inspired robots and equipping them with advanced features. They also created a platform for testing several robot designs and studying different modes of locomotion. Their work, published in Nature Communications, produced complex reconfigurable microrobots that can be manufactured with high throughput.

Centipedes move quickly. And when one is coming directly at you, you might not care to spend a moment pondering its agility. So perhaps our lack of understanding about just why centipedes move with such dexterity, even over obstacles, has been related to fear. But undeterred, researchers at Kyoto University have asked precisely this question, and have turned to computer simulations and ultimately robotics to find an answer.

Fishing is one of the most popular recreational activities in the UK, with one in five of the population participating, according to figures from the Environment Agency. Much of its attraction is the almost primal format on which the ‘sport’ is based. Many an angler will wax lyrical about the attraction of a deserted river bank, and the ancient battle between man and beast.

The startup LuxAI was created following a project at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust of the University of Luxembourg, funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund under its Proof of Concept scheme. The business model of LuxAI is developing and constructing so-called social robots. Such robots can be used, for example, in the educational or health system, where they would support trainers and therapists in their...