Robotics

Vision-based face detection and recognition is one of the most rapidly growing research areas in computer vision and robotics and is widely used in several human related applications. However, vision-based face detection and recognition has been shown to be effective only under normal illumination conditions. In developing an algorithm for face detection and recognition, it is crucial to consider both normal and severe illumination conditions.

Physics student Darius Merk has used an insect-inspired algorithm to develop a drone that can navigate around obstacles. His research could prove particularly useful in a natural disaster. How do you send a drone on a reconnaissance mission in a hard-to-reach area without it getting stuck in the rubble? The drone could of course be remotely controlled, but you could lose contact with the device if it went behind a wall.

Introduced by Comau, Rebel-S, is their own 4-axis SCARA robot, in five different models with a payload of 6kg and three different reaches. All models are controlled by the R1C 19" rack-mounted controller, which can be integrated into a single cabinet to control an entire line. The robots are also available in the openROBOTICS version, where the robot is directly integrated into the existing machine/line automation controlled by B&R technologi...

  A researcher at Arizona State University has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain. A controller wears a skull cap outfitted with 128 electrodes wired to a computer. The device records electrical brain activity. If the controller moves a hand or thinks of something, certain areas light up.

Today's robots are awkward co-workers because they are often unable to predict what humans need. In hospitals, robots are employed to perform simple tasks such as delivering supplies and medications, but they have to be explicitly told what to do. A team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) thinks that this will soon change, and that robots might be most effective by helping humans perform one of the most com...

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created what they say is the most efficient-walking humanoid ever created. While most machines these days are hunched at the waist and plod along on flat feet, Georgia Tech's DURUS strolls like a person. Its legs and chest are elongated and upright. It lands on the heel of its foot, rolls through the step and pushes off its toe. It's even outfitted with a pair of size-13 trainers as it walks under ...

Nearly 100 researchers and students from four universities, including the University of Kentucky, converged in Stillwater, Oklahoma, recently to do what they do best—fly UAS, otherwise known as drone systems. The groups from UK, Oklahoma State University (OSU), the University of Oklahoma (OU) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln were conducting their first flight campaign for CLOUD MAP, the $6 million NSF-funded project focused on using drone...

Microsoft has made Project Malmo available for novice to experienced programmers on GitHub via an open-source license. It's a platform that uses the world of Minecraft as a testing ground for advanced AI research. The system, which had until now only been open to a small group of computer scientists in private preview, is primarily designed to help researchers develop sophisticated, more general or AI that can do things like learn, hold conversat...

Researchers have created a robotic mimic of a stingray that's powered and guided by light-sensitive rat heart cells. The work exhibits a new method for building bio-inspired robots by means of tissue engineering. Batoid fish, which include stingrays, are distinguished by their flat bodies and long, wing-like fins that extend from their heads. These fins move in energy-efficient waves that emulate from the front of the fin to the back, allowing ba...

When Steve Collins first envisioned the electroadhesive clutch, he made a prototype with a sandwich bag and a couple of pieces of aluminum foil from his kitchen. Since creating that makeshift prototype, he and his research team have developed a sophisticated, functional device that can be used in exoskeletons that compensate for a person's disability or enhance their athletic performance.