Caretaker bots and starfish assassins: Meet the tech that protects Earth’s reefs
Coral reefs are dying everywhere. Can technology help reverse this tragic trend? Here are six examples of cutting edge tech that might assist with exactly that.
Sony patents autonomous robot companion that talks to gamers, shares emotions
Sony filed a patent for an autonomous robot companion that will sympathize with the feelings of players, with a microphone, speaker, and camera embedded in it.
No batteries? No problem. These scavenger robots ‘eat’ metal to harvest energy
How do you keep robots powered up as they move through the world? By giving them the ability to 'consume' metal the way we might chow down on food, of course.
Most art galleries are closed, but you can still tour this one — with a robot
An art gallery in the U.K. has teamed up with roboticists to continue giving tours while it's shuttered due to coronavirus. Here's what they've developed.
The age of human exploration is behind us. Machines will take it from here
Drones and robots are ushering in a new era of investigation, enabling mankind to go farther out in space and even uncover new facts about well-known places.
Because 2020’s not crazy enough, a robot mouth is singing A.I. prayers in Paris
In these troubling, confusing times, it can be tough to know who to turn to for help. One possible answer? A disembodied robot mouth chanting A.I. prayers.
Cargo ship-scrubbing HullSkater robot is like a Roomba for the high seas
Not only will this Roomba-style cleaning robot help keep cargo ships looking fresh, it could help save the environment, too. Here's how.
Algorithm lets swarms of robots work together to create shapes without colliding
Researchers have developed an an algorithm that lets robot swarms reliably converge to form a predetermined shape in under a minute. With no collisions!
Prosthetics that don’t require practice: Inside the latest breakthrough in bionics
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a technique for creating the most advanced nerve-controlled prosthetic hands yet. Here's how it's done.
This Google robot taught itself to walk, with no help whatsoever, in two hours
Remember that scene in Walt Disney’s Bambi where the titular fawn learns to stand up and walk under its own power? Like that, basically, but with a robot.
Boston Dynamics’ clever Handle robot gets an autonomous co-worker
Boston Dynamics' Handle robot has teamed up with a robot from Otto Motors to show how autonomous machines can collaborate to complete tasks in a warehouse.
In China’s hospitals, robots are helping to halt the spread of coronavirus
As the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic continues to spread, hospitals in China have turned to a trio of robots to help fight the spread of the flu-type virus.
Flippy the burger-flipping robot is changing the face of fast food as we know it
A robot that flips burgers is coming to a fast food joint near you. And it can do a lot more than that, too. Meet Flippy, the robot superstar of Miso Robotics.
Repair robot swims through oil pipelines and welds cracks — without exploding
This repair robot will weld oil pipeline defects from the inside while it's submerged in continuously flowing oil. Coming soon to an oil field near you.
Inside the mind of an autonomous delivery robot
Starship Technologies' autonomous delivery robots have driven thousands of miles. Here's how its bots experience the world -- and why it matters for our future.
This robot grabber is gentle enough to hold a jellyfish without damaging it
Soft robots are designed to interact with the living world without causing damage. Judging by this new jellyfish-gripping robot hand, mission accomplished!
This robot will change your tires in a fraction of the time a mechanic can
RoboTire is building robots which can change the tires on a car in a fraction of the time it takes a mechanic to do it. Here's what the company has planned.
This 3D-printed four-legged robot is ready to take on Spot — at a lower price
There are plenty of four-legged, dog-inspired robots about. Could 3D printing make them more ubiquitous? Ghost Robotics and 3D printing company Origin think so.
Boston Dynamics’ remarkable robot dog has landed its first gig
Spot the remarkable robot dog has landed its first job, carrying out various tasks for a Norwegian oil producer. The quadruped robot will start work soon.
Caltech wants to explore the ocean with swarms of bionic jellyfish
Engineers from Caltech and Stanford University have a plan to create bionically augmented jellyfish which may one day help explore the oceans.
Robot fry cook Flippy is getting a makeover to make it even more useful
Robot fry cook Flippy is getting a makeover. Here's how Miso Robotics' machine kitchen assistant is receiving an overhaul that will make it more useful than ever. While taking up a whole lot less kitchen floor space in the process. Coming soon to a burger joint near you?
Here’s what all the movies set in 2020 predicted this year would be like
Life in the 2020s might be new to you and me, but it’s far from fresh territory for movies and TV. What did screenwriters think the world would be facing in the year 2020? Check out our rundown of the future that, well, is no longer quite as futuristic as it once appeared.
A paralyzed man just broke a marathon world record with a robotic exoskeleton
Completing a marathon is an amazing achievement. Completing one wearing a robot exoskeleton, after suffering a spinal cord injury that left the wearer partially paralyzed, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. That’s what Adam Gorlitsky achieved when he completed the 2020 Charleston Marathon.
Ballie is a rolling robot from Samsung that can help around the smart home
Ballie is a new ball-shaped bot from Samsung that can be your friend and help around the smart home. The tech giant unveiled Ballie at CES on Monday. A video showed the robot that's about the size of a grapefruit performing tasks such as opening smart curtains and firing up a robot vacuum.
Vector the social robot has good news for its human buddies
The future of the Vector social robot has been uncertain since its creator, Anki, closed down in 2019. But now a Pittsburgh firm has stepped in to give the robot a new lease of life. When it launched in 2018, the diminutive robot was praised for its advanced features and ability to convey an array of emotions.
Want to lift 200 pounds without breaking a sweat? Strap into this exosuit
Sarcos Robotics has spent the past 20 years building the ultimate powered robot exosuit. Early next year, its Guardian XO wearable robot will ship to the first customers. Here's what the company has built -- and why CEO Ben Wolff thinks it will change the workplace as we know it.
10 Incredible technologies that didn’t exist a decade ago
Technology sure has come a long way in the past decade. But what would you expect from the 10-year stretch that included the year Blade Runner was set in? Here's our rundown of the top 10 pieces of tech excited gadget-lovers got to try out for the first time in the 2010s.
Liquid metal tendons could give robots the ability to heal themselves
Fans of Terminator 2's liquid metal T-1000 robot, pay attention: In Japan, roboticists have created a prototype robot leg with a metal tendon fuse that's able to repair fractures. How does it do this? Simple: By autonomously melting itself and then reforming as a single piece.
Startup founded by ex-Navy SEALs is building underwater robots to map the ocean
Terradepth, a startup founded by a pair of ex-Navy SEALs, is building autonomous submersible robots to map parts of the ocean that are difficult to monitor. Here's what it is developing — and when we can expect to see them venturing into the ocean for some underwater data collection.
Robot bartending company is handing out cash to the people it is replacing
For every robot bartender that robotics company Makr Shakr sells, it pledges that it will fork over a $1,000 monthly stipend to a select person in a field likely to be impacted by automation. How exactly will it work? These are the details of the scheme as we understand them.
SoftBank enters the cafe business with new robot-filled Pepper Parlor
SoftBank is getting into the cafe business. The tech firm has just opened an eatery in Tokyo staffed by lots of its Pepper robots. It says it wants to use the site to help it learn more about how people interact with robots so that it can improve the design of its current high-tech offerings.
The star of the world’s tiniest stop-motion movie is the size of a grain of dust
The lead performer in the Guinness World Record-winning short film Starship Odyssey is just 300 microns tall. That's just 0.3 millimeters or approximately the size of a single grain of dust. Check out the video -- and its "making of" story -- in all its smaller-than-life glory.
Meet the robotic pioneers that will help humanity colonize Mars
The race to populate Mars is on. But before humans can visit the red planet, we need to send out robot scouts to see the lay of the land. The next generation of Martian robotics will use sophisticated AI, novel propulsion methods, and flexible smallsats to meet the challenges of colonizing a new world.
Watch this disembodied set of robotic ostrich legs juggle a ball on its ‘head’
Want to see a robot carrying out an impressive juggling display? Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley have trained a bipedal robot to execute just such a trick. And while it sounds frivolous, it could actually turn out to be pretty darn important. Here's why.