Japan is undergoing a revolution in robot technology as increasingly intelligent robotics make the transition from labs and factories to the outside world and everyday consumer applications. Already in use in Japan are robots that pour drinks, play pool, dance, function as elderly caregivers, clean, serve food, and provide companionship. “We see robots as media [...]

Japanese researchers have developed a hummingbird robot that has the potential to help rescue people trapped in damaged buildings, search for criminals, or operate as a probe vehicle on Mars. Controlled with an infrared sensor, the robot can move up and down and turn right and left. The robot is about the size of a [...]

Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have developed a new Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) security mechanism designed to stop computer algorithms programmed to beat current CAPTCHA technology. TAU’s Danny Cohen-Or led a research team that created video CAPTCHA code that uses an emergence image–an object on a computer [...]

For 30 years there has been intense research in the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) field of robotics, which is the process by which machines employ various sensors to concurrently map out their environment and ascertain their location. “SLAM is an essential building block of autonomous robots because robots, such as planetary rovers and undersea [...]

The organizers of the Multi-Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC) have created a list of 12 teams to develop their proposals. Ten teams will receive $50,000, and the remaining two teams have the opportunity to self-fund their projects. The U.S. Department of Defense and Australia’s Defense Science & Technology Organization are sponsoring MAGIC to encourage innovation [...]

Engineers around the world are exploring all kinds of possibilities for wearable robot interfaces, from brain implants to touch interfaces. Professor Jacob Rosen and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Bionics Lab have devised a robotic arm guided by the electrical signals sent by the brain through the nerves to contract the muscles. [...]

University of the West of England scientists have created a biological robot using mold. The researchers, led by professor Andy Adamatzky, developed an amorphous non-silicon biological robot, called plasmobot, using plasmodium, the vegetative stage of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum. The project aims to design the first-ever fully biological amorphous massively-parallel robot. Adamatzky says previous [...]

Scientists at Australia’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, the National Centre for Sensor Research at Dublin City University, and the Defense Science and Technology Organisation Maritime Platforms Division have developed the Wireless Aquatic Navigator for Detection and Analysis (WANDA), a robotic fish that contains a camera and can seek out and swim toward a particular object [...]

Human anatomy could serve as the blueprint for humanoid robots and enable them to interact with their environment in a more human manner, according to the European team behind the Eccerobot project. The researchers are building a robotic anatomy based on the way human bones, muscles, and tendons are linked together and work. The robot [...]

A study performed by SINTEF for the Norwegian Association of Local Regional Authorities found that nurses and care-sector employees would welcome sensor and robot technology to help them in nursing homes and home care for the elderly. The survey found that cleaning, moving, and lifting patients are potential applications for care and nursing robots, and [...]