Robotics
Robofish glides with the greatest of ease
January 17, 2013 8:15 am | News | CommentsMichigan State University scientists have made a number of improvements on their robotic fish, which now has a name: Grace. The fish also now has the ability to glide through the water practically indefinitely, using little to no energy, while gathering valuable data that can aid in the cleaning of our lakes and rivers.
'Smart' potty or dumb idea? Wacky gadgets at CES
January 9, 2013 6:49 pm | by Barbara Ortutay and Ryan Nakashima, The Associated Press | News | CommentsNot everything there is “high-tech”, but the annual Consumer Electronics Show is a great place to see the newest and most fanciful products to reach the market each year. From the iPotty for toddlers to the 1,600-pound (725-kg) mechanical spider and the host of glitch-ridden "smart" TVs, the International CES show is a forum for gadget makers to take big—and bizarre—chances.
Flexing fingers for microrobotics
December 17, 2012 8:21 am | News | CommentsResearchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley have developed an elegant and powerful new microscale actuator that can flex like a tiny beckoning finger. Based on an oxide material that expands and contracts dramatically in response to a small temperature variation, the actuators are smaller than the width of a human hair and are promising for microfluidics, drug delivery, and artificial muscles.
Innovation on Wheels
December 14, 2012 11:35 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsThe Mars Science Laboratory is more than the biggest rolling science laboratory ever put on another planet. It's a systems engineering—and product development—triumph.
Squirrels inspire researchers to create deceptive robots
December 5, 2012 9:40 am | News | CommentsUsing deceptive behavioral patterns of squirrels and birds, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed robots that are able to deceive each other. The researchers created these deceptive robots by reviewing biological research results on squirrels' behavior after gathering and storing their acorn loot and keeping it safe from others.
The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife
December 3, 2012 9:23 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThe device doesn't look like much: a caterpillar-sized assembly of metal rings and strips resembling something you might find buried in a home-workshop drawer. But the technology behind it, and the long-range possibilities it represents, are quite remarkable. The little device is called a milli-motein, a name melding its millimeter-sized components and a motorized design inspired by proteins, which naturally fold themselves into complex shapes. The robot may be a harbinger of future devices that could fold themselves up into almost any shape imaginable.
Toshiba shows off robot meant to help at nuke site
November 26, 2012 11:00 am | by Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsEngineers at Toshiba Corp. have developed a robot it says can withstand high radiation to work in nuclear disasters. The four-legged robot can climb over debris and venture into radiated areas off-limits to humans while keeping in wireless communication despite high radiation. But it's not yet clear what exactly the robot is capable of doing if and when it gets the go-ahead to enter Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
These bots were made for walking
November 15, 2012 1:19 pm | News | CommentsThey're soft, biocompatible, about 7 mm long, and able to walk by themselves. Miniature "bio-bots" developed at the University of Illinois are making tracks in synthetic biology. Designing non-electronic biological machines has been a riddle that scientists at the interface of biology and engineering have struggled to solve. These bio-bots demonstrate the Illinois team's ability to forward-engineer functional machines using only hydrogel, heart cells, and a 3D printer.
Robots in the home: Will older adults roll out the welcome mat?
October 26, 2012 10:08 am | News | CommentsRobots have the potential to help older adults with daily activities that can become more challenging with age. But are people willing to use and accept the new technology? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates the answer is yes, unless the tasks involve personal care or social activities.
Training your robot the PaR-PaR way
October 23, 2012 11:47 am | News | CommentsPaR-PaR, a simple high-level, biology-friendly robot-programming language developed by researchers at JBEI and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, uses an object-oriented approach to make it easier to integrate robotic equipment into biological laboratories. Effective robots can increase research productivity, lower costs, and provide more reliable and reproducible experimental data.
NIH grant to advance brain surgery robot development
October 19, 2012 1:00 pm | News | CommentsA research team from the University of Maryland has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing a small robot that could one day be a huge aid to neurosurgeons in removing difficult-to-reach brain tumors.
Researchers aim to create 'MacGyver' robot
October 9, 2012 11:47 am | News | CommentsRobots are increasingly being used in place of humans to explore hazardous and difficult-to-access environments, but they aren't yet able to interact with their environments as well as humans. If today's most sophisticated robot was trapped in a burning room by a jammed door, it would probably not know how to locate and use objects in the room to climb over any debris, pry open the door, and escape the building.
Intuitive visual control provides faster remote operation of robots
September 25, 2012 12:50 pm | News | CommentsUsing a novel method of integrating video technology and familiar control devices, a research team from Georgia Institute of Technology is developing a technique to simplify remote control of robotic devices. The researchers' aim is to enhance a human operator's ability to perform precise tasks using a multijointed robotic device such as an articulated mechanical arm.
'Seahorse' sees scallops in new way
September 6, 2012 4:45 am | by Jay Lindsay, Associated Press | News | CommentsA new underwater explorer hit the seas this summer, armed with cameras, strobes and sonar and charged with being a protector of sorts to a half-billion dollar resource—the Atlantic scallop catch. Developed by a former scalloper and researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the stainless steel Seahorse gives marine scientists a look at the seafloor they’ve never had before and offers uses beyond policing scallop grounds.
Researchers engineer light-activated skeletal muscle
August 30, 2012 3:47 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMany robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting across terrain like cheetahs. Such designs borrow properties from nature, using engineered materials and hardware to mimic animals' behavior. Now, scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania are taking more than inspiration from nature—they're taking ingredients.
Brain wave-reading robot might help stroke patients
August 20, 2012 7:28 am | News | CommentsWhat comes naturally to most people—to think and then do—is difficult for stroke patients who have lost the full use of their limbs. New research by Rice University, the University of Houston, and TIRR Memorial Hermann aims to help victims recover that ability to the fullest extent possible with a $1.17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the President's National Robotics Initiative.
Life-like, cost-effective robotic hand can disable IEDs
August 16, 2012 4:22 am | News | CommentsSandia National Laboratories has developed a cost-effective robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The Sandia Hand addresses challenges that have prevented widespread adoption of other robotic hands, such as cost, durability, dexterity, and modularity.
Soft autonomous robot inches like earthworm
August 10, 2012 4:09 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsEarthworms creep along the ground by alternately squeezing and stretching muscles along the length of their bodies, a mechanism called peristalsis, inching forward with each wave of contractions. Now researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, much like an earthworm.
First-ever outdoor flight test of laser-powered unmanned aerial system
August 8, 2012 4:49 am | News | CommentsAfter demonstrating more than 48 hours of continuous flight in a wind tunnel, Lockheed Martin and LaserMotive Inc. report they have completed a series of outdoor flight tests of the Stalker Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). These tests mark the first-ever outdoor flight of a UAS powered by laser.
Micron-scale swimming robot could deliver drugs using simple motion
August 7, 2012 6:52 am | News | CommentsWhen you're just a few microns long, swimming can be difficult. At that size scale, the viscosity of water is more like that of honey, and momentum can't be relied upon to maintain forward motion. Microorganisms, of course, have evolved ways to swim in spite of these challenges, but tiny robots haven't quite caught up, until now.
Robot mimics water striders' jumping abilities
July 26, 2012 5:39 am | News | CommentsThe first bio-inspired microrobot capable of not just walking on water like the water strider, but continuously jumping up and down like a real water strider, now is a reality. Scientists have developed the agile microrobot, which could use its jumping ability to avoid obstacles on reconnaissance or other missions.
Engineers are designing, building mechanical ray
July 24, 2012 5:26 am | News | CommentsBatoid rays, such as stingrays and manta rays, are among nature's most elegant swimmers. They are fast, highly maneuverable, graceful, energy efficient, can cruise, bird-like, for long distances in the deep, open ocean, and rest on the sea bottom. A team from the University of Virginia and other universities is trying to emulate the seemingly effortless, but powerful, swimming motions of rays by engineering their own ray-like machine modeled on nature.
Gravity offset table brings inertia of space to robotics research
July 18, 2012 8:32 am | News | CommentsTo emulate the classical mechanics of physics found in space on full-scale replica spacecraft on Earth requires not only a hefty amount of air to 'float' the object, but a precision, frictionless, large surface area that will allow researchers to replicate the effects of inertia on man-made objects in space. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory recently got that capability with a one-of-a-kind 75,000 gravity offset table made from a single slab of concrete.
Autonomous robot maps ship hulls for mines
July 17, 2012 3:51 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMassachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have designed algorithms that vastly improve robots' navigation and feature-detecting capabilities. Using the group's algorithms, robots are able to swim around a ship's hull and view complex structures such as propellers and shafts. The goal is to achieve a resolution fine enough to detect a 10-cm mine attached to the side of a ship.
Smart headlight system will allow drivers to see through the rain
July 9, 2012 12:19 pm | News | CommentsDrivers can struggle to see when driving at night in a rainstorm or snowstorm, but a smart headlight system invented by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute can improve visibility by constantly redirecting light to shine between particles of precipitation. The system, demonstrated in laboratory tests, prevents the distracting and sometimes dangerous glare that occurs when headlight beams are reflected by precipitation back toward the driver.
