Harvard’s George Whitesides and Alex Nemiroski, a former postdoctoral fellow in Whitesides’ Harvard lab, have created a type of semi-soft robot capable of standing and walking. The team also created a robotic water strider capable of pushing itself along the liquid surface. The robots are described in a recently published paper in the journal Soft …
Space Startup Moon Express plans several robotic lunar missions over the next three years. The missions are initial lander and tiny rover missions, a polar mission to confirm water and then a sample return mission. They plan to scale up the sample return to mine for lunar ice to provide low cost rocket fuel and …
What if you could improve your average running pace from 9:14 minutes/mile to 8:49 minutes/mile without weeks of training? Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University have demonstrated that a tethered soft exosuit can reduce the metabolic cost of running on …
Moon Express has revealed their family of three lunar robot explorers. * MX-1 Scout * MX-2 dual stage Scout * MX-5 Discovery class The moon express MX-1scout is the lowest cost planetary spacecraft ever. It is designed for Scout Class exploration capabilities starting from low Earth orbit, MX-1 delivers flexibility and performance to revolutionize access …
Debug Fresno is a study in the summer of 2017, pending approval from state and federal regulators, to test a potential mosquito control method using sterile insect technique. The study would be conducted by Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District, MosquitoMate, and Verily, and this video is intended to inform residents of the possible activities of this …
Engineers have worked made drones the size of a bumblebee and loaded them with even tinier sensors and cameras. Almost every part of a drone has been made smaller, except for the brains of the entire operation — the computer chip. Standard computer chips for quadcoptors and other similarly sized drones process an enormous amount …
The current most advanced robot cook is the hamburger maker developed by Momentum Machines, a startup funded by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. It takes in raw meat, buns, condiments, sauces, and seasonings, and converts these into finished, bagged burgers at rates as high as 400 per hour. The machine does much of its own food …
Researchers at the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a novel design approach for exoskeletons and prosthetic limbs that incorporates direct feedback from the human body. The findings were published this week in Science. This technique, called human-in-the-loop optimization, customizes walking assistance for individuals and significantly improves energy economy during walking. The …
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are making virtual and robotic assistants increasingly capable in performing complex tasks. For these “smart” machines to be considered safe and trustworthy collaborators with human partners, however, robots must be able to quickly assess a given situation and apply human social norms. Such norms are intuitively obvious to most people—for …
Made In Space is putting 3D printing into space and is working on other space based manufacturing. They are looking to make large light structures as well. They call these systems Archinaut. It is an alternative approach to the Tether unlimited spiderfab. In November 2015, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) announced its selection of …
A subsidiary of SoftBank has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG). The transaction aligns with SoftBank’s investments in paradigm-shifting technologies and its vision of catalyzing the next wave of smart robotics. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO …