Tag Archives: Robotics

Image of the Interact Rover, one of the remote-operated vehicles used in the Surface Avatar experiments. Credit – ESA The European Space Agency has been hosting a series of robotic teleoperation experiments where an astronaut abroad the ISS controls a robot back on the ground. We’ve previously reported on some of their successes. Now it’s time for the next round ...

Can anyone keep up with SpaceX in the commercial space race? It might be one of the four companies profiled in “When the Heavens Went on Sale” — a new book written by Ashlee Vance, the tech journalist who chronicled SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s feats and foibles eight years ago. Or it might be one of the dozens of other space ventures that have risen ...

Artist graphic of a hexapod WORMS robot. Credit – MIT News / Lordos et al. Building with Legos is a favored pastime for many small children and adults. We’ve even covered some more space-oriented Lego sets here at UT. But, as the Lego movie points out, they constitute “a highly sophisticated interlocking brick system.” So why not take the idea ...

The term ‘killer robots’ conjures up images of sci-fi scenarios where wars are being fought by Terminator-like soldiers, but according to UNSW Canberra military ethicist Deane-Peter Baker, it’s not quite that scary or cinematic.   In fact, killer robots, or lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), may actually save lives on the battlefield. Image credit: Unsplash, free license Associate Professor Baker’s ...

5G communications are seen as a way to get faster mobile internet speeds. However, 5G technology can offer much greater and wider capabilities than just faster streaming or quicker downloads on the go. Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney together with an industry partner Nokia are exploring the ways 5G technology can make robots better co-workers. Very soon we ...

Quantitative evaluations are vital for measuring progress in the field of robot manipulation. Therefore, a recent study on arXiv.org proposes a Rubik’s Cube manipulation benchmark. Rubik’s Cube. Image credit: Max Pixel, CC0 Public Domain In this task, each rotation requires the robot to position its end-effectors with sub-centimeter accuracy. As many such stations are required, errors in the robot’s estimate ...

You may think that robots are still far from any practically useful areas of application. But they are not – there are many models of fully autonomous machines which perform tasks incredibly important for us. The combination of strength and flexibility of such ‘soft’ machines is unmatched. Image credit: Veritasium (still image from the YouTube video) But, of course, there ...

Grip-strengthening glove based on robotic astronaut assistant aims to reduce workplace stress injuries. It’s no coincidence that our most complex, versatile, and useful body part, the human hand, is also among the most prone to injury. With its fine motor and sensory coordination, delicacy, and strength, the hand also sets a standard for robotics engineers to strive for, being supremely ...

Deep imitation learning has enabled robots to perform manipulation tasks without predefined rules. However, current architectures infer a reactive action to the current states, while in real-world robots may be required to utilize memory. Industrial robot. Image credit: Humanrobo via Wikimedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0 Therefore, a recent paper published on arXiv.org proposes a sequential data-based gaze control to achieve memory-based robot manipulation. ...

No need for fancy cafes. For your next coffee and pancake order, all you need is a couple of robots – and USC Viterbi students to program them. Gone are the days when you need to measure out your pancake batter or spend far too long perfecting your pour-over method. Now, breakfast is served with a side of robot. USC ...