Scientists develop ‘flying dragon’ robot to fight fires from a distance
From Frontiers 01/01/24 Imagine a flying dragon that doesn’t spout fire, but instead extinguishes it with blasts of water. Thanks to a team of Japanese researchers, this new kind of beast may soon be recruited to firefighter teams around the world, to help put out fires that are too dangerous for their human teammates to […]
Acer i-Seed: the first eco-friendly fluorescent artificial seed for monitoring soil temperature by using drones
From Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – IIT 29/11/23 A new kind of artificial seed to sense environmental parameters without impacting on the health of environment is the invention coming from the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Genova, Italy. The soft robot, named Acer i-Seed, is inspired by natural Acer seeds and […]
Battery-free robots use origami to change shape in mid-air
From University of Washington 15/09/23 Researchers at the University of Washington have developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent. When these “microfliers” are dropped from a drone, they use a Miura-ori origami fold to switch from tumbling and dispersing outward […]