‘Hamster ball’ bot can roll and fly
From Revolute Robotics 26/07/23 With the ever-changing technology of robotics and their impact on the future, one thing is for certain – robots are here to stay. With this in mind, Arizona-based Revolute Robotics is introducing a new type of robot that can not only fly through the air, but drive and roll on the […]
Ireland wins robot football world cup trophy
From MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY 24/07/23 Ireland’s Robot Soccer team, RoboÉireann from Maynooth University, are Challenge Shield winners in the RoboCup 2023 Standard Platform League, an international robotics competition held in Bordeaux, France. Scoring 67-2 across nine matches, RoboÉireann overcame teams from Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, USA, Australia, and Brazil to secure victory. There is a 35-second […]
Roboglove helps stroke sufferers relearn piano
From FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY 05/07/2023 For people who have suffered neurotrauma such as a stroke, everyday tasks can be extremely challenging because of decreased coordination and strength in one or both upper limbs. These problems have spurred the development of robotic devices to help enhance their abilities. However, the rigid nature of these assistive devices […]
Grain Weevil bot wins innovation award
By Superinnovators 04/07/2023 In the heartland of America’s grain storage country, a revolution is underway. The Grain Weevil, an advanced grain bin safety and management robot, is transforming the way farmers interact with their grain bins. Born out of a challenge to create a robot that would eliminate the need for farmers to enter grain […]
New bioinspired robot flies, rolls, walks, and more
From Caltech 03/07/2023 A newly created real-life Transformer is capable of reconfiguring its body to achieve eight distinct types of motion and can autonomously assess the environment it faces to choose the most effective combination of motions to maneuver. The new robot, dubbed M4 (for Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot) can roll on four wheels, turn its […]
Autonomous Black Hawk
By Charles Carter, 07/11/22 US aviation company Sikorsky and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have demonstrated an autonomous Black Hawk helicopter to the US Army. The machine conducted pilotless cargo resupply and medical evacuation missions at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, last month. No humans were on board. Sikorsky was acquired by Lockheed Martin for […]
Microplastic-eating bionic fish
By Charles Carter, 02/11/22 The Natural Robotics Contest built a prototype of this year’s winning entry from Eleanor Mackinstosh: Gillbert, a bionic fish that eats microplastic by filtering it from ingested water using mesh gills. Eleanor’s idea was to mimic how fish swim and extract oxygen from water to help clean up microplastic pollution in […]
Self-righting reaction wheel unicycle
By Charles Carter, 19/10/22 Innovators at Max Planck Institute have created a unicycle bot that can withstand being pushed, self-right and balance on an inclined plane using the momentum of a reaction wheel. The unicycle is built from a combination of off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed parts, and can jump on to its wheels from any […]
Burrowing bot mimics Pacific mole crab
By Charles Carter, 14/10/22 Engineers from the University of California, Berkeley have built a small bot that mimics the burrowing of the Pacific mole crab. The approach could be used in the future to build burrowing bots to explore, dig down and provide dynamic tethers for spacecraft on The Moon and other planets. The findings […]
Live neurons on chip learn to play Pong
By Charles Carter, 13/10/22 Live human and mouse neurons integrated with a silicon electrode array in a petri dish have learned to play the video game Pong. The DishBrain innovation comes from Australian startup Cortical Labs with their findings recently published in the journal Neuron. How does it work? Embryonic mouse or human brain cells […]