news 2026

Robots are becoming increasingly capable in vision and movement, yet touch remains one of their major weaknesses. Now, researchers have developed a miniature tactile sensor that could give robots something much closer to a human sense of touch. The technology, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, is based on liquid metal composites and graphene - a two-dimensional form of carbon.

EPFL roboticists have shown that when a modular robot shares power, sensing, and communication resources among its individual units, it is significantly more resistant to failure than traditional robotic systems, where the breakdown of one element often means a loss of functionality. If the goal of a robot is to perform a function, then minimizing the possibility of failure is a top priority when it comes to robotic design.

The potential of microrobots is enormous. These miniature objects can be designed to carry out actions within the body, such as sensing biomarkers, manipulating objects like blood clots, or delivering drug therapies to tumor sites. But working out how to make the tiny bots effective, biocompatible, and cost effective is challenging.

A robotic hand developed at EPFL surpasses the limits of human dexterity with a dual-thumbed, reversible-palm design that can detach from its robotic 'arm' to reach and grasp multiple objects.

Nanomechanical systems developed at TU Wien have now reached a level of precision and miniaturization that will allow them to be used in ultra-high-resolution atomic force microscopes in the future. A major leap in measurement technology begins with a tiny gap of just 32 nanometers. This is the distance between a movable aluminum membrane and a fixed electrode, together forming an extremely compact parallel-plate capacitor-a new world record.