news

Scientists have developed a theory that can explain how flying insects determine the gravity direction without using accelerometers. It also forms a substantial step in the creation of tiny, autonomous drones. Scientists have discovered a novel manner for flying drones and insects to estimate the gravity direction.

Simple microparticles can beat rhythmically together, generating an oscillating electrical current that could be used to power microrobotic devices. Taking advantage of a phenomenon known as emergent behavior in the microscale, MIT engineers have designed simple microparticles that can collectively generate complex behavior, much the same way that a colony of ants can dig tunnels or collect food.

A new system of flying drones working together to 3D print material, has been developed by a team involving researchers at UCL and Imperial College London. It's the first time flying drones have been coordinated like this to 3D print an object. The system, called Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM), is a new approach to 3D printing using collaborative flying robots to transport and deposit building material.

Applications in tissue scaffolds for artificial organs, and functional devices The University of Amsterdam has reached a license agreement with the Gouda-based company Atum3D on a method for fast, large-scale 3D-printing with sub-micron resolution.

A new study identifies seven dog behaviors seen as important for bonding with your dog. In a step towards development of robots that interact meaningfully with humans, a new study - led by the University of Glasgow and published in PLOS ONE - highlights specific dog behaviors that dog owners perceive as important for bonding with their pets.

With the completion of NPEC at the end of this month, plant research enters a new era. The era of automation and a lot of data. NPEC stands for Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre. The focus here is not the plant's genetic baggage - its genotype - but its outward appearance, or phenotype. The research entails measuring aspects of the plant's appearance and the influence of the environment.

Researchers have embedded new low-cost sensors that monitor breathing, heart rate, and ammonia into t-shirts and face masks. Potential applications range from monitoring exercise , sleep , and stress to diagnosing and monitoring disease through breath and vital signs. The flexible medium of clothing means our sensors have a wide range of applications.

3D printing drones work like bees to build and repair structures Additive manufacturing in-flight An international team of researchers have created a fleet of bee-inspired flying 3D printers for building and repairing structures in-flight. The technology could ultimately be used for manufacturing and building in difficult-to-access or dangerous locations such as tall buildings or help with post-disaster relief construction, say the researchers.

Imperial College London and researchers have created a fleet of bee-inspired flying 3D printers for building and repairing structures in-flight. The technology could ultimately be used for manufacturing and building in difficult-to-access or dangerous locations such as tall buildings or help with post-disaster relief construction, say the researchers, who publish their work in Nature .

An international research team led by drone expert Mirko Kovac of Empa and Imperial College London has taken bees as a model to develop a swarm of cooperative, 3D-printing drones. Under human control, these flying robots work as a team to print 3D materials for building or repairing structures while flying, as the scientists report in the cover story of the latest issue of Nature.

Freiburg computer scientists make an important step towards advancing perception in complex urban environments How can mobile robots perceive and understand the environment correctly, even if parts of the environment are occluded by other objects? This is a key question that must be solved for self-driving vehicles to safely navigate in large crowded cities.

Abrahamic texts treat slithering as a special indignity visited on the wicked serpent, but evolution may draw a more continuous line through the motion of swimming microbes, wriggling worms, skittering spiders and walking horses. A new study found that all of these kinds of motion are well represented by a single mathematical model.

Robots can be better at detecting mental wellbeing issues in children than parent-reported or self-reported testing, a new study suggests. Children might see the robot as a confidante - they feel like they won't get into trouble if they share secrets with it Nida Itrat Abbasi A team of roboticists, computer scientists and psychiatrists from the University of Cambridge carried out a study with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13, and had a child-sized humanoid robot administer a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant.

TartanDrive dataset likely largest for off-road environments Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University took an all-terrain vehicle on wild rides through tall grass, loose gravel and mud to gather data about how the ATV interacted with a challenging off-road environment. They drove the heavily instrumented ATV aggressively at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.

A new dual drone can both fly and land on water to take aquatic samples and monitor water quality, for example. The drone was developed by researchers at Imperial College London and Empa and recently tested together with researchers at the aquatic research institute Eawag for the first time on Lake Zurich.

An electronic skin which can learn from feeling 'pain' could help create a new generation of smart robots with human-like sensitivity. A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow developed the artificial skin with a new type of processing system based on 'synaptic transistors, which mimics the brain's neural pathways in order to learn.

Back to (previous) overview TU Delft's latest news TU Delft, Royal Brinkman and start-up Mapture have developed the next step in drone technology for agriculture. Their new AI-enabled drone takes off completely independently, flies over rows of plants and people in a greenhouse, takes high-resolution photos, and lands safely back on its charging station.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a low cost, low power technology to help robots accurately map their way indoors, even in poor lighting and without recognizable landmarks or features. The technology consists of sensors that use WiFi signals to help the robot map where it's going.

A new robot is capable of switching from an underwater drone to an aerial vehicle in less than one second. The robot also features a suction disc inspired by the remora fish, which enables it to hitchhike on wet or dry moving objects to significantly reduce its power consumption. It is designed for biological and environmental monitoring in marine ecosystems such as surveying ocean pollution in the open sea as the scientist of Beihang University, Imperial College London and Empa point out in a new study published in Science Robotics.

A team of researchers led by University of Toronto Professor  Tim Barfoot  is using a new strategy that allows robots to avoid colliding with people by predicting the future locations of dynamic obstacles in their path. The project, which is supported by Apple Machine Learning, will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Philadelphia at the end of May.