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EPFL scientists have created the first functional robot powered entirely by vacuum: made up of soft building blocks, it moves by having air sucked out of them.

Filming of spectacular action scenes is expensive and the creative possibilities are often limited. An ETH doctoral student has developed an algorithm that allows drones to implement the desired picture compositions independently.

Moving things with a wave of the hand: thanks to Empa technology this dream could soon become real. A sensor made of piezo-resistive fibers integrated in a wristband measures wrist movements and converts them into electrical signals.

The first smart exoskeleton that recognizes the loss of balance - and prevents falling - has been developed by researchers at Scuola Sant'Anna in Italy, EPFL in Switzerland, and tested at the Rehabilitation Center 'Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi' in Florence.

A team of surgeons and engineers of Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern (Switzerland), have developed a high-precision surgical robot for cochlear implantation.

EPFL scientists designed, built and remote-controlled the robotic structures of a crocodile and a lizard for a field experiment, in the depths of Africa, in collaboration with the BBC. The robots are featured in today's episode of 'Spy in the Wild'. What happens when you combine EPFL's first-class robotic engineering with the BBC's first-class special effects' You get reptilian robots that look and move (almost) like the real thing, and as a bonus, a scientific tool for studying biology and for improving search and rescue robotics.

An EPFL team is developing soft, flexible and reconfigurable robots. Air-actuated, they behave like human muscles and may be used in physical rehabilitation.

Scientists at EPFL and ETHZ have developed a new method for building microrobots that could be used in the body to deliver drugs and perform other medical operations. For the past few years, scientists around the world have been studying ways to use miniature robots to better treat a variety of diseases.

Physics student Darius Merk has used an insect-inspired algorithm to develop a drone that can navigate around obstacles.

03. Thymio, the teaching robot designed by EPFL and widely used in French-speaking Switzerland, is now making inroads elsewhere in Europe.

In future, it will be easier and cheaper for developers at universities and SMEs to build wearable microelectronic devices and chips for the Internet of Things, thanks to the PULPino open-source processor, which has been developed at ETH Zurich and the University of Bologna.

Computer scientists and roboticists at ETH Zurich have developed a robotic walker that makes senior citizens more mobile.

01. Soft electronics are changing the way robots can touch. EPFL Scientists have developed a new soft robotic gripper - made out of rubber and stretchable electrodes - that can bend and pick up delicate objects like eggs and paper, taking robotics to a whole new level.

ROVéo is a robot whose unique four-wheel design allows it to climb over obstacles up to two-thirds its height.

With less than a 0.5 mm margin of error, Neuroglide, the robot developed by researchers allows for the placement of screws in small vertebrae with unequaled precision.

An experiment shows that communication systems can evolve differently within the same species and even the same environment.

Are robots welcome in our homes? A qualitative study has revealed some interesting possibilities. Only one out of three households thinks automatic vacuum cleaners are worth the investment. The opinions of the others will be used to develop the appliances of the future. Will there be lots of gadgets under the family Christmas tree this year? By the back door, robotic vacuums are bringing cyberstuff into daily life; they're among the first autonomous devices that can be easily used by ordinary households.

It's the story of a long dynasty of industrial robots. Delta's three arms began by packaging chocolates, before being used in watchmaking, tele-surgery and the processing of materials.

Robots typically acquire new capacities by imitation. Now, EPFL scientists are doing the inverse - developing machines that can learn more rapidly and outperform humans by starting from failed or inaccurate demonstrations. A robot, unblinking, impassive, observes. Its instructor wants it to learn how to put a balloon in a basket 20 meters away.