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Researchers have designed a bio-inspired robot with a novel trimmed helicoid structure that allows for a wide range of motion and safe interaction with humans. At EPFL's CREATE lab , under the guidance of Josie Hughes, a breakthrough has been made in the realm of soft robotics. Drawing inspiration from the versatile movement of elephant trunks and octopus tentacles, the team introduced the trimmed helicoid - a novel robotic structure that promises greater compliance and control in robotic designs.

To navigate the world, we all shimmy like these electric fish Johns Hopkins scientists are the first to demonstrate that a wide range of organisms, even microbes, perform the same pattern of movements in order to sense their surroundings An electric knifefish shimmies in the water for the same reason a dog sniffs or a human glances around a new place-to make sense of their surroundings.

Plant-based materials give life to tiny soft robots that can potentially conduct medical procedures A team of University of Waterloo researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots. These tiny robots have the potential to conduct medical procedures, such as biopsy, and cell and tissue transport, in a minimally invasive fashion.

For the first time ever, researchers at the Surgical Robotics Laboratory of the University of Twente successfully made two microrobots work together to pick up, move and assemble passive objects in 3D environments. This achievement opens new horizons for promising biomedical applications. Imagine you need surgery somewhere inside your body.

Using a simple and convenient touchscreen interface, the algorithm learns the assistance preferences of the wearer Two assistance profiles selected based on previous data. The user chooses one, and it presents another for comparison. Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings.

Some researchers see formal specifications as a way for autonomous systems to "explain themselves" to humans. But a new study finds that we aren't understanding. As autonomous systems and artificial intelligence become increasingly common in daily life, new methods are emerging to help humans check that these systems are behaving as expected.

Key Takeaways Radiation mapping can be used to improve safety at sites with radioactive sources (such as power plants or hospitals), enforce non-proliferation agreements, or guide environmental cleanup and disaster response Scientists at Berkeley Lab have created multi-sensor systems that can map nuclear radiation in 3D in real time and are now testing how to integrate their system with robots that can autonomously investigate radiation areas Sm

Opportunities for cancer treatment and wound healing Microrobots for the study of cells A group of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed the world's first microrobot ("microbot") capable of navigating within groups of cells and stimulating individual cells. Berna Özkale Edelmann, a professor of Nanoand Microrobotics, sees potential for new treatments of human diseases.

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics reveals that 92% of nursing facility residents and at-home care patients require assistance with dressing, a daily activity easily taken for granted by many. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute (RI) are working toward a future where robots can help.

For his Master's project at EPFL, Mickaël Achkar compiled data on the movements of dogs to develop a robotic version of the animal that, once set in motion, can run without assistance. Engineers at EPFL's Computational Robot Design & Fabrication Lab (CREATE), headed by Prof. Josie Hughes, are coming up with new ways of building robots possessing never-before-seen capabilities.

Researchers have found that robots can have a -U-shaped- effect on profits: causing profit margins to fall at first, before eventually rising again. It's important that companies develop new processes at the same time as they are incorporating robots, otherwise they will reach this same pinch point Chander Velu The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, studied industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries between 1995 and 2017, and found that at low levels of adoption, robots have a negative effect on profit margins.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have shown that computer vision systems can more easily detect objects in motion - like a car driving down the street or a person walking in a crosswalk - than stationary objects. Martial Hebert , dean of CMU's School of Computer Science and a professor in the Robotics Institute, and robotics Ph.D.

Researchers develop a machine-learning technique that can efficiently learn to control a robot, leading to better performance with fewer data. Researchers from MIT and Stanford University have devised a new machine-learning approach that could be used to control a robot, such as a drone or autonomous vehicle, more effectively and efficiently in dynamic environments where conditions can change rapidly.

Researchers from the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an automatic process for making soft sensors. These universal measurement cells can be attached to almost any kind of object. Applications are envisioned especially in robotics and prosthetics.

Cambridge researchers, working in partnership with industry, have helped develop the first 3D-printed piece of concrete infrastructure to be used on a National Highways project. Making the wall digital means it can speak for itself, and we can use our sensors to understand these 3D-printed structures better and accelerate their acceptance in industry Abir Al-Tabbaa The 3D-printed structure - a type of retaining wall known as a headwall - has been installed on the A30 in Cornwall , where it is providing real-time information thanks to Cambridge-designed sensors embedded in its structure.

Swiss engineers are training legged robots for future lunar missions that will search for minerals and raw materials. To ensure that the robots can continue to work even if one of them malfunctions, the researchers are teaching them teamwork. On the Moon, there are raw materials that humanity could one day mine and use.

Researchers at EPFL have developed the first system that enables four-arm laparoscopic surgery by controlling two additional robotic arms via haptic foot interfaces. Roboticists at EPFL have combined multi-limb manipulation with advanced shared control augmentation for an unprecedented advance in the field of laparoscopic surgery.

Researchers from Empa and Imperial College London are developing a heat-resistant drone that can analyze the source of danger at close range in the event of a building or forest fire. This allows firefighters to optimize the strategy of a high-risk operation before entering the danger zone. Where others rush out, they have to go in: Firefighters put themselves in dangerous situations during rescue operations - sometimes right in the midst of a sea of flames.

Jamie Paik and her team of researchers at EPFL's School of Engineering have created an origami-like robot that can change shape, move around and interact with objects and people. By combining inspiration from the digital world of polygon meshing and the biological world of swarm behavior, the Mori3 robot can morph from 2D triangles into almost any 3D object.