Category archives: Robotics

Robots can be companions, caregivers, collaborators — and social influencers

Robots can be companions, caregivers, collaborators — and social influencers

RoboticsSociology

By Invited Researcher

In the mid-1990s, there was research going on at Stanford University that would change the way we think about computers. The Media Equation experiments were simple: participants were asked to interact with a computer that acted socially for a few minutes after which, they were asked to give feedback about the interaction. Participants would provide […]

Learning from nature: a new flapping drone can take off, hover and swoop like a bird

Learning from nature: a new flapping drone can take off, hover and swoop like a bird

Mechanical EngineeringRobotics

By Invited Researcher

Photo: Gary Bendig / Unsplash We have developed four-winged bird-like robots , called ornithopters, that can take off and fly with the agility of swifts, hummingbirds and insects. We did this by reverse engineering the aerodynamics and biomechanics of these creatures. Our ornithopters have the potential to outperform and outmanoeuvre existing drone configurations with static […]

Soft robots of the future may depend on new materials that conduct electricity, sense damage and self-heal

Soft robots of the future may depend on new materials that conduct electricity, sense damage and self-heal

MaterialsMechanical EngineeringRobotics

By Invited Researcher

Robots used to be restricted to heavy lifting or fine detail work in factories. Now Boston Dynamics’ nimble four-legged robot, Spot, is available for companies to lease to carry out various real-world jobs, a sign of just how common interactions between humans and machines have become in recent years. And while Spot is versatile and […]

Finding collision-free tangential cutting directions when machining

Finding collision-free tangential cutting directions when machining

Computer scienceMathematicsMechanical EngineeringRobotics

By BCAM

One thing is designing an object in a computer, and another, quite different, is producing it as a real 3D object. All other things being equal, in general the more curves the designed object has, the more difficult it is to produce. Mathematics can be very helpful in this task. The geometric modeling of a […]

The convergence of neuroscience and artificial intelligence

The convergence of neuroscience and artificial intelligence

Computer scienceNeuroscienceRobotics

By Julián Estévez

Several researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are warning about an AI winter, which means that scientists might lose the interest on the discipline, institutions reduce drastically the funding towards its research and lose presence in the public debate. It wouldn’t be the first AI winter though. The last two decades have been […]

Robotic playmates

Robotic playmates

HealthRobotics

By José Ramón Alonso

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of developmental disorders that cause lifelong disabilities. They affect people’s ability to communicate, to interact with others and to understand social cues. Affected persons have difficulties recognizing body language, making eye contact, and understand other people’s emotions, symptoms that hurt the individual’s ability to function socially, at school or […]