Stories

Teaching Robots to Move by Sketching Trajectories

Getting robots to perform even a simple task requires tons of behind-the-scenes work. Part of the challenge is planning and executing movements, everything from turning wheels to lifting a...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an...

My Opinion: We Should Take a Broad View of Energy Storage

My opinion: We need a holistic approach to energy storage — we should start with the general category and then analyze the pros and cons of different technologies to solve different problems.

Personalized Pills That Can Deliver Timed Doses

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have led work that has fabricated personalized medicine using Multi-Material InkJet 3D Printing (MM-IJ3DP).

How a Single-Shot Imaging System Unveils a Polarized World

Think of all the information we get based on how an object interacts with wavelengths of light — also known as color. Color can tell us if food is safe to eat or if a piece of...

A New Affordable Sensor for Lead Contamination

Engineers at MIT, Nanyang Technological University, and several companies have developed a compact and inexpensive technology for detecting and measuring lead concentrations in water,...

Can Lithium Tantalate Lower the Cost of Manufacturing Photonic Integrated Circuits?

Researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) — or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne — have leveraged the use of...

Aligning Laser Antenna Optical Components for the LISA Space Mission

In January, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Science Program Committee approved the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, the first scientific endeavour to...

Giving Household Robots Common Sense

Whereas prior works have focused on leveraging LLMs directly for planning in symbolic spaces, this work uses LLMs to guide the search of task structures and constraints implicit in multi-step physical demonstrations.

Universal Automated Dosing Systems Could Become Reality

Researchers have created and demonstrated a method of universalizing blood-glucose detection technology as a way of rapidly and inexpensively creating sensors that can monitor the dosing of chemotherapies and other drugs in real time.

Understanding Space Sustainability

The issue of space sustainability has been gaining more attention with the growing population of objects in low Earth orbit. This debris needs to be tracked to avoid collisions. Test your knowledge about space sustainability in this quiz.

Advanced Binders for Advancing Li-ion Batteries

The work involved fabricating electrodes containing PVPA, PAA, and PVDF as binders, and their performance was assessed through electrochemical experiments and density functional theory.

How Much Do You Know About Thermal Management?

Regulating heat dissipation and temperature rise, thermal management is imperative on several levels. How much do you know about thermal management? Find out with this quiz.

Humanoid Robots: The Next-Generation Robotic Workforce

While the adoption of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and collaborative robots (cobots) has increased in logistics and manufacturing industries, mobile manipulation robots (MMRs) — or...

Tech Focus: Leveraging Generative AI for Industrial Environment

Del Costy, President and Managing Director at Siemens Digital Industries (Plano, TX), unveiled how the company is making automation easy with their first generative AI-powered...

Product Focus: New Order Fulfillment Solution Helps Reduce Intralogistics Footprint

Intralogistics solutions provider Kardex (Zurich, Switzerland) demonstrated one of the fastest order fulfillment solution per square foot on the market at...

Product Focus: Small, Fast, and Element-Resistant Industrial Robots

Comau (Southfield, MI) debuted its new S-Family of small yet powerful robots at Automate 2024. The first two high-speed robots, with payloads of 13 kg and up to 18 kg, are...

3D Printing Flexible Devices Sans Mechanical Joints

Manufacturing elastomers that can be shaped into complex 3D structures that go from rigid to rubbery has been unfeasible until now.

Product Focus: Modular Large Robots for High Payload Assembly

ABB Robotics (Auburn Hills, MI) is continuing the expansion of its modular large robot portfolio with the introduction of the new IRB 7710 and IRB 7720 that made their debut at...

How Platforming is Making Industrial Automation Accessible to Everyone

“The problem with industrial automation today is that it’s very costly, said Etienne Lacroix, CEO of Vention, the Canada-based cloud robotics company. “It’s not...

Product Focus: Redefining Material Handling with AI-Driven Pallet Detection

At Automate 2024, Denmark-based Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) showcased its latest MiR1200 Pallet Jack — an AI-powered autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solution...

Technology Focus: Turning Robot Operations Data into Actionable Insights

InOrbit.AI (Mountain View, CA), a provider of robot operations (RobOps) solutions, introduced InOrbit RobOps Copilot™ at Automate 2024. This innovative technology...

Jeff Burnstein on the Transformative Impact of AI and Automation

Automate, the flagship educational conference and tradeshow for robotics and automation professionals, has returned to Chicago for the first time in five years. The event...

Product Focus: Innovative Low-Profile AMR for Flexible Manufacturing

AFORMIC (Duncan, SC) is showcasing its latest cutting-edge autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for flexible manufacturing and warehousing during the Automate Show. The...

Product Focus: One Kilowatt Wireless Charging for Mobile Robots

WiBotic (Seattle, WA) is demonstrating its new 1kW (1000 Watt) wireless charging system at the Automate Show. WiBotic’s new platform will provide a larger class of mobile...

Tech Focus: A New Generation of Mechanical Axes

Festo (Islandia, NY) introduced its newest generation of Cartesian-handling-system mechanical axes at Automate 2024. The ELGD-TB, tooth belt, and ELGD-BS, ball screw, axes feature an...

Biden-Harris Administration Invests $54 Million to Expand Clean Transportation Across American Communities

The Communities Taking Charge funding opportunity extends access to electrification opportunities beyond existing Joint Office–supported programs to more communities across America. Funding is available to academic, non-profit, for-profit, and government entities for planning, demonstration, and/or deployment projects that drive innovation in equitable clean transportation.

How Much Do You Know About Automotive Sensors?

As more and more elements of automotive systems are computer-controlled, accurate system-wide sensors are critical for proper operations, whether in internal combustion, hybrid, or completely electric vehicles. How much do you know about automotive sensors? Take this quiz to test your knowledge.

New Octopus-Inspired Gripper Enables Versatile Soft Adhesion

A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved, and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team studied the structures of octopus biological suckers, which have superb adaptive suction abilities enabling them to anchor to rock.