Robotics

5Ws of the AEON Humanoid Robot

One of the 2026 CES Innovation Awards honorees in the robotics category is AEON — a humanoid robot developed to address labor shortages as industries adapt to ageing populations and shifting workforce demands.

A New Approach Enabling Intuitive Robotic Helpers for Household, Workplace, and Warehouse settings

For a robot, the real world is a lot to take in. Making sense of every data point in a scene can take a huge amount of computational effort and time. Using that information to then decide how to best help a human is an even thornier exercise. Now, MIT roboticists have a way to cut through the data noise, to help robots focus on the features in a scene that are most relevant for assisting humans. Read on to learn more.

Ultrasound Waves Move Objects Hands-Free

University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers have discovered a new method to move objects using ultrasound waves, which opens the door for using contactless manipulation in industries in which devices wouldn’t need a built-in power source to move. Read on to learn more.

Getting Robots to “Bee” have Without a Plan

Bees, ants, and termites don’t need blueprints. They may have queens, but none of these species breed architects or construction managers. Each insect worker, or drone, simply responds to cues like warmth or the presence or absence of building material. Now, researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules that allow virtual swarms of tiny robots to do the same. Read on to learn more.

A Light-Powered Soft Robot That Can Carry Loads Through the Air Along Established Tracks

Researchers have created a light-powered soft robot that can carry loads through the air along established tracks, similar to cable cars or aerial trams. The soft robot operates autonomously, can climb slopes at angles of up to 80°, and can carry loads up to 12 times its weight. Read on to learn more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a new nanoscale optical device that works at room temperature to entangle the spin of photons (particles of light) and electrons to achieve quantum communication; a dust sensor for use in space environments; and more.

Microscopic Swimming Machines that Can Sense, Respond to Surroundings

Researchers have created the world’s smallest programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months, and cost just a penny each.

Artificial Tendons Give Muscle-Powered Robots a Boost

Our muscles are nature’s actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate...

World’s Smallest Programmable, Autonomous Robots

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can...

Bio-Hybrid Robots Turn Food Waste into Functional Machines

Although many roboticists today turn to nature to inspire their designs, even bioinspired robots are usually fabricated from non-biological materials like metal, plastic, and...

Building Bots on a Budget

Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Yufeng Chi is part of a team of Berkeley engineers that has developed Berkeley Humanoid Lite, a low-cost, open-source robot made of...

Innovative Control System Theory for Complex Networks

Leila Bridgeman and her team at Duke University Pratt School of Engineering are developing software that will improve upon existing techniques to ensure robust and safety-assured control for complex autonomous systems such as drones and medical robotics.

At-Home Robotic Rehabilitation

Two former college roommates have commercialized their robotic knee brace for extending the reach of physical therapists through telehealth.

Aerial Microrobots That Can Match a Bumblebee's Speed

MIT researchers have demonstrated aerial microrobots that can fly with speed and agility that is comparable to their biological counterparts.

5Ws of Unloading Robots

Founded by MIT alumni, the Pickle Robot Company has built machines that can autonomously load and unload trucks inside warehouses and logistic centers.

Tech Briefs Wrapped 2025: Top 10 Technology Stories

As engineering continues to shape society and drive innovation, here are the year’s top 10 engineering stories that resonated most with Tech Briefs' audience.

Heavy-Payload Conveyance Paves the Way for Next-Generation Battery Manufacturing

Battery packs are becoming larger and heavier, particularly in applications such as electric trucks, aviation and renewable energy storage. As payload requirements increase, manufacturers are turning to advanced automation and material handling systems to keep pace. Read on to learn what this means.

Vision Integration Transforms Collaborative Robotics

Without integrated vision, robots can only perform tasks in precisely the same way every time. If a part is even slightly out of position or rotated differently, the robot may fail to complete its task, or worse, cause an error in the process. Read on to learn more.

New Products

See the new products, including NVIDIA's IGX Thor, an industrial-grade platform built to bring real-time physical AI directly to the edge; Teknic's precision planetary gearboxes; PI's L-220 series linear actuators; Compact Click dev tool from MIKROE; and more.

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: OnLogic's new edge computer series, the Karbon 520.

Boosting Welding Productivity with the GoFa Cobot

Finland-based Metos Oy, a manufacturer of professional stainless steel kitchen equipment, needed a welding solution that could deliver flawless, pressure-rated welds for small batches of high-spec products, which feature tubular structures and circular shafts that required continuous, precision welding. Read on to find out what they did.

Robotic System for Assembly and Maintenance of Lightweight Reconfigurable Structures

Missions to the moon and other planets will require large-scale infrastructure that would benefit from autonomous assembly by robots without on-site human intervention. NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel and efficient mobile bipedal robot system to construct low-mass, high precision, and largescale infrastructure. Read on to learn more.

New AI-Driven Design Tool Optimizes Performance and Functionality of Robots

A team of UC Berkeley-led researchers has developed an AI-driven framework to optimize and automate the design of complex truss robots. This approach enables designers to create robots with extraordinary capabilities while maximizing control efficiency. Read on to learn more about it.

Programming Robots with Rubber Bands

Mechanical engineering researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences think there’s another way to design robots: Programming intended functions directly into a robot’s physical structure, allowing the robot to react to its surroundings without the need for extensive on-board electronics. Read on to learn more.

Robotic Skin Allows Tiny Robots to Navigate Complex, Fragile Environments

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. Read on to learn more.