Robotics

Collaborative Robots Need More Sophisticated Sensors

The transition from isolated, pre-programmed robots to adaptive cobots marks a significant advancement in industrial automation — one that depends not only on software but on a new generation of sensing technologies. Read on to learn more.

Robotics, Automation & AI Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Ipsita Mohanty, Co-Founder and Chief AI Architect, QApp from San Jose, CA, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Robotics, Automation & AI.

Reachy 2: The Open-Source Humanoid Robot Redefining Human-Machine Interaction

In an office in Bordeaux, the Pollen Robotics teams are working on an ambitious mission: to imagine and advance useful robotics for humans. Their flagship creation, Reachy, combines accessibility, innovation, and open-source collaboration. Read on to learn more and see where it all started.

AI-Powered Robots Rebuild Homes in the Los Angeles Area

ABB Robotics is enabling faster, safer, and more cost-effective rebuilding in areas devastated by the 2025 Southern Californian wildfires through a collaboration with Cosmic Buildings — a leading construction technology company that uses proprietary mobile robotic microfactories. Read on to learn more.

Teaching a Robot How to Solve Manipulation Problems

Researchers from MIT and NVIDIA Research have developed a novel algorithm that dramatically speeds up a robot’s planning process. Their approach enables a robot to “think ahead” by evaluating thousands of possible solutions in parallel and then refining the best ones to meet the constraints of the robot and its environment. Read on to learn more.

Utilizing Acoustic Signals for Autonomous Swarm Formation in Micro-Robots

Animals like bats, whales, and insects have long used acoustic signals for communication and navigation. Now, an international team of scientists have taken a page from nature’s playbook to model micro-sized robots that use sound waves to coordinate into large swarms that exhibit intelligent-like behavior. Read on to learn more.

Flexible Conductive Skin Gives Robots the Human Touch

A team of engineers has developed a low-cost, durable, highly-sensitive robotic ‘skin’ that can be added to robotic hands like a glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way that’s similar to humans. Read on to learn more.

AI-Powered Training Method to Train Robots

A new AI training protocol teaches robots how to perform complicated tasks, like assembling a motherboard or an IKEA drawer, with a 100 percent success rate. Read on to learn more about it.

Meet RoboBall: A Robot with No Fixed Top or Bottom

Two decades after the original idea, RoboBall is rolling across Texas A&M University. The RAD Lab is intent on sending the novel spherical robot into uncharted terrain.

Simulated Humanoid Robots Learn to Hike Rugged Terrain Autonomously

Training humanoid robots to hike could accelerate development of embodied AI for tasks like autonomous search and rescue, ecological monitoring in unexplored places and...

Tiny Fans on the Feet of Water Bugs Could Lead to Energy Efficient Mini Robots

A new study explains how tiny water bugs use fan-like propellers to zip across streams at speeds up to 120 body lengths per second. The researchers then created...

‘Bone-ified Muscles’ Could Be Robots’ Next Flex

Northwestern University engineers have developed a soft artificial muscle, paving the way for untethered animal- and human-scale robots. The new muscles, or actuators, provide the...

An AI-Powered Robodog Is Here to Save the Day!

While the average pampered pup at home may lounge on the couch and demand belly rubs, the robotic dogs being created at Arizona State University are stepping up to take on some of the world’s most dangerous tasks.

AI-Powered Action for Rapid Disaster Response

A system uses drone imagery and artificial intelligence to rapidly assess damage after hurricanes and floods, offering life-saving insights in minutes.

Humanoid Robots in the Operating Room

As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule and more get cancelled, humanoid surgical robots offer a solution. That’s the argument that UC San...

Multi-Robot Lab Racing to Discover the Next Quantum Dots

Researchers at North Carolina State University have unveiled Rainbow, a first-of-its-kind multi-robot self-driving laboratory that autonomously discovers high-performance quantum dots...

A Tangled Robot

The slimy, segmented, bottom-dwelling California blackworm is about as unappealing as it gets — but get a few dozen or a thousand together, and they form a massive, entangled blob that seems to take on a life of its own.

New Vision-Based System Teaches Machines to Understand Their Bodies

In an office at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a soft robotic hand carefully curls its fingers to grasp a small object. The...

My Opinion: How to Move to Agriculture 4.0

All the pieces are in place for agriculture to become smarter — it’s time to move ahead. Here’s how to move to Agriculture 4.0.

Friction That Cools

How can a horde of active robots be automatically brought to a standstill? By arresting their dynamics in a self-sustained way. This phenomenon was discovered by physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)...

AI Shapes Autonomous Underwater “Gliders”

Marine scientists have long marveled at how animals like fish and seals swim so efficiently despite having different shapes. Their bodies are optimized for efficient, hydrodynamic aquatic...

A ‘Real-Time Programmable Robotic Sheet’ Can Grasp and Walk on Its Own

Folding structures are widely used in robot design as an intuitive and efficient shape-morphing mechanism, with applications explored in space and aerospace robots,...

5Ws of the Ping Pong Bot

MIT engineers have developed a ping-pong-playing robot that quickly estimates the speed and trajectory of an incoming ball and precisely hits it with precision.

My Opinion: Here Comes Agriculture 4.0

My Opinion: Industry 4.0 is already here — Agriculture 4.0 will catch up. Bringing automation and AI to agriculture is a necessity.

Advanced Motion Control Components for Critical Aerospace Applications

Using higher-quality, custom-engineered motion control components provides significant advantages for aerospace manufacturers. Whether through advanced gas springs, precision dampers, or electric linear actuators, the right components ensure that equipment will operate smoothly and reliably for the expected lifespan, while meeting the rigorous standards of modern aerospace. Read on to learn more.

Drywall Finishing Robots Accelerate Construction Schedules

San Francisco startup Canvas has developed a robotic system handling one of the most labor-intensive trades in construction: drywall finishing. Leveraging robotic arms from Universal Robots, Canvas has built a machine that reduces the usual five to seven days of spraying and sanding the drywall to just around two days for both Level 4 and Level 5 finishes. Read on to learn more.