Robotics, Automation & Control

Vision-Based Approach and Landing System (VALS)

Incorporating a vision-based navigation method, NASA Ames has developed a novel Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing (APNT) solution for AAM aircraft in environments where GPS is not available. Read on to learn more about it.

Cable Carriers Promote Efficiency in an Autonomous Hospitality Robot

Since the COVID-19 pandemic that advanced contactless service, robots are increasingly being seen conducting routine deliveries around hospitals and hotels. Developed by Robotise Technologies, JEEVES is one such autonomous service robot used in hotels, healthcare facilities, offices, airports, and other settings. Its main duty is to transport materials and products. Read on to learn more about JEEVES.

New Products

See the new products, including the TNC7 control system from HEIDENHAIN; ATI Industrial Automation's GBX 10 Gigabit Tool Changer Ethernet Module; Emerson's Rosemount™ 802 Wireless Multi-Discrete Input or Output Transmitter; Moticont's two 15.9 mm (0.625 in.) diameter Linear Voice Coil Motors, the LVCM-016-019-01M (Metric) and the LVCM-016-019-01 (Imperial); and much more.

ROSE Could Usher in a New Era of Automated Farming

A team of researchers has developed an innovative soft robotic gripper named ROtation-based Squeezing grippEr or ROSE. Read on to learn more about it.

Enabling Robots to Interpret Surroundings Quickly and Accurately

MIT engineers have developed a method that enables robots to make similarly intuitive, task-relevant decisions. The team’s new approach, named Clio, enables a robot to identify the parts of a scene that matter, given the tasks at hand. Read on to learn more about Clio.

Mastering Physical Contact with New Algorithm for Robots

Penn Engineers have developed a new algorithm that allows robots to react to complex physical contact in real time, making it possible for autonomous robots to succeed at previously impossible tasks, like controlling the motion of a sliding object. Read on to learn more.

Cat’s Eye-Inspired Vision System for Autonomous Robotics

Researchers led by Professor Young Min Song from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology have unveiled a vision system inspired by feline eyes to enhance object detection in various lighting conditions. Featuring a unique shape and reflective surface, the system reduces glare in bright environments and boosts sensitivity in low-light scenarios. Read on to learn more.

How a Standardized Platform Delivered Precision Motion Control

To upgrade its existing line of laboratory and high-speed production equipment, Genesis called on Moxley Electronics, a trusted distributor of automation components from Mitsubishi Electric. Read on to learn what happened.

Revolutionizing Seafood Production with Adaptive Robots

Robotic automation technology is reshaping food manufacturing, packaging, and handling by driving significant improvements in efficiency, quality, and flexibility. By integrating advanced artificial intelligence, computer vision, and proprietary force-sensing technology, Flexiv has introduced cutting-edge automation to the food processing sector. Read on to learn more.

How Pratt & Whitney Uses a Robot to Help Build Jet Engines

Kevin Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Aftermarket Global Operations, Pratt & Whitney, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast.

The First Non-Electric Touchpad

Researchers at Tampere University have developed the world’s first soft touchpad that can sense the force, area, and location of contact without electricity. The device utilizes pneumatic channels, enabling its use in environments such as MRI machines and other conditions that are unsuitable for electronic devices.

First Toroidal Micro-Robot to Swim Autonomously in Viscous Liquids

A peek through an optical microscope reveals a hidden universe teeming with life. Nature has devised ingenious methods for micro-organisms to navigate their viscous...

Celebrating Innovation and Innovators at the 2024 Create the Future Design Contest

The Create the Future Design Contest has helped bring out the best technologies for the future throughout its 22-year run. The annual contest had the finalists in each of the seven categories pitch their ideas to a team of judges, who would then choose the Grand Prize winner. Read on to learn who won.

Microscale Robot Folds, Crawls

The robot’s versatility is due to a novel design based on kirigami, a cousin of origami in which slices in the material enable it to fold, expand, and locomote.

Innovative Framework for Autonomous Robot Learning and Task Mastery

As children learn to ride a bike, adults can only guide them to a certain point. A large portion of developing this new skill depends on independent trial and error from...

Electricity-Free Hardware Allows More Space for Robots to 'Think'

Mimicking how some parts of the human body work, researchers from King’s College London have transmitted a series of commands to devices with a new kind of compact circuit,...

A Faster, Better Way to Train General-Purpose Robots

In the classic cartoon “The Jetsons,” Rosie the robotic maid seamlessly switches from vacuuming the house to cooking dinner to taking out the trash. But in real life, training a...

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a self-powered “bug” that can skim across water; a sweat-powered wearable that has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid; and a novel foot-pedal operated system and device to control movement of an object in three-dimensional space.

Self-Propelled Nanorobots

The “nanoswimmers” could be used to remediate contaminated soil, improve water filtration, or even deliver drugs to targeted areas of the body.

CARMEN: A Robot to Help People with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Read on to learn about CARMEN — Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation — a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment learn skills to improve memory, attention, and executive functioning at home.

Origami-Inspired Shape-Shifting Transformer Bots

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, North Carolina State University engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors. The findings could pave the way for shape-shifting artificial systems that can take on multiple functions and even carry a load. Read on to learn more.

Giving Autonomous Vehicles the Ability to Reason

Yen-Ling Kuo at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science is collaborating with a team at the Toyota Research Institute to build language representations of driving behavior that enable a robot to associate the meaning of words with what it sees by watching how humans interact with the environment or by its own interactions with the environment. Read on to learn more.

Robotics & Automation Finalist - AstroAnt: A Miniature Symbiotic Robotic Serving on the Outside Surfaces of Spacecraft, Rovers, and Landers for Inspection and Diagnostic Tasks

“AstroAnts” are small robots for inspection and diagnostic tasks on external spacecraft surfaces, both in orbit and on planetary surfaces. They're also the Robotics & Automation Finalist. Read on to learn more.

2024 Award Finalists

The Create the Future Design Contest, launched in 2002 by SAE Media Group, recognizes and rewards engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. Read on to learn about the finalists in all seven categories chosen from new product ideas submitted from more than 50 countries. The Grand Prize winner and category winners will be chosen at a live competition on November 15.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on a humanoid robot that can effortlessly learn and perform a variety of expressive movements all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains; one on Picotaur, the first legged robot of its size to run, turn, push loads, and climb miniature stairs; one on the DoD’s All Domain Test Range; and one on using generative AI and cutting-edge scene-mapping technology to elevate robots from simple tools to being capable of providing aid in disaster and battlefield scenarios.

Designing the Next Generation of Event-Based Sensing and Vision for Edge Applications

Event-based sensing enables new approaches to machine learning. An object recognition or detection algorithm that, until now, could only use the spatial information from a frame can now access another dimension: time. Read on to learn more.

Test Your Knowledge of Machine Vision

Machine vision is the technology, software, hardware, integrated systems, actions, methods, and expertise used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis. How much do you know about machine vision? Find out with this quiz.