Robotics, Automation & Control

Q&A: Artificial Skin Could Lead to a New Generation of Touch-Sensitive Robots

A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow led by Professor Ravinder Dahiya developed an artificial skin with a new type of processing system based on...

Boosting Operational Intelligence with AI

Although industrial factories and processing plants have long been automated, it remains vital for human decision-making to be involved in operations, sometimes to a great extent. Automation in...

An Algorithmic Planner Helps Delegate Tasks to Human-Robot Teams

The technology could be useful in manufacturing and assembly plants for sorting packages, or in any environment where humans and robots collaborate.

Insect-Scale Robots Take Flight

Researchers built electroluminescent soft artificial muscles for flying, insect-scale robots.

Low Separation Force Quick Disconnect Device

A self-aligning, self-healing system for pneumatics and cryogenics with applications in aerospace.

Testing and Validating 3D-Printed Parts for Oil and Gas

Keeping oil and gas production facilities running smoothly is among the toughest challenges in any industry.

Artificial Intelligence: Meet Human Intelligence

A designer’s job gets much more complicated when artificial intelligence is part of the system.

Charting a Safe Course Through a Highly Uncertain Environment

An autonomous spacecraft exploring the far-flung regions of the universe descends through the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet. The vehicle, and the researchers who programmed...

Nanostructured Fibers Can Impersonate Human Muscles

Mimicking the human body, specifically the actuators that control muscle movement, is of immense interest around the globe. In recent years, it has led to many innovations to improve...

Making Robotic Assistive Walking More Natural

A new method of generating gaits for robotic assistive devices aims to guarantee stability and achieve more natural locomotion for different users. The method is being developed by a team at...

Roboticists Go Off Road to Compile Data That Could Train Self-Driving ATVs

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University took an all-terrain vehicle on wild rides through tall grass, loose gravel, and mud to gather data about how the ATV...

Tiny Robotic Crab Is Smallest-Ever Remote-Controlled Walking Robot

Northwestern University engineers have developed the smallest-ever remote-controlled walking robot — and it comes in the form of a tiny peekytoe crab.

Twisted Soft Robots Navigate Mazes Without Human or Computer Guidance

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Pennsylvania have developed soft robots that are capable of navigating complex environments,...

Robotic Lightning Bugs Take Flight

Fireflies that light up dusky backyards on warm summer evenings use their luminescence for communication — to attract a mate, ward off predators, or lure prey.

What Can Engineers Learn from Nature?

A number of the engineers I’ve interviewed have taken their inspirations from nature. As one said to me, nature has been evolving and perfecting its designs over thousands of years — we should...

New Products: June 2022 Motion Design

RiPanel Online Enclosure

Rittal North America (Schaumburg, IL) announced the new RiPanel online enclosure configurator — making it easy for machine and control system design engineers to...

Fully Automated High-Throughput Additive Manufacturing

The automation of additive manufacturing (AM) is limited and usually still requires human labor workflows, including the fundamental step of removing the finished object from the printer...

Robots Created with 3D Printer

Robotic assistants are expected to become increasingly marketable as caregivers; however, the external hard structure of current caregiving robots prevents them from establishing a safe human-robot interaction....

A Cost-Effective Way to Automate Industrial Processes

MBDA is one of the leading European manufacturers in the aerospace and armaments sector, specializing in the design of missiles and missile systems for the operational needs of the...

Robot Senses Hidden Objects

Researchers have developed a robot that uses radio waves, which can pass through walls, to sense occluded objects. The robot, called RF-Grasp, combines this powerful sensing with more traditional computer vision...

Filter Enhances Robot Vision on 6D Pose Estimation

Robots are good at making identical repetitive movements such as a simple task on an assembly line. But they lack the ability to perceive objects as they move through an environment. A...

“Flying Fish” Robot Propels Itself Out of Water and Glides Through the Air

A fish-inspired robot that can travel 26 meters through the air after takeoff could be used to collect water samples in hazardous and cluttered environments,...

Dog Training Methods Teach Robots to Learn New Tricks

With a training technique commonly used to teach dogs to sit and stay, computer scientists showed a robot how to teach itself several new tricks including stacking blocks. With the...