Humans naturally perform numerous complex tasks. These include sitting down, picking something up from a table, and pushing a cart. These activities involve various movements and require multiple contacts, which makes it difficult to program robots to perform them.
Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute has a new artist-in-residence. FRIDA, a robotic arm with a paintbrush taped to it, uses artificial intelligence to collaborate with humans on works of art. Ask FRIDA to paint a picture, and it gets to work putting brush to canvas.
The Smart Polymer Materials Group led by Prof. Chen Tao at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in cooperation with Prof. Zheng Yinfei at Zhejiang University, have developed a hydrogel-based soft robot with adaptive deformation that can achieve multi-dimensional off-road locomotion on natural terrains.
For legged robots to effectively explore their surroundings and complete missions, they need to be able to move both rapidly and reliably. In recent years, roboticists and computer scientists have created various models for the locomotion of legged robots, many of which are trained using reinforcement learning methods.
First, they walked. Then, they saw the light. Now, miniature biological robots have gained a new trick: remote control.
Ecologists are increasingly using traces of genetic material left behind by living organisms left behind in the environment, called environmental DNA (eDNA), to catalog and monitor biodiversity. Based on these DNA traces, researchers can determine which species are present in a certain area.
To tackle different real-world tasks, robots should be able to handle and manipulate a variety of objects and materials, including paper. While roboticists have successfully improved the ability of humanoid robots or robotic grippers to handle several materials, paper folding remains a rarely explored topic within the robotics community.
One of the virtues of untethered soft robots is their ability to mechanically adapt to their surroundings and tasks, making them ideal for a range of roles, from tightening bolts in a factory to conducting deep-sea exploration. Now they are poised to become even more agile and controlled.
Researchers have made a significant leap forward in developing insect-sized jumping robots capable of performing tasks in the small spaces often found in mechanical, agricultural and search-and-rescue settings.
Legged robots have significant advantages over wheeled and track-based robots, particularly when it comes to moving on different types of terrains. This makes them particularly favorable for missions that involve transporting goods or traveling from one place to another.