An amputee was able to feel smoothness and roughness in real-time with an artificial fingertip that was surgically connected to nerves in his upper arm. Moreover, the nerves of non-amputees can also be stimulated to feel roughness, without the need of surgery, meaning that prosthetic touch for amputees can now be developed and safely tested on intact individuals.
Artificial intelligence technique Quixote teaches 'value alignment' to robots by training them to read stories, learn acceptable sequences of events and understand successful ways to behave in human societies.
Cockroaches' ability to squeeze through the tiniest cracks has inspired a robot that can rapidly squeeze through cracks - a new capability for search-and-rescue in rubble resulting from tornados, earthquakes and explosions.
Scientists have invented a new soft gripper that uses electroadhesion: flexible electrode flaps that act like a thumb-index duo. It can pick up fragile objects of arbitrary shape and stiffness, like an egg, a water balloon or paper.
In the tradition of recent Technological Grand Challenges, RobotArt has pledged over half a million dollars in prizes over 5 years to competitors in a new Robotic Grand Challenge. This Grand Challenge is simple to describe but difficult to master, create a robot that paints with a brush like a classical master. The more skilled and creative the robot, the better.
Manufacturers, robot suppliers and researchers, here's your chance to get in on the ground floor of an upcoming national competition intended to help make robots handier and nimbler performers on the factory floor.
Researchers are using a technology likened to 'mini force fields' to independently control individual microrobots operating within groups, an advance aimed at using the tiny machines in areas including manufacturing and medicine.
From 12 to 15 January, about 100 leaders from science and industry come to University of Twente's campus to discuss public-private partnerships in robotics. At the end of the week, there will be the kick-off of an innovative project, led by UT, about robots that will improve biopsy for cancer diagnostics.
Researchers are teaching robots to watch instructional videos and derive a series of step-by-step instructions to perform a task. You won't even have to turn on the DVD player; the robot can look up what it needs on YouTube.