Robotics News - Robot News, Robotics, Robots, Robotics Sciences
The latest news on robotics, robots, robotics sciences and technology science.
updated @ 10/03/2026 05:40:01
How should automated vehicles interact with pedestrians?
Fri, 02 Oct 2026 10:40:15 EDT
How do pedestrians react when they encounter an automated vehicle on the street? Does the interaction feel safe and comfortable, and does it make a difference whether the vehicle is operating autonomously, is driven by a human or is teleoperated from a remote location? How should an automated vehicle brake when yielding to a pedestrian?
New robot falls like a maple seed then sails like a boat once it hits water
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:00:20 EDT
Remote waters are difficult to monitor. Boats can take a long time to reach them, while aircraft cannot remain there for extended periods. To close that gap, researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have developed a nature-inspired robotic platform. Released from the air, it lands on water, rights itself and then sails autonomously using wind energy.
Robots approaching from behind are perceived as moving faster, experiments reveal
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 11:00:19 EDT
A research team from the Vision and Action Laboratory, Visual Perception and Cognition Laboratory and Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology, led by associate professor Hideki Tamura, has demonstrated that, even when an object moves at the same physical speed, its approach is perceived as faster when it comes from behind than when it approaches from the front.
Can a machine or AI agent be surprised? Helping autonomous systems respond to the unexpected
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:20:02 EDT
Let's say you ask ChatGPT a question that stumps it, or a Waymo vehicle encounters something unusual in the road, or an autonomous factory faces an unexpected disruption. Most people would recognize that something unexpected has happened and adjust accordingly. For machines, it's not always that simple.
New benchmark tests AI memory for household robots
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:20:09 EDT
In-home assistive robots could clean and organize a home while the owner is away, but without enhanced memory capabilities, they could cause more problems than they solve. They could, for example, cause a major inconvenience if they move important objects like wallets and keys but are unable to tell the owner where they put them.
A continuous artificial muscle unlocks dexterous soft-robot motion
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:00:13 EDT
An octopus can bend one part of an arm around an obstacle while another reaches into a small crevice to grab an object. Reproducing that local control in a soft robot requires multiple actuators—components that turn energy into movement—together with their mounting hardware and connections.
New AI framework to help machines understand 3D spaces in finer detail
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 11:20:24 EDT
For a service robot moving through an office, recognizing "furniture" is useful. When the robot has to plan a route or interact with objects, it also needs finer detail, such as whether that furniture is a chair, table or bookcase, and whether an opening is a door or a window. These distinctions can affect how a machine moves, avoids obstacles and decides what it can safely interact with.
Soccer-playing humanoid robots score a major robotics goal for coordination
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:30:02 EDT
We are used to seeing images of humanoid robots clumsily walking, stumbling over objects and awkwardly freezing in place. Struggling with real-world movement is one of the biggest drawbacks of current robotics. But now a team of researchers has come up with a new system to make them move and react far more reliably, and they worked everything out on a bunch of soccer-playing robots.
Roboticist says safety should be top concern with humanoid robots
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:00:05 EDT
A quick search of humanoid robot videos will deliver demonstrations of two-legged robots playing soccer, dancing, jumping several feet in the air, even competing in kickboxing matches. It is all dazzling, certainly. But roboticist Aaron Ames, the Booth-Kresa Leadership Chair and director of Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) and a leader in the field of robotic safety, has deep concerns. What is crucially missing before humanoids can play a larger role in our lives and society, Ames says, is safety.
Powered by muscle cells, a paper-thin robot swims through a watery maze
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:00:05 EDT
Swimming can take a lot of muscle. But as MIT engineers have found, even a single layer of muscle cells can power through water if designed right. In a paper published Sept. 28 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the team presents a design for a thin, muscle-powered swimming robot. The "skeleton" of the aquabot is made from a film of gel about the length and width of a stick of gum. The two halves of the gel form the bot's "fins." Each fin is covered with a layer of live muscle cells much thinner than a single strand of hair. The cells are genetically engineered to twitch in response to light.
Venus flytrap-inspired 'robot hand' material senses objects and grasps them under light
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:40:18 EDT
A Venus flytrap closes its leaves to trap prey when it senses a stimulus. Taking inspiration from this plant, KAIST researchers have combined the roles of skin that senses approaching objects and muscle that grasps them in a single soft material. When an electrically charged object comes near, ions inside the material move and produce an electrical signal.
Could soil process information without a brain? New engineering perspective makes the case
Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:40:01 EDT
Researchers in the Bio-Inspired Robotics Laboratory at Cambridge are exploring how soil behaves as an intelligent system. By studying its structure, chemistry and biological network of microbes and fungi, they aim to inspire new technologies in bio-inspired computing, precision agriculture and environmental sensing.
Soft exosuit makes it easier to stand up
Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:20:01 EDT
Getting up from a chair is something most of us don't think about. The movement is almost second nature: Our legs and hips work together in a precise sequence. But performing this task can be difficult for older people, often because of declining strength and reduced coordination in the hip and leg muscles. If a robot-assisted suit is going to support part of that effort, it must respond intuitively and in sync with the body's movements.
Can you lend me a hand? Researchers are developing wearable robotic limbs
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:20:01 EDT
How many times have you asked someone to hold open a door while carrying something, or fumbled with your front-door keys with your arms full of groceries? Wouldn't it be great if you could give yourself the extra hand you need?
Robot dog runs a marathon on a single battery charge
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:00:16 EDT
A four-legged robot that can complete a marathon on a single battery charge has been demonstrated by a team from KAIST. The robot, which completed the Sangju Marathon in South Korea in 4 hours and 19 minutes alongside human runners, traveled three times as far per charge than existing robots and could pave the way for improved battery life in legged robots.
Tiny robot can precisely control its jump height
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:20:08 EDT
As our skies increasingly crowd with buzzing, hovering, flitting drones, spare a thought for the humble hopping robot. Hopping, a popular form of locomotion in the insect and amphibian worlds, is nearly two orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than flying. Unlike a mosquito that must constantly expend energy to stay aloft, a flea only works out when it jumps.
New robotic hand can walk, press keys and move objects on its own
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 13:30:01 EDT
For many of us, the last—and only—time we've seen a walking hand was Thing in "The Addams Family" movies or TV series. Now there's another. Engineers from the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich have adapted an off-the-shelf detached robotic hand so it can crawl across different surfaces, balance and interact with its environment.
Simple visual patterns can trick AI-powered vehicles and robots
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT
A simple pattern of black-and-white stripes could cause an autonomous vehicle or robot to misjudge how far away an obstacle is, potentially triggering an unexpected maneuver or even a collision, according to new University of Florida research.
Humanoid robots navigate narrow gaps and obstacles with whole-body AI control
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 06:20:01 EDT
Humanoid robots, robotic systems with a human-like body structure, could assist people in homes, offices, health care facilities, public spaces and various other environments. Before they can be reliably deployed in these settings, however, robots should be able to safely navigate cluttered and dynamic environments.
For the first time, microrobots coordinate to change their environment
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 05:00:12 EDT
Cornell University physics researchers have made robots that can, for the first time, sense the temperature of their surroundings and react together to change it. "Little things can have a large impact," said Itai Cohen, a leader in developing microscopic robots and a corresponding author on the study.
China's robot dancers limber up for America's Got Talent final
Tue, 22 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT
Chinese street dancer Wu Yufei has spent most of his 13-year career performing solo, but this year, he found some new partners—a crew of robots with sleek moves.
Snapping rods let frog-like robot outrun rigid legs across six terrains
Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:40:09 EDT
Roboticists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the University of Michigan have shown that elastic rods can be bent and twisted to repeatedly snap between shapes, releasing built-up energy that enables small robots to hop, flip and swim.
Maple-seed-inspired robot flies more accurately with predictive control
Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:00:08 EDT
A flying robot with just one moving part may sound simple. Controlling one precisely is anything but. Most conventional drones rely on several rotors to control how they rise, turn and move. A robot with only one actuator has far fewer ways to correct itself when it drifts off course, encounters a disturbance or reaches the physical limits of what its motor can achieve.
Open-source benchmark tests whether AI agents can engineer working robots
Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:40:13 EDT
With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence in daily life, software coding has become increasingly automated, with powerful AI systems known as coding agents able to write and revise computer programs almost autonomously. But what happens when an AI agent must contend not just with digital command lines, but with the physical world of robotics?
Bio-inspired whiskers enable tiny drones to navigate in darkness using touch
Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:40:04 EDT
Rats and mice can scurry through dark, tight spaces with ease—in caves, underground burrows, buildings or sewers. Their superpower is their whiskers. Now, tiny autonomous drones could soon navigate through darkness, dust and smoke using artificial whiskers inspired by these animals. Their small size limits the use of large or heavy sensors for navigation. That's why researchers at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) have developed a lightweight whisker-based tactile sensor that enables drones to navigate and explore their surroundings through gentle touch.
Autopilot drone maps zigzag routes to clear moss from sloping roofs
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:00:01 EDT
Drones have many uses in surveillance and surveying, industrial inspection, aerial photography and filmmaking, package delivery and even dynamic light shows. Their fundamental ability to carry cameras, sensors and other equipment has opened up these diverse applications. Now, research published in the International Journal of Intelligent Machines and Robotics has explored another: the safe removal of moss and lichen from sloping roofs, an otherwise hazardous job for a worker.
A robot that shifts its own weight to cross land, steps, and water
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:25 EDT
A robot meant to inspect a coastline, a flooded street or a wetland can't count on one kind of ground. It might need to crawl over a hard surface, climb a bank, scale a curb or a step, then slide into open water, often within the same few feet.
Experiment shows robot creepiness remains highly personal and subjective
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:40:06 EDT
Robots no longer exist only in popular culture or science fiction. While we might be familiar with the likes of WALL-E, Baymax, the Terminator and Ultron from the big screen, versions of them are increasingly entering everyday life.
Compact AI training method reduces navigation conflicts in crowded environments
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:00:03 EDT
A research team led by Professor Daehee Park of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at DGIST, in collaboration with a research team from KAIST, has developed a learning technique that enables a single compact AI model to simultaneously predict the movements of nearby people and plan safe navigation paths for robots while reducing performance degradation in both tasks. The research was presented at the 19th European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2026) held in Malmö, Sweden, Sept. 8–12. The paper is available on the arXiv preprint server.
Flexible flight corridors let drones navigate cluttered spaces faster and more safely
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:10:01 EDT
Researchers at Durham University have developed a new drone navigation system that enables autonomous aircraft to fly faster, more smoothly and more safely through crowded and obstacle-filled environments. This leads to new possibilities for applications such as search and rescue, infrastructure inspection and environmental monitoring.