Feature Channels: Robotics

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In the American Journal of Physics, researchers developed an online undergraduate physics lab course using small robotic bugs, called Hexbug Nanos (TM), to engage students in scientific research from their homes. The bugs look like bright-colored beetles with 12 flexible legs that move rapidly in a semi-random manner. This makes collections ideal models for exploring particle behavior that can be difficult to visualize, and students used them to complete experiments to investigate concepts in statistical mechanics and electrical conduction.

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The use of next-generation, single-port surgical robots leads to improved cosmetic outcomes and patient perceptions of scarring after robotic kidney, bladder, or prostate surgery, reports a study in Urology Practice®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA).

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Inspired by living things from trees to shellfish, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin set out to create a plastic much like many life forms that are hard and rigid in some places and soft and stretchy in others­.

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Working alongside robots may contribute to job burnout and workplace incivility, but self-affirmation techniques could help alleviate fears about being replaced by these machines, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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From robots inspired by animals and even amoeba, to better algorithms for self-driving cars and robotic surgery, researchers at the University of California San Diego will be presenting a wide range of papers at IROS 2022, which returns in a hybrid format Oct. 23 to 27, 2022.

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A new system of algorithms developed by UC San Diego engineers enables four-legged robots to walk and run on challenging terrain while avoiding both static and moving obstacles. The work brings researchers a step closer to building robots that can perform search and rescue missions or collect information in places that are too dangerous or difficult for humans.

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Physicists are using small wheeled robots to better understand indirect mechanical interactions, how they play a role in active matter, and how we can control them. Their findings are recently published in the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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An interdisciplinary team of University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has developed a new, plant-inspired extrusion process that enables synthetic material growth, and the creation of a soft robot that builds its own solid body from liquid to navigate hard-to-reach places and complicated terrain.

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Cornell University researchers have installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size – smaller than an ant’s head – so that they can walk autonomously without being externally controlled.

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Robotic eyes on autonomous vehicles could improve pedestrian safety, according to a new study at the University of Tokyo.

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UCSF Health is recruiting patients for the only FDA-approved study of the use of single port robotic technology for colorectal surgery in the United States. UC San Francisco clinical investigators Ankit Sarin, MD, FACS, and Hueylan Chern, MD, initiated the study which will evaluate whether single port robot technology is more advantageous than the current multi-port technology used in colorectal surgery.

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As a senior at Burbank High School, Keith Kasitz has his future ahead of him. But what he’s looking forward to right now is getting back to playing the sport he loves: football.

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An international team led by researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) has engineered a system for creating remote controlled cyborg cockroaches, equipped with a tiny wireless control module that is powered by a rechargeable battery attached to a solar cell. Despite the mechanic devices, ultrathin electronics and flexible materials allow the insects to move freely.

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The physics of walking for multi-legged animals and robots is simpler than previously thought. That is the finding described by a team of roboticists, physicists and biologists in the Sept. 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in a paper titled “Walking is like slithering: a unifying, data-driven view of locomotion.”

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In this public lecture, Raymond E. Arvidson, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis, will share highlights and reflections gleaned from a half century of investigating the red planet.

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Underwater robots are being widely used as tools in a variety of marine tasks. The RobDact is one such bionic underwater vehicle, inspired by a fish called Dactylopteridae known for its enlarged pectoral fins.

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A year ago, Somaya Faruqi huddled in desperation with thousands of other Afghans inside Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, frantically trying to get a flight out of the country after the Taliban returned to power. Today, Faruqi is a first-year student at Missouri S&T, where she plans to major in mechanical engineering.

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It is a great success for robotic microsurgery not only in Münster but worldwide – both for medicine and for science: a team led by scientists Dr. Maximilian Kückelhaus and Prof.

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West Virginia University scientists have developed a way for extraplanetary rovers to use nonvisual information to maneuver over treacherous terrain. This will help to prevent future losses of expensive equipment like that of the Martian exploration rover Spirit, which ceased communications after its wheels became trapped in invisibly shifting sands in 2010.

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When bodies exist in curved spaces, it turns out that they can in fact move without pushing against something.

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Researchers at the University of New Hampshire will receive a five-year grant totaling $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop and test social assistive robots to aid in the care of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in the comfort of their own homes.

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Scientists have developed a small robot to understand how ants teach one another.

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A University of Washington team created a new tool that can design a 3D-printable passive gripper and calculate the best path to pick up an object. The team tested this system on a suite of 22 objects — including a 3D-printed bunny, a doorstop-shaped wedge, a tennis ball and a drill.

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Researchers are looking into drone delivery as a method to efficiently deliver testing kits while limiting contact between individuals.

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Rhinostics introduces another breakthrough in automated sample collection technologies with the launch of the patent-pending VERIstic™ Collection Device focused on small volume blood collection.

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University of Utah researchers developed a protocol for using robotic pets with older adults with dementia. The protocol uses a low-cost robotic pet, establishes ideal session lengths, and identifies common participant responses to the pets to aid in future research.

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Providing surgeons with 3D virtual reality (VR) models for surgical planning can help to achieve the critical "trifecta" outcomes of prostate cancer surgery: controlling the cancer while maintaining patient's sexual function and urinary continence, suggests a study in The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that an elephant’s muscles aren’t the only way it stretches its trunk — its folded skin also plays an important role. The combination of muscle and skin gives the animal the versatility to grab fragile vegetation and rip apart tree trunks.

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The latest research news in Climate Science on Newswise.

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A collaboration between Cornell researchers and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has leveraged hydrodynamic and magnetic forces to drive a rubbery, deformable pump that can provide soft robots with a circulatory system, in effect mimicking the biology of animals.

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Cardiothoracic surgeons at UC San Francisco have performed the first robotically assisted mitral value surgery in San Francisco. The surgery was recently performed on a 63-year-old patient who had mitral valve prolapse.

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Columbia Engineering researchers have created a robot that--for the first time --is able to learn a model of its entire body from scratch, without any human assistance. In a new Science Robotics study, the researchers demonstrate how their robot created a kinematic model of itself, and then used its self-model to plan motion, reach goals, and avoid obstacles in a variety of situations. It even automatically recognized and then compensated for damage to its body.

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A smartly designed pressure valve allows soft robots to respond to their environment without the need for computer control, reveal AMOLF researchers in their article in the journal Matter.

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When robots appear to engage with people and display human-like emotions, people may perceive them as capable of “thinking,” or acting on their own beliefs and desires rather than their programs, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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In a proof-of-concept study, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania showed that a hands-free system could effectively automate the treatment and removal of tooth-decay-causing bacteria and dental plaque.

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Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center’s Department of Urology presented 26 abstracts at the American Urological Association’s (AUA) 2022 Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, from May 13-16, 2022.

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A University of Pittsburgh study suggests that while American workers who work alongside industrial robots are less likely to suffer physical injury, they are more likely to suffer from adverse mental health effects — and even more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol.

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Hackensack University Medical Center is the very first healthcare network in the United States to implement surgical telepresence activity with the Da Vinci Single Port (SP), a robotic assisted system designed for narrow surgical procedures