Last update

Robotics

Can you lend me a hand? Researchers are developing wearable robotic limbs

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 ...

Engineering

Soft surfaces offer rewritable way to guide, sort and merge droplets

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Anupam Pandey's research team has found that microscopic folds in soft materials can act like tiny, programmable traffic gates for liquid droplets. The folds can stop droplets, ...

Robotics

New robotic hand can walk, press keys and move objects on its own

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 ...

Robotics

Humanoid robots navigate narrow gaps and obstacles with whole-body AI control

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 ...

Technology news

Robotics

Simple visual patterns can trick AI-powered vehicles and robots

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 ...

Security

Stocking masks making a criminal comeback

You may recall the scene in the comedy Raising Arizona in which Nicolas Cage pulls a pair of pantyhose over his head before attempting, with limited success, to rob a convenience store of a pack of diapers.

Engineering

Small modular reactor potential lies in industry, not grid power

A technoeconomic assessment of small modular reactor (SMR) development across the United States suggests stakeholders should shift focus from the power sector to industry, according to a University of Michigan Engineering ...