Suhasa Kodandaramaiah was one of about 30 people on Earth who could perform something called whole-cell patch-clamping, a technique for studying the inside of a cell developed back in 1981. By hand, it is a painstaking process …
Robotics
Meet HERB, the Robot Butler That Knows How to Use a Microwave
People, we’ve been microwaving our own Hot Pockets for too long. It’s about time we delegated that responsibility to machines, so that we might spend our time doing more important things like watching re-runs of Wings and …
New Advances in Robotics Help the Disabled See the World Around Them
As much as the press — myself included — likes to talk about futuristic battle bots and advanced would-be androids, most robots are being developed with one of two tasks in mind: search and rescue or helping the disabled and …
New Study Asks Who’s to Blame When Robots Harm Us
I admit it; sometimes I yell at inanimate objects. My computer has, on several occasions, borne the brunt of my rage while spinning the dreaded pinwheel of lost productivity.
It isn’t logical to get mad at a machine, but you’d …
Lasers Could Help Cryobots Melt Through Ice on Europa
Jupiter’s moon Europa is a prime candidate in the search for life. The problem? All of its liquid water is hidden under a huge icy crust.
Inventor Bill Stone says he has a potential solution. According to Wired, his company …
What Will NASA’s Rover of the Future Look Like?
Last week, NASA announced the formation of the Mars Program Planning Group, which — as its title would suggest — is aimed at getting us back to Mars. The hope is to get another robotic rover on the surface of the Red Planet …
DARPA’s $2 Million Challenge: Five Potential Robot Contenders
Yesterday, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new contest: create a humanoid robot that can navigate a world made for humans. We take a look at five of them and examine how close they are to …
Robot with Human Skeleton Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence
New Sprinting Humanoid Robot Will One Day Come with Flexible Arms and Tactile Skin
It’s hard to watch these robotic legs — courtesy of Meka Robotics and the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas, Austin — and not think about the sprinting T-1000 from Terminator 2.
The Robot That Moves Like a Jellyfish and Runs on Water
Say hello to Robojelly, a robot that moves like a jellyfish, expanding and contracting its synthetic muscles to pump out water.
The most impressive thing about it, however, is how it powers itself — by converting the …
Amazon’s $775 Million Acquisition of Kiva Systems Could Shift How Businesses See Robots
The only surprise about Amazon’s move to acquire Kiva Systems for $775 million is that it didn’t come sooner. Kiva is a robotics company focused on making warehouses more efficient. Amazon spent $4.6 billion on warehouses last …
Gas Attendant Robot Takes First Step Towards Refueling Satellites in Space
Two weeks ago, while the astronauts on the International Space Station were sound asleep, Mathieu Caron was carefully putting Dextre into place from the safety of the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) control center in St. Hubert, …