Robotics
Gloves powered by soft robotics interact with VR environments
Engineers at UC San Diego are using soft robotics technology to make light, flexible gloves that allow users to feel tactile feedback when they interact with VR environments. The researchers used the gloves to realistically simulate the tactile feeling of playing a virtual piano keyboard. Engineers recently presented their research, which is still at the prototype stage, at the Electronic Imaging, Engineering Reality for VR conference in Bur...
Chess-playing robot impresses in Taiwan tech fair
A chess-playing robot stole the show in Asia's largest tech fair in Taiwan, with artificial intelligence centre stage. The annual Computex trade show in Taipei comes as Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen seeks to boost the island's economy with her "Asian Silicon Valley" project, nurturing startups and attracting investments from major international companies. The full-size robot impressed visitors by taking a pawn piece in a mocked-up che...
High precision RTK GNSS module featured in drone navigation kit
HEX Taiwan’s new drone navigation kit: Here+, now features u blox's NEO M8P high precision RTK GNSS module. HEX is an open source hardware manufacturer which produces open source drone autopilots. The Here+ RTK GNSS kit is supported by Ardupilot out of the box. It consists of a round rover designed to be mounted on the drone and is connected to the flight controller using the supplied 8 pin CLIK-Mate connector (for the autopilot Pixhaw...
Registration now open for International Robotics Showcase
The registration for the pinnacle event of UK Robotics Week 2017, the International Robotics Showcase is now open. Jointly organised by the EPSRC UK-RAS Network and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the International Robotics Showcase will take place at IET Savoy Place in London from 9.00am–6.30pm.
Designing an underwater drone is surprisingly hard
As there has been a recent growth in autonomous flying drones, driven by advances in technology and economies of scale, thoughts turn to underwater drones becoming as cheap and ubiquitous as their airborne counterparts. Guest blog by Mirko Bernacchi, Mouser Electronics.
Do Android farmers dream of electric sheep?
Like so many innovations, IBEX2 is driven by passion; passion in the team behind it that believes they can solve a huge perennial problem for livestock farmers - at a fraction of the cost of alternative methods. That team is made up of three individuals with a complementary set of skills; Dr Charles Fox, Pete Williams and Ed Gummow.
Robot helps enterprise engineers automate printer cartridge refills
A new automated cartridge refill cell developed by a team of UK maintenance engineers has been built around a Mitsubishi Electric articulated arm robot. The cell quickly and accurately refills printer cartridges, making the company’s recycling programme more cost effective to operate. The solution has proved so successful that it is now being rolled-out to other plants around the world.
Underwater robot maps water storage tank
Newton Labs and AREVA NP successfully completed a robotic examination of a filled CST (Condensate Storage Tank) using Phased Array UT and VT-1 Visual Examination at a US nuclear facility in April. The exam satisfied requirements for license renewal and the NEI 09-14 directive on buried pipes and tanks.
Less sophisticated 'bots' help human groups
In a series of experiments using teams of human players and robotic AI players, the inclusion of 'bots' boosted the performance of human groups and the individual players, researchers found. The study appears in the journal Nature.
The evolution of the intelligent assistant
Roxanne Abercrombie of Business Automation Specialist, Parker Software, explains the role of intelligent assistants for both consumers and businesses.Things didn’t run smoothly when the astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey toyed with artificial intelligence. When asking to be let back inside the spaceship, supercomputer HAL eerily responded, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Thankfully, the pers...