Columbus is piloting a fleet of autonomous electric shuttles as part of a multimillion-dollar smart transportation initiative Visitors to Columbus, Ohio, have a new way to see the city’s downtown attractions. A fleet of electric, self-driving vehicles now shuttle passengers around a cluster of museums and parks, using sensors and software in lieu of engines and auto parts. The pilot project, which began in mid-December, belongs to a larger statewide effort to improve road safety and mobility in this car-dependent capital. […]

Passerine’s fixed-wing drones can take off (and land) using a pair of legs Drones have a fundamental design problem. The kind of drone that can carry large payloads at high speeds over long distances is fundamentally different from the kind of drone that can take off and land from a small area. In very simple terms, for the former, you want fixed wings, and for the latter, you want rotors. This problem has resulted in a bunch of weird drones […]

Dex-Net 4.0 enables “ambidextrous” robots to choose the best gripper for the job We’ve been following Dex-Net’s progress towards universal grasping for several years now, and today in a paper in Science Robotics, UC Berkeley is presenting Dex-Net 4.0. The new and exciting bit about this latest version of Dex-Net is that it’s able to successfully grasp 95 percent of unseen objects at a rate of 300 per hour, thanks to some added ambidexterity that lets the robot dynamically choose […]

Genesis Robotics is developing a stronger, faster direct-drive motor for robots .mobileShow { display: none;} /* Smartphone Portrait and Landscape */ @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px){ .mobileShow { display: inline;} } .mobileHide { display: inline;} /* Smartphone Portrait and Landscape */ @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px){ .mobileHide { display: none;} } Illustration: Blood Bros. While robots are becoming more diverse and capable, there’s one component that hasn’t changed much […]

Patients at a Florida clinic are the only ones in the United States with access to Cyberdyne’s HAL exoskeleton, but that will change in 2019 Danny Bal was riding his brand new motorcycle to work from his home in Ocala, Florida two years ago when the driver of an oncoming car fell asleep and ploughed into Bal’s electric-blue bike.  After the accident, which crushed three of Bal’s thoracic vertebrae and shredded a spinal nerve, Bal adjusted to life in a […]

A simple robot that does almost nothing Robots in general, and social robots in particular, tend to be very focused on functionality. When we see one, we want to know what it does, how well it does it, and whether it does those things better or worse than other robots or systems. The necessity for robots to be “useful” drives their design, but what happens when you instead design a robot that only has to do one very simple thing? […]

Sarcos Robotics’ full-body suits will let factory workers lift 90 kilograms without breaking a sweat .mobileShow { display: none;} /* Smartphone Portrait and Landscape */ @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px){ .mobileShow { display: inline;} } .mobileHide { display: inline;} /* Smartphone Portrait and Landscape */ @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px){ .mobileHide { display: none;} } Illustration: Blood Bros. What’s the most important thing for people to know about […]

We talk to Ken Bazydola at iRobot about the world’s fanciest robotic vacuuming system If you’re in the market for a very, very fancy robot vacuum, you’ll want to read our review of the iRobot Roomba i7+, which is as fancy as it gets. Persistent mapping and localization enable all kinds of cool new features, and an automatic recharging base that also magically empties the Roomba’s dust bin means that you can go for weeks or months at a time […]

iRobot’s newest flagship robot vacuum is the best there is, if you can afford it iRobot announced the Roomba i7+ in September. It’s their newest, fanciest, most spectacular robot vacuum, and will set you back an eyebrow-raising US $950. The i7+ includes both iRobot’s premium i7 vacuum, and a “+” in the form of a docking station that will empty the i7’s dustbin into a larger disposable bag. This means that you can go much, much longer between maintenance sessions, […]

Sensor based monitoring is becoming popular among the aging population. Here’s how to select a sensor to fit your application and parameters. With the ever growing and aging population, patient auto-monitoring systems are becoming more and more popular. Their popularity stems from being both consistent and repeatable in addition to being low cost. Sensor-studded monitoring instruments in this category are also versatile because they can be used both in hospitals and at home. Selecting a sensor can be simple if […]