research
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This Remarkably Agile Robot Hand Teaches Itself How To Handle Objects
In a split second before you reach to pick up an object, your brain pre-calculates all the movements needed to safely reach and grasp it securely. It’s a subconscious approach that’s the result of years of childhood development and learning, and one that robotics researchers are now using for their own creations. Festo’s new BionicSoftHand…
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This Wiggling Robot Could Chase You On Land And Underwater
Copying one of Mother Nature’s designs is a clever shortcut when building robots that need to navigate our complex world. But those designs aren’t always adaptable—a fish can’t do much when it’s out of the water. Adding some human ingenuity, however, results in the best of both worlds; a robot that swims like a fish,…
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You’ve Come A Long Way, Disembodied Robot Baby
Over the last seven years, Affetto, a “child-type android” created by researchers at the University of Osaka, has become far more lifelike. In 2011, Affetto was a taut-skinned doll with a moving mouth and eyes — no more lifelike than an animatronic Cabbage Patch Kid. Today, the robo-boy can convey emotion with skin that seems…
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The Sailors Who Hunt Garbage For Science
Emily Penn had a mission: To find a piece of trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch large enough to stick a satellite transmitter on so that researchers back on shore could track it until a vessel came to pick it up.