We’ve been keeping track of Sanctuary AI for quite a while, mainly through the company’s YouTube videos that show the upper half of a dexterous humanoid performing a huge variety of complicated manipulation tasks thanks to the teleoperation skills of a remote human pilot. Despite a recent successful commercial deployment of the teleoperated system at […]
In industry, it’s pretty common for robots to be sold as a service. That is, rather than buying the robot and managing it yourself, you instead rent the service that the robot provides. This service includes renting the robot itself, but it also includes stuff like installation, maintenance, repairs, tech support, software updates, and all […]
Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Robotics Summit & Expo: 10–11 May 2023, BOSTON […]
The space technology industry is defying gravity both literally and figuratively — driving innovation that pushes into new frontiers. Keysight’s new in-depth survey of the latest trends in this fast-paced industry can help you identify: Top satellite applications driving market growth Top enabling technologies, technology trends, and novel solutions What space technology leaders consider to […]
In terms of human features that robots are probably the most jealous of, fingers have to be right up there with eyeballs and brains. Our fleshy little digits have a crazy amount of dexterity relative to their size, and so many sensors packed into them that allow you to manipulate complex objects sight unseen. Obviously, […]
The parent company of robot vacuum maker Neato Robotics, Germany’s Vorwerk Group, announced late last week that a broad restructuring of its robotics division will result in the closure of Neato and the end of the Neato product line. Vorwerk is promising five years of parts and service availability, along with enough software support to […]
One of the trippiest virtual-reality experiences that I’ve ever had was being able to touch an object that didn’t exist. Getting immersed in a virtual world through a headset that provides video and audio is one thing, but adding in touch is somehow transformative; physical interaction brings you into that virtual world in a much […]
Researchers at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and the University of Sussex, Brighton, England, have created prototypes of new environmentally sustainable devices that can monitor blood pressure and heartbeat, or heal persistent afflictions such as diabetic ulcers. The devices are also far more advanced than proof-of-concept stage; the Northwestern device, a transient bandage that uses electrotherapy […]
Robots are not ready for the real world. It’s still an achievement for autonomous robots to merely survive in the real world, which is a long way from any kind of useful generalized autonomy. Under some fairly specific constraints, autonomous robots are starting to find a few valuable niches in semistructured environments, like offices and […]
The lithium-ion battery isn’t going anywhere soon. That’s what M. Stanley Whittingham, the Nobel laureate who created the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery some 50 years ago, told attendees of the SLAC-Stanford Battery Research Center Launch Symposium on Thursday. The new organization aims to bridge gaps between organizations that research, manufacture, and deploy large-scale energy storage […]