Robotics
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Research
Swift by design, drone by nature
Ornithopters not just a flight of fancy.
Hovering, darting, gliding, diving and braking, the fleet-winged contraption in the video below is at the cutting edg...
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Next-gen drones could bee like this
Agility and perception the keys to navigating tight spots
An Australian-led team says it has uncovered the secret to the agile flight of the bumblebee, which could influence t...
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Making robots useful in the warehouse
Researchers try adding a little deep learning.
Working in a warehouse is tough for robots. Unlike on a production line, where the same motion is constantly repeated...
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Hold it softly like an elephant would
Robotic gripper design takes its cues from nature.
Engineers in Australia have gone back to nature in the quest to design a robotic gripper that can deal with tight spa...
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New school of thought on how fish swim
Robots reveal the value of vortex phase matching.
Do fish save energy by swimming in schools? New technology suggests the answer to this old question is yes. German...
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Can robot cars drive more like us?
Researchers develop a model based on managing risk.
Robot cars would be a bit less robotic if they drove a bit more like us, Dutch researchers suggest. And they may have...
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Curly’s a competitor
Robot beats humans in that compelling sport on ice.
Like most Australians, I know next to nothing about curling, the sport in which competitors slide a polished stone ac...
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These bots were made for walkin’
Taking baby steps with standard electronic signals.
A Cornell University collaboration is trying to up the ante on walking robots by developing some you can control with...
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A camera system with bugs – but that’s OK
Energy efficiency makes wireless vision possible.
Yes, that is a beetle wearing a camera backpack. Not because it needs to: just because it can. Or, more accurately...
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Robot loose in the chem lab
Modern researcher makes its own decisions and discoveries.
This will either inspire or terrify you, depending on your view of such things. British researchers have built an ...
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Bubbles for plants and drones for mosquitoes
Two novel ways of delivering the goods.
The answer to most things these days is an app or a drone, so it’s rare when one of these falls short of the mark, le...
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‘Spiderlab’ films some free-flying specimens
Cable-suspended mini lab gathers detailed flight data.
If you’ve watched a butterfly fluttering around your garden, you’ll know that flying insects have evolved efficient s...