News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
By Annalee Newitz David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images WHENEVER I get really depressed and anxious, my first impulse is to reach for my phone. Maybe I’ll get a message from a friend or discover some new distraction on social media. Unfortunately, during the past couple of years, one glance at my screen often makes … Read more
The car company’s expertise in AI could help it design a working prototype, but delivering a reliable product on schedule will be challenging Technology 30 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes An image of the Optimus robot released by Tesla Tesla In August 2021, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would build a humanoid robot designed to … Read more
Rather than engineering robotic solutions from scratch, some of our most impressive advances have come from copying what nature has already come up with. New research shows how we can extend that approach to robot ‘minds’, in this case by getting a robot to learn the best route out of a maze all by itself – even … Read more
Eastern mosquitofish, a problem invasive species, can be prevented from reproducing using a robot fish that they find scary Technology 16 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes A robotic fish (top) that mimics the natural predator of mosquitofish (bottom right) Giovanni Polverino Robotic fish might help solve an ecological problem by scaring an invasive fish species … Read more
Robotic hands often trade strength for adaptability, but a sticky coating inspired by gecko feet has given this artificial hand a delicate touch Technology 15 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes The gecko-inspired robot hand farmHand/Standford University Mechanical hands with human-like fingers are more adaptable than the simple two-pronged clamps found on industrial robots, but they … Read more
A robot hand that has the lightness of touch to hold delicate objects and the strength to crush cans could one day be used as a prosthetic Technology 14 December 2021 By Carissa Wong A highly dexterous, human-like robotic hand with fingertip touch sensors can delicately hold eggs, use tweezers to pick up computer chips … Read more
Swarms of tiny “xenobots” can self-replicate in the lab by pushing loose cells together – the first time this form of reproduction has been seen in multicellular organisms Life 29 November 2021 By Carissa Wong Swarms of tiny living robots can self-replicate in a dish by pushing loose cells together. The xenobots – made from … Read more
By Chris Stokel-Walker A table tennis-playing robot can keep up a rally against humans, but like many amateur players, it struggles when attempting fancier shots. Yapeng Gao, Jonas Tebbe and Andreas Zell at the University of Tübingen in Germany began by designing a computer simulation in which a virtual robot arm equipped with a table tennis racket … Read more
Roboticists often copy nature, crafting humanoid robots for household chores, worm-style machines for crawling through tunnels and four-legged contraptions that look like cheetahs for running and leaping. But they usually design an animal-like robot body first and then train an AI to control it. In living creatures, though, the body and brain evolve together to … Read more