Robotics, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 14, 2017

Should We Fear the Rise of Intelligent Robots?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. As an artificial intelligence researcher, I often come across the idea that many people are afraid of what AI might bring. It's perhaps unsurprising, given both history and the...

Jul 18, 2017

BB-8 Flies? Adorable Japanese Drone Ball Tours Space Station

Space watchers have seen footballs, mini-soccer balls and water balls float through the International Space Station — but never a drone ball. Now, new footage of a spherical Japanese robot shows it hovering and skittering around the Destiny laboratory. The hope is that the robot will not only save the...

Jul 20, 2017

Advanced Vision Algorithm Helps Robots Learn to See in 3D

Robots are reliable in industrial settings, where recognizable objects appear at predictable times in familiar circumstances. But life at home is messy. Put a robot in a house, where it must navigate unfamiliar territory cluttered with foreign objects, and it's useless. Now researchers have developed a new computer vision algorithm...

Jul 21, 2017

Magic Bots: Vine-Inspired Robots Can Grow on Demand

The new soft, flexible robots could one day be used in tight situations, such as to slither through rubble or snake inside the human body, the scientists said. Previously, scientists have designed robots that copy the way animals and other organisms move, ranging from jointed legs and flapping wings to...

Jul 26, 2017

Lego Boost Review: The Best Robot Kit for Kids

Toys that teach kids to code are as hot in 2017 as Cabbage Patch Kids were in 1983, and for good reason. For today's generation of children, learning how to program is even more important than studying a second language. Though there are many robot kits on the market that...

Aug 9, 2017

How Do You Make a Likable Robot? Program It to Make Mistakes

You might think a robot would be more likely to win people over if it were good at its job. But according to a recent study, people find imperfect robots more likable. In previous studies, researchers noticed that human subjects reacted differently to robots that made unplanned errors in their...

Sep 5, 2017

This Lumpy Robot Lends Endearing Touch to Social Bots

Blossom isn't made of sleek and shiny metal, and has no jointed appendages and no blinking lights. Quite the opposite, in fact — it closely resembles a huggable, handcrafted child's toy and looks like it could have been painstakingly stitched together a century ago. Yes, stitched. The unusual-looking Blossom, the...

Sep 12, 2017

Stretchy Artificial 'Skin' Could Give Robots a Sense of Touch

Rubber electronics and sensors that operate normally even when stretched to up to 50 percent of their length could work as artificial skin on robots, according to a new study. They could also give flexible sensing capabilities to a range of electronic devices, the researchers said. Like human skin, the...

Sep 13, 2017

Assemble! 'Voltron'-Like Robots Can Elect Their Own Leader

With a nod to the Voltron Defender of the Universe — the animated show in which five lion-shaped robots link up to form a giant machine that fights evil — a team of scientists has created robots that work together and decide which one will lead them. Typically, if a...

Sep 20, 2017

Super-Sticky Robot Clings Underwater Like 'Hitchhiker' Fish

A robot inspired by a hitchhiking fish can cling to surfaces underwater with a force 340 times its own weight. The new bot was inspired by the remora, fish that cling to larger marine animals like sharks and whales, feeding off their hosts' dead skin and feces. Remora fish do...

Sep 27, 2017

Origami-Style Suits Turn Robots into Real-Life 'Transformers'

Just as one might don a wet suit to work underwater or a spacesuit to work in space, researchers are designing exoskeletons for robots so the machines can wear a variety of outfits tailored to different missions. In experiments, self-folding, heat-activated origami suits created for robots could help the machines...

Sep 29, 2017

Robotic Farm Completes 1st Fully Autonomous Harvest

It's harvest season in many parts of the world, but on one farm in the United Kingdom, robots — not humans — are doing all the heavy lifting. At Hands Free Hectare, an experimental farm run by researchers from Harper Adams University, in the village of Edgmond in the U.K.,...

Oct 10, 2017

Humanity's Sci-Fi Future: Are We Really Ready for Intelligent Robots?

NEW YORK — From transporters and lightsabers to spaceships that can travel faster than the speed of light, futuristic devices that lie beyond humanity's grasp — for now, at least — are a staple of science fiction. And yet over time, people have steadily advanced the boundaries of what technology...

Oct 17, 2017

Why You Shouldn't Expect to See 'Blade Runner' Replicants Anytime Soon

Fans of the 1982 sci-fi-noir thriller Blade Runner had to wait more than a quarter-century for the follow-up film Blade Runner 2049, which opened in U.S. theaters on Oct. 6. But they'll likely have to wait much, much longer to see any semblance of the films' human-mimicking androids — dubbed...

Oct 26, 2017

How Do You Make a Conscious Robot?

You've likely heard of conscious thought and subconscious thought, but humans may in fact possess three levels of consciousness, a new review suggests — and this concept could help scientists develop truly conscious artificial intelligence (AI) someday. Though AI technology has been advancing at a rapid clip, in many ways,...