Robotics, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 17, 2020

New robot 'explorer' dog will only set you back 63 stimulus checks

Meet Spot — the mechanical dog that can open doors, run up and down stairs, and take a hearty kick to the ribs without missing a beat. Spot is a good boy. And now, Spot can be your good boy for the low, low price of $74,500 (aka 62.08 federal...

Dec 17, 2020

Meet Au-Spot, the AI robot dog that's training to explore caves on Mars

Mars exploration is going to the dogs. The robot dogs, that is. Scientists are equipping four-legged, animal-mimicking robots with artificial intelligence (AI) and an array of sensing equipment to help the bots autonomously navigate treacherous terrain and subsurface caves on the Red Planet. In a presentation on Dec. 14 at...

May 21, 2021

Human-like robot creates creepy self-portraits

The world's first robotic self-portraits, painted by an android called Ai-Da, have been unveiled at a new art exhibit in London, despite the artist not having a self to portray. The surprisingly accurate images question the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in human society and challenge the idea that art...

Nov 10, 2021

Who was the first cyborg?

Fictional cyborgs are found everywhere, from the silver screen to comics and novels. But who was the first real-life bionic human? To answer this question, let's direct our attention to Kevin Warwick, who has a scar on his left forearm from where surgeons fired 100 silicon spikes, tipped with platinum...

Dec 2, 2021

Pac-Man-shaped blobs become world's first self-replicating biological robots

Tiny groups of cells shaped like Pac-Man are the world's first self-replicating biological robots. The tiny bots are made from the skin cells of frogs, but they don't reproduce by mitosis or meiosis or any of the other ways cells divide and replicate in normal circumstances. Instead, they build more...

May 27, 2022

This sideways-scooting robot crab is so tiny it fits through the eye of a needle

Engineers have developed the world's tiniest remote-controlled walking robot, and it mimics a mini crab that can shuffle sideways without any wires, hydraulics, electricity or other standard mechanical components. The robotic crabs — which span just one-fiftieth of an inch wide (0.5 milimeters) wide — can also bend, twist, turn...

Jul 18, 2022

Human-like robot tricks people into thinking it has a mind of its own

An uncannily human-like robot that had been programmed to socially interact with human companions tricked people into thinking that the mindless machine was self-aware, according to a new study. The digital deceiver, which the researchers dubbed iCub, is a child-size humanoid robot created by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)...

Nov 14, 2023

Tiny, shape-shifting robot could one day be used to perform surgery from inside the body

Scientists have designed a tiny, shape-shifting spider-bot that can passively manipulate its body as it navigates its environment. The arachnid-inspired robot is a precursor to a bot that could one day perform surgery or hunt through rubble for survivors in a disaster zone, its inventors say. The robot, dubbed mCLARI...

Nov 28, 2023

Robot hand exceptionally 'human-like' thanks to new 3D printing technique

Scientists have created the most human-like robotic hand ever, complete with 3D-printed bones, ligaments and tendons. The breakthrough — the 3D printing of a mixture of hard and soft parts by cross-layering up to four plastics — could be used to create more complex and durable robots, according to the...

Dec 6, 2023

These astonishing biobots can help neurons regrow — but researchers have no idea how

Scientists have created tiny, self-assembling robots made from human cells that could one day repair damaged skin and tissue. These tiny biological machines, called Anthrobots, are made from human tracheal cells without any genetic modification. Lab dish experiments revealed they can encourage neurons, or nerve cells, to grow in damaged...

Dec 14, 2023

Elon Musk just teased Telsa’s new Optimus Gen-2 robot with a video featuring a funky treat at the end

A new video shows Tesla's eerie new humanoid robot walking like an old man, doing squats and handling delicate objects like eggs. The Optimus Gen 2 machine is an upgrade on the first version of Optimus, which was revealed in March. In the firm's promotional video, Optimus Gen 2 demonstrates...

Jan 22, 2024

This video of a robot making coffee could signal a huge step in the future of AI robotics. Why?

A robotics company has released a video purporting to show a humanoid robot making a cup of coffee after watching humans do it — while correcting mistakes it made in real time. In the promotional footage, Figure.ai's flagship model, dubbed Figure 01, picks up a coffee capsule, inserts it into...

Feb 19, 2024

Watch this eerily silent vision of the future — where offices are filled with weird, AI-powered robots

Smiling humanoid robots have been shown to sort objects, drop off packages and even tidy up a child's toys in eerie new footage. The near-silent video, released by robotics company 1X, shows dozens of the company's EVE robots performing these various tasks in a large test environment that simulated office...

Feb 21, 2024

Forget making coffee — Boston Dynamics puts Atlas to work lifting heavy automotive struts in latest flex

Boston Dynamics' flagship Atlas humanoid robot picks up and places heavy automotive struts with ease in new footage. In this latest demonstration of Atlas' capabilities, the robot uses only its on-board sensors to detect the objects before using its grippers to pick up the struts from storage and insert them...

Mar 13, 2024

Chinese scientists build world's fastest humanoid robot — but it's not going to win any sprints just yet

A Chinese bipedal robot has set a new world speed record for a humanoid robot — and can maintain its balance when knocked off course. The newest version of Unitree's H1 robot, called Evolution V3.0, is a bipedal robot that stands a little over 5 foot 11 inches (1.8 meters)...