Robotics News - Robot News, Robotics, Robots, Robotics Sciences
The latest news on robotics, robots, robotics sciences and technology science.
updated @ 09/18/2026 05:40:01
Autopilot drone maps zigzag routes to clear moss from sloping roofs
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:00:01 EDT
Drones have many uses in surveillance and surveying, industrial inspection, aerial photography and filmmaking, package delivery and even dynamic light shows. Their fundamental ability to carry cameras, sensors and other equipment has opened up these diverse applications. Now, research published in the International Journal of Intelligent Machines and Robotics has explored another: the safe removal of moss and lichen from sloping roofs, an otherwise hazardous job for a worker.
A robot that shifts its own weight to cross land, steps, and water
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:25 EDT
A robot meant to inspect a coastline, a flooded street or a wetland can't count on one kind of ground. It might need to crawl over a hard surface, climb a bank, scale a curb or a step, then slide into open water, often within the same few feet.
Experiment shows robot creepiness remains highly personal and subjective
Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:40:06 EDT
Robots no longer exist only in popular culture or science fiction. While we might be familiar with the likes of WALL-E, Baymax, the Terminator and Ultron from the big screen, versions of them are increasingly entering everyday life.
Compact AI training method reduces navigation conflicts in crowded environments
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:00:03 EDT
A research team led by Professor Daehee Park of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at DGIST, in collaboration with a research team from KAIST, has developed a learning technique that enables a single compact AI model to simultaneously predict the movements of nearby people and plan safe navigation paths for robots while reducing performance degradation in both tasks. The research was presented at the 19th European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2026) held in Malmö, Sweden, Sept. 8–12. The paper is available on the arXiv preprint server.
Flexible flight corridors let drones navigate cluttered spaces faster and more safely
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:10:01 EDT
Researchers at Durham University have developed a new drone navigation system that enables autonomous aircraft to fly faster, more smoothly and more safely through crowded and obstacle-filled environments. This leads to new possibilities for applications such as search and rescue, infrastructure inspection and environmental monitoring.
This design software reimagines everyday objects as self-aware devices
Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:00:07 EDT
As a child, you likely saw a few Disney movies depicting inanimate objects, such as clocks, cups and toys, as interactive companions to humans—an act of pure magic, seemingly. But scientists at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are now doing something similar: transforming stationary items into self-aware tools that perceive and respond to human motion to complete a task.
The future of robot-human collaboration
Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:00:08 EDT
Humans are difficult to simulate. We are quick, complex thinkers, and our exact actions aren't predictable. So how can we sufficiently train robots to collaborate with us?
Humanoid robot learns to sprint and perform spin kicks using AI trained on human motion data
Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:00:10 EDT
Humanoid robots, robotic systems with body shapes and limbs resembling those of humans, could potentially assist people with manual tasks in various real-world settings. So far, however, most of these robots can reliably perform only a limited set of movements.
AI controller translates VR, video and language commands into humanoid robot actions
Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:40:13 EDT
Humanoid robots, robotic systems with limbs and body structures that resemble those of humans, could tackle various manual tasks in homes, workspaces and other settings. Yet teaching these robots to reliably perform different humanlike movements is typically challenging and time-consuming.
Whole-body expansion and contraction make a robot seem more alive
Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:00:12 EDT
A research group comprising Associate Professor Yoshihiro Nakata and Taisei Mogi from the Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering at The University of Electro-Communications (UEC), Japan, and Mari Saito of Sony Corporation has developed MOFU (MOrphing Fluffy Unit), a mobile robot capable of whole-body expansion and contraction. The group investigated how whole-body expansion-contraction affects perceived animacy, or the extent to which the robot is perceived as lifelike. In addition to expansion-contraction and locomotion, MOFU was designed with features including quiet operation and a soft, fluffy exterior. The study was published in PLOS ONE.
Robots protest rampant AI in Poland
Mon, 07 Sep 2026 13:40:03 EDT
Waving flags, "chanting" slogans and marching in circles, around 30 robots took to the streets of Warsaw on Monday to campaign for AI regulation in front of the Polish digital affairs ministry.
Europe bids to be a robot superpower like the US, China
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:00:08 EDT
AI-powered robots briefly took over the European Parliament this week to showcase the continent's creators as the bloc races to compete in a field dominated by China and the United States.
Like a bird, this drone uses touch to grip branches and rest
Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:20:03 EDT
Drones often hover in the air, noisy and whining. They can already be used for many tasks, but not when you need some quiet. Their batteries would also last longer if they could take a "rest" from time to time. But when a drone is monitoring a rainforest, its cluttered surroundings and its own gripper arm become too tricky for its camera-based vision. Until now.
Worms navigate narrow paths faster than wide ones. These findings could inform robot design
Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:00:02 EDT
You might naturally expect a wide, open path to be faster and easier to navigate than a narrow one, just as birds fly freely through the open sky, cars move quickly on empty roads, and a wide hallway seems easier when trying to exit a building.
Animal-like and anime faces boost social robots' emotional appeal, tests suggest
Mon, 31 Aug 2026 10:20:05 EDT
Giving robot companions animal-like or anime-style faces and voices could maximize their emotional appeal to users, according to new research that could help guide the growing field of social robotics.
Four-legged robot learns dog-like movements to leap through tight spaces
Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:20:09 EDT
Cats, dogs, wolves and other agile four-legged animals can easily jump and squeeze through tight spaces while moving at high speed. Reproducing similar agile motions and skills in quadrupedal robots has so far proved challenging.
A soft 3D-printed robotic hand that gently grips everything from eggs to a 1 kg water bottle
Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:00:08 EDT
3D printers that once could only produce rigid objects can now create products as soft and stretchable as rubber. A team of Korean researchers used AI to identify the optimal "recipe" for a material that can be printed into complex shapes while stretching to more than six times its original length. The material is expected to expand the range of applications for 3D printing, from robotic hands to form-fitting wearable devices and custom medical devices.
Light-powered soft robots that can keep jumping forever
Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:00:02 EDT
Researchers from North Carolina State University have created teardrop-shaped soft robots that leap upward or forward when exposed to infrared light—and will keep jumping as long as the light is present. The work demonstrates a new mechanism for self-resetting jumping behavior in soft robotics.
A humanoid robot's social expressiveness may backfire when it makes mistakes
Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:00:03 EDT
For robots to be successfully deployed in real-world environments, humans should trust them enough to cooperate with them. Some roboticists have been trying to determine whether users perceive robots that exhibit socially expressive behaviors, such as gestures, eye contact and nodding, as more trustworthy.
Six-legged robot learns to walk from a stick insect
Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:20:04 EDT
Do you ever see an ant skittering across your kitchen counter and wonder how this little bug overcame all the obstacles in your home just to get there? Insects use their tiny nervous systems to walk with surprising dexterity—a skill that could be transferred to robots looking to do more productive things than just find breadcrumbs in your kitchen.
From cartwheels to backflips, motion-imitation framework teaches three robots dynamic movements
Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:00:03 EDT
Legged robots, robotic systems with legs that typically resemble those of animals or humans, could be advantageous for completing tasks in home environments or populated, dynamic spaces. These robots may look like humans or animals, yet they often cannot reliably replicate complex whole-body movements in a short time.
Giant cyborg cockroaches could bring supervised care to people trapped beyond rescuers' reach
Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:20:05 EDT
"Swarms" of cyborg cockroaches with cameras and miniature medical injectors could deliver supervised emergency care to people trapped in collapsed buildings, caves or other places too dangerous for rescuers to reach. The "Paraborgs" developed by University of Queensland biorobotics researchers, working with biomedical engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), move cyborg insects of the future beyond searching for survivors to actively assisting them. The research is published in the journal Advanced Science.
New underwater robot could make ocean missions more reliable
Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:40:01 EDT
A new, patent-pending underwater robot developed at Purdue University's College of Engineering could improve ocean research, underwater infrastructure inspection and search-and-rescue efforts by adapting to mission needs in real time, acting as a drifter, a glider or a thruster-driven vehicle when necessary.
ScaFi: A robot that grows like a fish, not a machine—from 2 feet to nearly 10
Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:00:03 EDT
Propeller-powered underwater vehicles have long helped scientists explore and monitor aquatic environments. But they're limited by their own mechanics: Spinning blades can snag on vegetation, stir up sediment and startle the wildlife they're often sent to study, making them poorly suited to shallow creeks, dense weeds or close encounters with fish.
A Chinese humanoid robot sets a new 100-meter sprint record at Beijing Games
Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:42:42 EDT
A Chinese humanoid robot set a new 100-meter sprint record of 8.86 seconds in Beijing on Tuesday, beating its robot competitors—and the fastest recorded human time.
Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games
Sun, 23 Aug 2026 05:25:36 EDT
Chinese humanoid robots broke records set by humans, including beating Usain Bolt's 100-meter sprint world record, on the opening day of the Olympics-like World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday.
AI-powered terrain recognition helps cyborg cockroaches navigate faster
Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:40:08 EDT
Cyborg insects combine the mobility of living organisms with miniature electronic devices, offering potential applications in search-and-rescue operations, infrastructure inspection and exploration of environments that are difficult for conventional robots.
Robots learn new skills from a single video—in just 29 seconds
Thu, 20 Aug 2026 07:20:01 EDT
To operate reliably in dynamic real-world settings, robots should be able to acquire new skills quickly without undergoing extensive additional training. Most existing robotic systems, however, primarily perform well on the tasks that they were trained to complete.
Robots sort packages and serve fast food at Beijing showcase
Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:40:05 EDT
Robots sorting parcels and serving fried chicken enthralled visitors at a robotics expo in Beijing on Wednesday, where hundreds of companies set out their pitches for a future labor market transformed by artificial intelligence.
Humanoid resources: China's robots search for workforce breakthrough
Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:10:01 EDT
A horde of schoolchildren watched excitedly as a diminutive humanoid tour guide named Wuji welcomed them to a robot school in eastern China, gesticulating theatrically as it described the institute's aspiration to train the mechanical workforce of the future.