Engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VirginiaTech) have used inspiration from nature and developed a robot whose design and motion patterns resemble moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). Named Robotjelly, the robot was developed for the U.S. Office of Naval Research back in 2009, and its latest improved iteration was presented at the 2011 meeting… »
Spiders have inspired a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA to create a mobile robot which looks and moves as spiders. This high-tech assistant is still a prototype, but researchers envision its use as an exploratory tool in environments that are too hazardous or hardly reachable for humans…. »
Aside the difference in coloration, a layman might think every glass material is the same, but there is more than it meets the eye in this transparent material. Glass can consist of up to 60 different elements, and experts are constantly creating glass with properties required in some application. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for… »
David DeSteno, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern University, and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, are examining how social robots can aid preschoolers in language learning. In order to make the learning more fun and interesting for the younger children, the robot prototype used in this project resembles… »
Remaining stable while going over obstacles is fairly tricky for small robots, so the researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, fixed a small robot dubbed DASH (Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod) with lateral and tail wings borrowed from a store-bought toy to see if that would help. Although the wings haven’t enabled the robot to… »
Air duct cleaning is a tedious job which most of us leave to professionals whose methods and tidiness vary in quality. Group of engineers from Czech Republic developed Jetty – a robot for air duct inspection and cleaning. Robot Jetty is a belt robot with a unique design which allows it to fit air vents… »
Currently available robots are mostly used for industrial tasks such as manufacturing, mining and inspection, as well as being an important research tool. As a part of his final year project, Monash University engineering student, Nick D’Ademo has designed an experimental robot called eyeBug. Aside being cheap to build, its flexible design and modularity encouraged… »
Initially introduced in 2007 through a popular online video, the adorable Keepon robot stood out from the rest of the robots available in that time. Its simple appearance and dynamic behavior have been equally embraced by young and old. However, it was originally developed for use in playrooms to study autism and social development and… »
