The rise and reign of Starship, the world’s first robotic delivery provider
Excited about the impending delivery robot revolution? If so, you need to know about Starship Technologies, the company which kickstarted the whole thing. Founded by two of the original creators of Skype, Starship is poised to change the world of deliveries. Here's what you need to know.
Friendly cube robot Bumble passes its first hardware test aboard the ISS
There are some unexpected guests aboard the International Space Station (ISS): cute cube robots called Astrobees which help the crew with day to day tasks. Now the first Astrobee robot has undergone hardware tests to check whether its subsystems are working correctly.
Purdue’s robotic hummingbird is nearly as nimble as the real thing
A team of engineers in Purdue University’s Bio-Robotics Lab have developed an impressively agile flying robot, modeled after the hummingbird. Here's how it works, and why its creators think that it could prove to be a useful addition to future search and rescue missions.
Amazon’s new fulfillment center machines pack boxes up to 5x faster than humans
Amazon employs thousands of people in its fulfillment centers whose job is to pack customer orders. However, the retail giant is reportedly considering installing new machines capable of packing up to 700 boxes per hour. That is between four and five times the rate of a human packer.
Chicago’s trash-eating river robot is a glimpse into the future of crowdsourcing
From controlling a trash-picking robot on the Chicago River to helping discover new planets, our hyper-connected world is giving the public a host of new tools to help solve some giant problems. Here's why it's so exciting -- and what this all means for the future as we know it.
Who needs a toothbrush when you have a swarm of tooth-cleaning nanobots?
Imagine being able to clean your teeth with an army of tiny nanorobots. It might sound crazy, but that's exactly what researchers from the University of Pennsylvania are working to develop. And they're much further along than you might think. Check out their work in action.
Anki, the startup that made little A.I. robots, is closing down
Anki, a San Francisco-based startup that brought us home robots such as Vector and Cozmo, is reportedly closing down after failing to find further funding to keep the business running. Anki was founded by roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University with a mission to bring objects to life through robotics and A.I.
I have seen the future, and it’s full of salad-making robots
Think that robots bussing tables, tossing salads and baking bread is a futuristic concept? It's actually not as far away as you might think. Robots took center stage at a food robotics summit in San Francisco this week, where they showed they could handle all kinds of tasks in the food business.
Russia’s robot news anchor gives human TV presenters hope
Human news anchors anxious about robots taking their jobs will be feeling reassured this week after the appearance on Russian TV of a news-reading android that clearly needs a bit of work. Alex, as it’s called, read various news items, but some in the audience found the robot’s delivery a little on the stilted side.
Notre Dame fire: How drones and a robot called Colossus helped limit the damage
The fire that devastated France's iconic Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday shocked many around the world. As part of its efforts to contain the blaze, firefighters deployed drones and a robot called Colossus — a move that almost certainly helped to prevent even worse damage to the structure.
I had a one-night stand with a sleep robot
Would you sleep with a robot, if it promised to cure insomnia, and leave you better rested? That’s the idea behind the Somnox sleep robot, and we’ve slept with it.
Robot invasion: Walmart to deploy thousands of automated assistants
Walmart has been testing robot technology at its stores for some time, but now the company is now planning a major rollout of thousands of automated assistants capable of performing a range of routine tasks. The idea is that they'll free up time for human workers so they can spend more time with customers.
Forget metal. When it comes to robots, the future is soft and squishy
Some of today's most exciting robots don't resemble the hard, metallic machines that science fiction promised us. Welcome to the rapidly evolving world of soft robots. Here's how they are helping to permanently change the face of robotics as we know it -- and what this means.
Racing to catch a flight? Robot valet at French airport will park your car
Hate searching for parking at the airport when you need to catch a plane? At France’s Lyon Airport, startup Stanley Robotics has unveiled a new outdoor automated robotic valet system. It means that customers can drop off their car and then leave robots to take care of the rest.
Robot assistants from Toyota and Panasonic gear up for the Tokyo Olympics
As you might expect with a country like Japan, the nation plans to use next year’s Tokyo Olympics to showcase a range of its advanced technologies. Sponsors Toyota and Panasonic are already getting in on the act, recently unveiling several robotic designs that they intend to deploy at the event.
Body surrogate robot helps people with motor impairments care for themselves
Assistive technologies can benefit people with disabilities by giving them greater independence and control over their lives. A team from Georgia Tech has been working on an assistant robot to help people who have severe motor impairments with tasks like shaving, brushing their hair, and drinking water.
Switzerland’s 3D-printed, robot-built DFAB House is open for research
The DFAB House at ETH Zurich university is using digital construction, 3D printing, and robot assembly units to transform how homes are built, test new building technologies, and make construction smarter and more sustainable.
Jibo the social robot is about to become an expensive ornament
Jibo the social robot is about to become a lot less functional as the servers that power it will soon be switched off. The news comes just a few months after the company behind it folded. Jibo launched in 2017, but its $900 price tag meant it was always going to be a tough sell.
Meet the robot that will almost certainly steal your data entry job
For all the talk of paperless offices, go into just about any modern workplace and you’ll almost certainly find stacks of documents piled up on shelves. Ripcord is a robotics startup which has developed a machine for scanning documents at record-breaking speeds. Here's how it works.
South Korea is getting a world-class robot museum that will be built by robots
A new, cutting-edge history of robotics museum in Seoul, South Korea, is being built by robots. Here's how the Robot Science Museum is being constructed using machine intelligence -- and exactly when interested parties can expect to pay the finished location a visit in person.
Baristas beware, Bbox cafe uses robots to brew your morning coffee
Want your morning coffee and pastry prepared by robot? Bbox, a new coffee shop in downtown Berkeley, California, lets customers place their order by app and then uses cutting-edge robots to take care of the rest. Here's how it works -- and what it means for the future of cafes as we know them.
This oddball Japanese robot will fold your clothes and do your laundry
Hate doing your own laundry? A Japanese robotics startup, Mira Robotics, created a telepresence robot which lets you hire another person to remotely fold your clothes for you, via machine. Here's how it works and when you'll hopefully be able to give it a go for yourself.
Tentacle-like robotic vines exist. We’re not sure if we’re excited or terrified
Researchers from Italy’s Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia have developed the first tendril-like soft robot able to climb and curl like plants. The approach could one day be used to create futuristic wearable devices which can morph their shape depending on the situation.
A robot called Stan aims to take the stress out of airport parking
Stan is an autonomous valet parking robot that not only saves drivers lots of time at an airport, but also helps parking lots to significantly increase capacity. A trial of the technology -- developed by Paris-based Stanley Robotics -- will take place this summer at Gatwick, one of the U.K.'s busiest airports.
Tiny medical microrobots can shape-shift to navigate through your insides
Researchers from Switzerland have developed tiny, adaptable microrobots capable of changing their shape to better navigate around the inside of the human body. The hope is that these origami-inspired robots could one day be used for performing surgery or delivering drugs where required.
World’s biggest fleet of campus delivery robots now transporting student meals
The world’s largest fleet of delivery robots on a university campus is coming to Virginia’s George Mason University. Starting today, Mason’s 40,000 students, faculty, and staff can get everything from pizza to Starbucks coffee delivered directly to them by one of 25 robots.
A Japanese hotel fires half its robot staff for being bad at their jobs
Japan’s oddball Henn na Hotel has fired half of its 243 robot staff. The reason? Because these labor-saving machines were causing more problems than they were solving -- and requiring humans to come in and fix things as a result. These are some of the robots that got the chop.
Short film celebrates New Yorker’s amazing robot costumes
New York City resident Peter Kokis creates stunning robot costumes out of household trash. His designs are huge, heavy, and extremely intricate, and never fail to turn heads when he's out and about. A new documentary short offers a fascinating look at Kokis and his Transformers-inspired creations.
Will Fido take a bite out of delivery robots? Study uses guide dogs to find out
A charity recently partnered with autonomous delivery robot company Starship Technologies to test the impact autonomous technologies are likely to have on guide dogs when they encounter them. The results? They get on just fine. That's great news for robot delivery services.
From drones to smart pills, 2018 saw significant tech advances in medicine
Robots, A.I. algorithms, and drone deliveries are increasingly found in just about every industry and profession, Why not the medical world, too? Here are 2018's most significant landmark events where cutting-edge technology met medicine -- for better or, in one case, for worse.
Lovot is a cute companion robot that wants to give you affection
It won't do the housework or cut the grass, but it might make you happy. We're talking about Lovot, a new companion robot out of Japan. It's been designed by Tokyo-based Groove X, whose CEO Kaname Hayashi worked extensively on SoftBank's Pepper robot before he left to set up his own company.
High-tech dancing robot turns out to be a guy in a costume
A Russian TV audience was impressed recently by an adult-sized "robot" that could dance and talk. But when some viewers began pointing out that the android's actions were a little bit weird, and that it had no sensors, the truth finally emerged ... it was a fella in a robot suit.
Delivery robot goes up in flames while out and about in California
A small meal-delivery robot suddenly caught fire in Berkeley, California, on Friday. The robot's maker, Kiwi, said the incident was caused by a faulty battery. The blaze was quickly extinguished and no one was hurt, but the episode is still a troubling one for the fledgling robot delivery industry.
Rise of the Machines: Here’s how much robots and A.I. progressed in 2018
2018 has generated no shortage of news, and the fast-changing worlds of artificial intelligence and robotics are no exception. Here are our picks for the most exciting and game changing examples of A.I. and robots that we saw in the last 12 months. Get ready to have your mind blown!