The HiDRON glider set a new altitude record for an international collaboration, and more test flights are planned. The technology has implications for climate research.
ARM names Brett Lambert as chair, opens search for new CEO
Brett Lambert, who has served in the defense industry, is the new chair of the board of the ARM Institute, which is working to aid U.S. manufacturing through education and robotics.
Jellyfish unharmed by new soft robotic underwater gripper
A new ultra-soft underwater gripper developed at Harvard’s Wyss Institute safely catches and releases jellyfish without damage.
Double 3 telepresence robot debuts from Double Robotics
Double Robotics’ new self-driving robot is designed to offer telecommuters and distance learners high-resolution, mixed-reality, mobile video chat.
PHD releases Optimax OGZ drop-in replacement pneumatic parallel grippers
PHD’s new Optimax product line is a drop-in replacement for pneumatic parallel grippers.
Titan Medical delays Sport surgical robot timeline
Titan Medical has delayed plans for submitting its Sport robotic surgical system to work on further development and funding.
Designing parallel grippers for collaborative robot precision
Providing the right motor for small precision devices can be challenging, as New Scale Robotics found when it designed a parallel gripper for cobots.
Soft computers offer greater autonomy to soft robotics
Researchers at the University of Bristol have demonstrated soft computers that could enable soft robotics to more effectively mimic biological behaviors.
Astro robot dog learns new tricks using AI
What would you get if you combined Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa with Boston Dynamic’s quadruped robots? You’d get “Astro,” the four-legged seeing and hearing intelligent robot dog. Using deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI), scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory (MPCR) in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain…
Intuitive Surgical wins two gold International Design Excellence Awards
Intuitive Surgical won two awards for design excellence last week.
Artificial muscles from KAIST are small enough to power robotic butterflies
A team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed an ultra-thin actuators for soft robotics, which they demonstrated in kinetic art.
Alphabot to support applications beyond retail in Alert Innovation, Muratec partnership
Murata Machinery has partnered with Alert Innovation to bring the latter company’s automation technology to new materials handling applications beyond retail.
Sphero buys littleBits to take the lead in STEAM education
Sphero is acquiring littleBits, which makes modular electronics, and other technology companies as its seeks leadership in STEAM education.
FHA-C mini series actuator from Harmonic Drive includes integrated servo
Harmonic Drive said its new FHA-C actuator includes an integrated servo drive, eliminating the need for an external drive while retaining high-positional accuracy and torsional stiffness in a compact housing.
KUKA develops mobile manipulator robot for cleanroom chip handling
There was no mobile, automated semiconductor production system that enabled component transfer from one step to the next — until KUKA’s new wafer-handling robots.
CMU, OSU team wins first event in DARPA Subterranean Challenge
A team from CMU and OSU beat 10 competitors in the Tunnel Circuit stage of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. The robots conducted a mock search-and-rescue scenario.
igus adds new clamps for energy chains on cobots
igus has developed new plastic mounting clamps for energy chains on collaborative robots designed to help ensure safe interaction between humans and machines. Users of cobots and industrial robots are already using igus’ three-dimensional and round triflex R e-chains for energy and data supply. igus, the Germany-based manufacturer of motion plastics, runs its North American…
Self-folding ‘Rollbot’ paves way for untethered soft robots
The majority of soft robots today rely on external power and control, keeping them tethered to off-board systems or rigged with hard components. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Caltech have developed soft robotic systems, inspired by origami, that can move and change shape in…
ANSYS Cloud gains marketplace momentum
Engineers are unlocking increased compute capacity to achieve advances in 5G, autonomous systems, electric vehicles, and other global megatrends thanks to ANSYS Cloud high-performance computing (HPC), powered by Microsoft Azure. Available from directly within ANSYS engineering simulation software, ANSYS Cloud is helping organizations rapidly run high-fidelity simulations, shortening development cycles and increasing time to market. […]
What are cryogenic temperature measurements? Part 2
Part 1 of this article looked at sensing and sensors for ultracold and cryogenic temperatures; Part 2 advances the story to more esoteric situations. Q: What’s the fundamental difference between measuring extremely high temperatures versus cryogenic ones? A: When things get really hot, extending into thousands of degrees, the sensor options are limited. Usually, it […]
ANYmal C legged robot is optimized for industrial inspection, says ANYbotics
ANYbotics released its new ANYmal C legged robot, which it said has been optimized for industrial inspections with the capability to carry multiple sensors and climb stairs.
Starship Technologies raises $40M Series A, expands campus services
Starship Technologies has closed Series A funding and said that it has completed 100,000 deliveries and will be expanding service to 100 university campuses.
Appen updates training data product for AI development
Australia’s Appen has added features to its AI training data product intended to make text annotation and utterance, as well as enterprise analytics, easier to do.
The differences between local & global path planning
When programming a robot to perform a task, it is very often the case that the robot motions involved must not cause the robot to collide with itself, its environment, its tooling and/or payload, or other robots. Robot programmers can either manually teach the robot trajectories/waypoints that move the robot and its end effector to…
From CAD data to digital twin
B&R has integrated the industrialPhysics simulation tool into its Automation Studio engineering environment. The 3D simulation software simplifies model-based machine development. Developers can import CAD data from machine components or entire machines directly into the simulation tool. Then they can quickly and easily generate a digital twin for developing and testing the machine software. Digital […]