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African-engineered food delivery robots debut at Brigham university

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A unique food delivery robot is on campus at Brigham Young University (BYU). The robot is a collaboration between Professor Benjamin Terry of BYU and a robotics startup called CAYTU Robotics. 

The unique twist to these robots is that they will be controlled by operators sitting in a country far away on the continent of Africa.

CAYTU Robotics, based in Dakar, Senegal, is a startup founded by a team of African engineers which is using cutting-edge technology to enable remote control of robots from anywhere in the world. [Read more…] about African-engineered food delivery robots debut at Brigham university

ETH scientists create one-wheel robot that balances with only a single reaction wheel

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Robotics specialists from a group led by ETH professor Raffaello D’Andrea have created a new, cube-​shaped robot that can balance on its pivot and compensate for external disturbances.

What makes the One-​Wheel Cubli unique? Unlike its predecessors, it only requires a single reaction wheel.

It was almost ten years ago that researchers led by ETH robotics professor Raffaello D’Andrea made a splash with a robotic cube that was capable of balancing on its pivot. [Read more…] about ETH scientists create one-wheel robot that balances with only a single reaction wheel

Interactive cyber-physical human: Generating contact-rich whole-body motions

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Performing human-like motions that involve multiple contacts is challenging for robots. In this regard, a researcher from the Tokyo University Science has envisioned an interactive cyber-physical human (iCPH) platform with complementary humanoid (physical twin) and simulation (digital twin) elements.

iCPH combines human measurement data, musculoskeletal analysis, and machine learning for data collection and augmentation. As a result, iCPH can understand, predict, and synthesize whole-body contact motions.

Humans naturally perform numerous complex tasks. These include sitting down, picking something up from a table, and pushing a cart. These activities involve various movements and require multiple contacts, which makes it difficult to program robots to perform them. [Read more…] about Interactive cyber-physical human: Generating contact-rich whole-body motions

Autonomous car from Italian university wins the racing challenge

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A team called PoliMOVE, from Politecnico di Milano in Italy, has won the second annual Indy Autonomous Challenge @ CES.

The team’s car reached a maximum speed of 180 mph (290Km/h), a new autonomous speed world record for a racetrack.

Pushing boundaries of head-to-head autonomous-racing, PoliMOVE competed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway against a field of nine teams from 17 universities spanning six countries, seeking to break autonomous racing records. [Read more…] about Autonomous car from Italian university wins the racing challenge

Flexiv robot used in avant-garde art installation

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Flexiv, a maker of general-purpose robotics solutions, has collaborated with internationally renowned artist Stavros Didakis in the creation of his latest art installation, Xenoforms.

As an academic, researcher, and artist, Professor Didakis’ work focuses primarily on technological futures with a particular emphasis on architectural augmentation, sensorial interfaces and technological frameworks as extensions of human environments.

His latest piece features a Flexiv Rizon 10 adaptive robot which randomly selects a 3D printed model, places it on a pedestal, and then replaces it in its original position. [Read more…] about Flexiv robot used in avant-garde art installation

Wikswo and VIIBRE team to build third-generation ‘self-driving lab’ with $1 million from National Science Foundation

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John Wikswo, founder and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Gordon A. Cain University Professor, is the principal investigator of a $1 million award from the National Science Foundation.

The object is to build a pathbreaking “robot scientist” – a fully automated microfluidic system for parallel, independent, long-duration, machine-guided experiments.

The target organisms are the single-cell eukaryotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as brewer’s and baker’s yeast, the bacterium Escherichia coli and other microbes used in commercial biotechnologies, and the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells used to produce antibody-based drugs and vaccines. [Read more…] about Wikswo and VIIBRE team to build third-generation ‘self-driving lab’ with $1 million from National Science Foundation

BVN and UTS invent robotic 3D-printed air cooling system

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BVN Architecture and the University of Technology Sydney have teamed up to design what they say is “the world’s first robotically 3D-printed air-diffusion system”, called “Systems Reef 2”, or SR2.

SR2 reinvents air distribution: replacing steel with recycled plastic, square corners with aerodynamic curves, and large vents with fine pores.

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and SR2 tackles this problem head on. [Read more…] about BVN and UTS invent robotic 3D-printed air cooling system

Kuka unveils robotics for modern treatment of tumors

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A Munich therapy center uses a medical product with an integrated Kuka robot as a high-precision instrument in tumor treatment.

The CyberKnife system of Accuray, a kind of virtual knife, is an alternative to conventional radiotherapy.

Thanks to high-precision robot- and image-guided irradiation, the CyberKnife Center in Munich is able to treat tumors anywhere in the body – from the brain to the spinal column to various organs, such as the lungs, liver, kidneys or prostate. [Read more…] about Kuka unveils robotics for modern treatment of tumors

Plastic-eating bacteria could help recycle waste ‘six times faster’

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The University of Portsmouth scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme PETase have now created an enzyme “cocktail” which can digest plastic up to six times faster.

A second enzyme, found in the same rubbish dwelling bacterium that lives on a diet of plastic bottles, has been combined with PETase to speed up the breakdown of plastic.

PETase breaks down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) back into its building blocks, creating an opportunity to recycle plastic infinitely and reduce plastic pollution and the greenhouse gases driving climate change. [Read more…] about Plastic-eating bacteria could help recycle waste ‘six times faster’

Origami-inspired miniature robot could open new era of surgical robotics

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By Lindsay Brownell, Wyss Institute, Harvard University

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon uses tools and a tiny camera inserted into small incisions to perform operations, has made surgical procedures safer for both patients and doctors over the last half-century.

Recently, surgical robots have started to appear in operating rooms to further assist surgeons by allowing them to manipulate multiple tools at once with greater precision, flexibility, and control than is possible with traditional techniques.

However, these robotic systems are extremely large, often taking up an entire room, and their tools can be much larger than the delicate tissues and structures on which they operate. [Read more…] about Origami-inspired miniature robot could open new era of surgical robotics