Researchers at NUS CDE have developed a soft-robot motion control system using a single artificial muscle, which can produce controlled bends without the need for separate actuators. This approach can help compact robots reach inside machinery for inspection or assembly, or collect samples in places people cannot easily or safely access.
A quadruped robot, RAIBO2, completed a 42.195 km marathon without battery swap, capturing 4 hours and 19 minutes of real-world running data. The research team developed design principles for long-distance operation, focusing on system-level efficiency and reliability.
Insect-scale robots are getting a brain upgrade through embodied intelligence, promising environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and precision agriculture. The new approach focuses on seamless integration of physical form, materials, and environmental interactions to achieve adaptive behaviors.
A startup collaboration between Silly Surfacing and the University of Pittsburgh's IDEA Lab has led to the development of a pothole-filling robot, utilizing 3D scanning, mapping, and computer vision to repair road damage. The system uses a time-of-flight camera and can fill a pothole at full scale.
The WorMa robot uses a pump to shift water between its head and tail to adapt to changing terrain, successfully crossing a course with flat ground, a step, a slope, and open water. The robot's ability to redistribute mass allows it to traverse various environments without redesigning its mechanism.
New research reveals the rise of AI-generated deepfake physician scams and the potential of robotics in bedside nursing care. While robots can perform repetitive tasks, human involvement is still necessary due to the complexity and flexibility of real-life clinical settings. Additionally, deepfakes are used to exploit online users for ...
The National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to support scholarships and mentoring for low-income undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields. The funding will contribute to increasing the size of the U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The consortium aims to improve inspection and maintenance tasks using robotics, focusing on corrosion detection and surface maintenance in extreme environments. SwRI will manage the project, leveraging its expertise in manufacturing robotics, mechanical engineering and oil and gas services to deliver pioneering robotic solutions.
The Global Forum on Mechanical Engineering 2026 explored the potential of Physical AI in various industries, including manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. Key highlights include KAIROS, a Korean AI humanoid robot that demonstrated advanced full-body movements, and future directions for the development of humanoid AI.
Researchers developed tiny ceramic microscrolls that can be unrolled and rolled up in a controlled manner using a magnet, inspired by the rolling motion of butterfly proboscis. The microscrolls have proven to be durable and can lift more than 30 times their own weight.
Researchers propose three principles for sustainable robots: minimally invasive, universally accessible, and symbiotic. They emphasize the importance of considering robots' environmental and social impacts in design.
The City University of New York has received an $18.1 million NSF award to create a cloud-programmable national laboratory that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to speed the discovery, design, and production of advanced bio-inspired materials. Researchers nationwide will have remote access to automated tools for developing sus...
Journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems achieved a ranking of 2nd in Robotics and 4th in Engineering, Biomedical in the Journal Citation Report 2025. The journal has an Impact Factor of 20.9 and is published by Beijing Institute of Technology Press Co., Ltd.
The iMETRO Dynamic Simulation is an open-source platform that enables researchers to develop and test robotic systems for future space missions. By leveraging a digital twin of the NASA iMETRO facility, scientists can remotely create and test new robotic software and validate its performance with various hardware configurations.
University of Jaume I students Pau Montagut and Mario García won first place at the ICRA 2026 robotics conference with an AI model that taught a Toyota HSR robot to perform household tasks. The team's achievement is notable given their undergraduate status, competing against teams of research personnel.
A KAIST research team led by Professor Jee-Hwan Ryu has received the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) Best Paper Award for the second consecutive year. The award-winning paper presents a novel assistive dressing technology that enables garments to autonomously unfold and move along the user's body using soft robotic principles.
A robotic pet rabbit named Mía has been developed to recognize users by their voice, allowing for personalized affective stimulation in elderly care. The system uses a unique 'voice signature' that adapts to each user's speech patterns, enabling the robot to respond differently to various individuals.
Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia developed an octopus-inspired soft robotic arm with integrated tactile sensors, enabling autonomous grasp and manipulation in aquatic environments. The system combines distributed tactile sensing and decentralized control to detect contact and adapt grip autonomously.
Researchers found that robots trained on consistent demonstrations achieved higher success rates than those trained on complex data. Consistent approaches emphasized steady progress toward a goal and reused predefined motions to reduce variability.
Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a tiny liquid-metal pump that can power and control soft robotic systems. The innovative technology has the potential to transform robotics and wearable devices, making them more portable and agile.
Researchers explore how next-gen AI and sensor-rich operating rooms can enable more precise, data-driven, personalized surgery. Advances in multimodal data integration, machine learning, and robotic systems could enhance situational awareness and intraoperative decision-making.
Experts warn that AI-enhanced surgical robotics could enable true personalized surgery and enhance surgical team performance. However, regulatory reforms are needed to address risks from adaptive systems and ensure patient benefits.
Researchers at Aston University have created an AI-based training method that enables robots to adapt to real-world conditions without extensive data collection. This breakthrough could significantly accelerate innovation in sustainable manufacturing, recycling, and autonomous industrial systems.
KIT presents groundbreaking technologies for future energy supply, transportation and communication. The institution demonstrates visioner modes of travel, new options in robotics, decisive steps towards the first nuclear fusion reactor.
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute developed a palm-sized aerial robot that uses ultrasound sensors and AI to navigate through fog, smoke, and other difficult conditions. The drone achieved a success rate of 72% to 100% in navigating challenging courses during 180 tests.
The partnership aims to advance embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics, focusing on whole-body motion control, dexterous manipulation, and brain-eye-hand coordination. The collaboration will drive practical implementations in areas like intelligent robotics and brain-computer interfaces.
Researchers have developed a robotic gripper called ChicGrasp, which can learn to handle chickens by imitating human movements. The system uses advanced imitation learning algorithm and camera perceptions to grasp a chicken carcass by the legs and lift it on a shackle conveyor.
The University of Hong Kong's MeckUp Quest 2026 AI Robotics Challenge brought together 19 elite student teams to develop intelligent robots for post-typhoon disaster response. The competition demonstrated the potential of youth-driven innovation to empower emergency rescue efforts and safeguard social good.
Researchers at King's College London develop SimTac platform to simulate biologically inspired robotics, creating artificial sensors with a human-like sense of touch. This approach reduces the design and training time of tactile robots from 18 months to just two weeks.
Recent advances in robotics, biomimetics, artificial intelligence, and their innovative integration are reviewed. The article highlights key findings in human-robot object handover, aquatic unmanned aerial vehicles, variable stiffness methods for flexible robots, and more.
A team of EPFL roboticists has designed a modular robot that shares power, sensing, and communication resources among its individual units, significantly increasing its resistance to failure. The approach, called hyper-redundancy, allows the robot to continue functioning even if one module fails, by compensating with neighboring modules.
Researchers at UC3M develop a new methodology for autonomous arm movement using observational learning and intercommunication between limbs. The ADAM robot can perform daily tasks such as setting and clearing the table, ironing, or tidying up the kitchen with fluid efficiency and natural movement.
A new tool has arrived: a highly customizable, open-source robot design called The Robot of Theseus (TROT), developed at the University of Michigan. TROT can model most mammals and enable direct comparisons of variations on the same structure, helping researchers discover the advantages related to limb length and segmentation.
Recent advancements in flexible electronics have transformed robotic systems, allowing for conformal integration of electronic components and autonomous decision-making. Flexible devices have improved operational accuracy and transformed the interaction methods of robots, laying the foundation for intelligent robotics development.
Researchers developed a new AI control system that allows soft robots to learn a broad set of motions once and adapt instantly to changing conditions without retraining. The system combines structural learning with real-time adaptiveness, making it suitable for diverse tasks and environments.
Researchers used robotics and 'click' chemistry to synthesize over 700 metal complexes in a week, identifying six potential new lead compounds. An iridium-based antibiotic candidate showed high effectiveness against bacteria while being non-toxic to human cells.
The startup aims to bring human integration and industrial usability to its robots, which will operate safely and efficiently in industrial environments. The company's mission is to create a future where humans and robots collaborate daily.
Rothemund aims to harness phase transitions to improve controllability of soft robots, enabling tasks like grasping and crawling through tight spaces. The project seeks to develop new materials and a model robot arm for three-dimensional motion control.
The US Naval Research Laboratory received the Best Paper Award in Orbital Robotics at the 2025 International Conference on Space Robotics. The award recognizes the team's work on the APIARY experiment, which demonstrated reinforcement learning control on a free-flying robotic system on board the International Space Station.
Scientists at Seoul National University create an interlaced origami structure that can be folded, rolled up for storage, and deployed with high strength. The design overcomes limitations of traditional corrugated structures, enabling multi-layer folding and smooth unwinding.
Researchers developed a novel robotic joint for heavy-duty robotics, achieving an ultra-high reduction ratio and delivering torque with low backlash. A deep reinforcement learning-based method also solved the problem of precise peg-in-hole assembly in radiation environments.
Scientists develop molecular strategies for creating soft materials that can sense, move, and evolve in response to their environment. Three key principles of supramolecular robotics enable programmed motility, phase transitions, and prototissue formation.
The 2025 Cmolik–SFU Grant Program awards $150,000 to BC public schools for innovative tech-based STEAM projects. The program aims to build critical thinking skills and foster curiosity among students from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Professor Nitin Sanket has been awarded a $704,908 NSF grant to develop sound-based navigation systems for small aerial robots. The project aims to enable drones to navigate in environments where cameras and light-based sensors fail.
Curtin University has signed two international agreements to advance next-generation robotics and autonomous systems, with a focus on finding life on Mars. The LifeSpringsMars Working Group will unite scientists and industry experts from around the world to develop new technologies for mining, defence, and remote operations.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has launched an initiative to bring artificial intelligence and robotics training to students across Africa. The programme combines hands-on AI and robotics training for young people in underserved communities, with a focus on reaching girls and other underrepresented groups.
Grade school children learn robotics through performance-based learning, exploring science, tech, engineering, arts, and math. The expanded curriculum will introduce ethical considerations, such as fairness, privacy, and bias in technology.
Frasky, developed by IIT, combines robotics and AI to address environmental sustainability and labor shortages in agriculture. The robot can navigate autonomously, map its surroundings, and apply selective treatments to grape clusters with precision.
Scientists at Linköping University develop artificial neurons made of conductive plastics that perform advanced functions like biological nerve cells. They simplify the basic structure to make it compact and biologically relevant.
Researchers at Stanford University created an algorithm that efficiently manufactures products with a team of robots, directing them to work alone or in teams and laying out the assembly floor to prevent collisions. The ability to generate assembly plans quickly could provide flexibility in manufacturing, allowing factories to pivot mo...
A European consortium presents an innovative mission concept to explore the moon's hidden caves using three heterogeneous robots that collaborate autonomously. The mission aims to map and collect data in extreme environments, with promising applications for future lunar or Mars missions.
Researchers are decoding animal decision-making using glass knifefish, exploring the trade-off between gathering information and acting on it. The study, funded by the NIH, aims to understand how animals make decisions in uncertain environments and may lead to breakthroughs in robotics and medicine.
Aniket Pal's team creates viscoelastic polymers for soft robotics, which exhibit both elastic and viscous properties. These materials can be used to make soft robots more functional and intelligent.
Researchers developed an innovative model explaining how elongated amphibious animals, like eels, coordinate movement in water and on land. The study reveals sensory feedback as the key to maintaining locomotor performance.
Mönch's research focuses on developing partial power processing converters to minimize losses in energy conversion, with potential applications in electromobility and innovative heat pumps. He aims to explore the limits of complete losslessness and develop efficient technologies for capacitive loads.
Researchers at Pusan National University have developed a novel, multi-resin dispensing process for fiber-reinforced polymer fabrication, enabling precise patterning of mechanical properties within a monolithic structure. The breakthrough composite material combines flexibility and strength for advanced robotic applications.
Researchers at the University of Michigan created woven metamaterials that return to their original shape after repeated compressions, while continuous sheets permanently deform. The structures demonstrated high stiffness and resilience, making them suitable for applications like soft robotics, car parts and architectural components.
Robotics experts disagree with claims that humanoid robots will surpass human capabilities in surgery, factory work, and serving as personal butlers. The main limitation is dexterity, making tasks like picking up objects difficult for current robot technology.
Vasile's research aims to map and model an agent's capabilities, particularly in motion, manipulation, and perception, to reliably predict their behavior. The goal is to use this understanding to plan effectively for large teams of agents.
Researchers at North Carolina State University unveiled Rainbow, a self-driving laboratory that autonomously discovers high-performance quantum dots. The system combines advanced robotics and AI to conduct up to 1,000 experiments per day, accelerating materials discovery.