Archive | Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

micro_tentacle

Robots get micro-tentacles to handle delicate objects

Using a transparent elastomer, Iowa State University scientists have created tiny tentacles that robots can wrap around delicate objects to handle them safely. The spiraling microrobotic tentacles are described in a research paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. Demonstrating how one of the tentacles encircled an ant’s thorax, softly trapping the insect, lead researcher […]

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Memristor artificial synapse circuit demonstrated

In what its UC Santa Barbara developers say is a significant step toward brain-like computing; a memristor-based circuit of about 100 artificial synapses has performed a typical human task: image classification. In the researchers’ demonstration, the circuit implementing the rudimentary artificial neural network was able to successfully classify three letters (“z”, “v” and “n”) by […]

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brain_brain

Scientists demo first direct brain-to-brain communication between humans

Using non-invasive techniques, an international team of researchers have demonstrated direct brain-to-brain communication between two human subjects located 5,000 miles apart. Their experiment, detailed in the journal PLOS ONE, involved reading the brain activity of the first subject, transmitting that information over the Internet, and then “inserting” the information into the brain of the second […]

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locomotora

Japanese scientists hijack neural signaling to bypass spinal injuries

Spinal cord injuries that result in paraplegia may one day be treatable using a technique that bypasses the damaged neural pathways that connect the brain to the spinal locomotor center. The researchers, from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan, have demonstrated how the computer-controlled bypass circuit allowed a subject to use hand movements […]

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Robo-cat offers speed and agility for search and rescue

Swiss robotics researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne say the design of their cat-like robot is based on meticulous observations of the feline leg, giving the robot all the speed and stability that real cats have. Writing about their work in the International Journal of Robotics Research, the researchers suggest that “cheetah-cub robots” like […]

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takktile

Ultracheap tactile sensor for robots unveiled

Giving robots a sense of touch has traditionally been an expensive and complex exercise with results that were often less than useful. Now, however, a newly developed tactile sensor using off-the-shelf cell phone components could dramatically change how robots interact with the world around them. The developers of the new TakkTile sensor at the Harvard […]

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