Inflatable robotic hand gives amputees real-time tactile control

by Jennifer Chu,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Caption:An MIT-developed inflatable robotic hand gives amputees real-time tactile control. The smart hand is soft and elastic, weighs about half a pound, and costs a fraction of comparable prosthetics. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For the more than 5 million people in the world who have undergone an upper-limb amputation, prosthetics have come a long way. Beyond traditional mannequin-like appendages, there is a growing number of commercial neuroprosthetics—highly articulated bionic limbs, engineered to sense a user’s residual muscle signals and robotically mimic their intended motions.

But this high-tech dexterity comes at a price. Neuroprosthetics can cost tens of thousands of dollars and are built around metal skeletons, with electrical motors that can be heavy and rigid.

Now engineers at MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have designed a soft, lightweight, and potentially low-cost neuroprosthetic hand. Amputees who tested the artificial limb performed daily activities, such as zipping a suitcase, pouring a carton of juice, and petting a cat, just as well as—and in some cases better than —those with more rigid neuroprosthetics.

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ROBOTIC GYNECOLOGIC SURGERY: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Robotic gynecologic surgery provides surgeons a greater range of motion and precision

Robotic surgeries in healthcare are not new, especially in the field of gynecology. In 2005, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of robotic surgery for gynecological procedures. When both medication and non-invasive procedures fail to treat gynecological disorder symptoms, doctors recommend surgery. Robotic Gynecologic Surgery stays the acknowledged and best treatment for most gynecological conditions such as cervical cancer, excessive uterine bleeding, uterine fibroids, and more.

Before robotic surgery, surgeons sometimes used to held cameras in their hands, which means they could shake or gradually move. Now, the specialist can get a 3-D perspective on the activity site and the video is steady all through the process. Control has likewise improved with robotic technology. This allows surgeons to work normally and instinctively which can prompt better outcomes and speed up the process. It also helps to reduce the risk of blood loss and quicker recovery.

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Magnetic ‘millirobots’ climb and swim to deliver drugs to neural tissue

Researchers from Purdue University have developed magnetic ‘millirobots’ which can climb slopes, move against a current, and deliver substances to rodent neural tissue with great precision.

The study investigated how the robots – ‘Magnetically Aligned Nanorods In Alginate CapsuleS’ (aka ‘Maniacs’) – could perform as drug delivery vehicles inside the body. It found that, when controlled using a magnetic field, the robots can move against fluid flow, climb slopes and move through neural tissue, such as the spinal cord, to deposit substances at precise locations.

Disease in the central nervous system can be very difficult to treat. Lamar Mair of Weinberg Medical Physics, which partnered with the academics on the study, explained: “Delivering drugs orally or intravenously, for example, to target cancers or neurologic diseases, may affect regions of the body and nervous system that are unrelated to the disease. Targeted drug delivery may lead to improved efficacy and reduced side-effects due to lower off-target dosing.”

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Robot-assisted surgery: Putting the reality in virtual reality

by Chinese Association of Automation

Cardiac surgeons may be able to better plan operations and improve their surgical field view with the help of a robot. Controlled through a virtual reality parallel system as a digital twin, the robot can accurately image a patient through ultrasound without the hand cramping or radiation exposure that hinder human operators. The international research team published their method in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica.

“Intra-operative ultrasound is especially useful, as it can guide the surgery by providing real-time images of otherwise hidden devices and anatomy,” said paper author Fei-Yue Wang, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Management and Control of Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. “However, the need for highly specialized skills is always a barrier for reliable and repeatable acquisition.”

Wang noted that the availability of onsite sonographers can be limited, and that many procedures requiring intra-operative ultrasound also often require X-ray imaging, which could expose the operator to harmful radiation. To mitigate these challenges, Wang and his team developed a platform for robotic intra-operative trans-esophageal echocardiography (TEE), an imaging technique widely used to diagnose heart disease and guide cardiac surgical procedures.

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Boston Dynamics introduces new warehouse robot ‘Stretch’

US robotics company Boston Dynamics on Monday unveiled a new robot called Stretch, designed to perform one very specific warehouse job: moving boxes.

Stretch is the first robot for one task that the company has built, based on requests received from companies around the world, said Michael Perry, vice president of business development for Boston Dynamics.

“We heard pretty much universally across warehousing that truck unloading is one of the most physically difficult and unpleasant jobs … And that’s where Stretch comes into play,” Perry told Reuters.

Stretch has a small mobile base that allows it to move around tight spaces in existing warehouses without having to reconfigure them for automation. It is equipped with an arm and a smart-gripper with advanced sensing and computer vision cameras that can identify and handle a large variety of boxed and shrink wrapped cases.

“We’re looking at picking up boxes around 50 pounds and our maximum rate of picking up and moving boxes can reach up to 800 cases per hour. So, it’s a fast-moving, highly versatile robot,” Perry said.

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This is Boston Dynamics’ next commercial robot

Handle’s descendant Stretch finds the company making a big play for logistics

Brian Heater

Boston Dynamics’ transitionfrom a decades-long research robotics firm to a company that productizes and sells hardware has been a fascinating one to watch. There have been some tough lessons along the way, including the very real lesson that at the end of the day, most robots in the world will be deployed for mundane tasks.

Sure, the company will continue to court the public with fun viral videos of its technology dancing to the oldies, but when it comes to actually selling robotics, the targets continue to be the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs we humans just don’t want to do. Or, as I’ve been putting it for a while now, robotics are — more often than not — cool technology performing decidedly uncool tasks.

Spot has found most of its success as an inspection robot. The quadruped has been deployed to oil rigs, nuclear plants and other places where most people would rather limit their time, given a choice. That takes care of the dangerous part of the three Ds, and you could make a reasonable argument that the company’s second commercially available robot is going after the dull bit.

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Ocean floor mapping robotics startup Bedrock announces an $8M raise

By Brian Heater

“It seems quite odd that no one has built the SpaceX equivalent for the ocean,” Anthony DiMare tells TechCrunch. “There’s no big, modern technology company that fits the space yet.”

DiMare cofounded Bedrock Ocean Exploration last year, with Charles Chiau. The latter brought a depth of robotics expertise to the space, while DiMare has experience with the oceans. His previous company, Nautilus Labs, which specialized in ocean fleet logistical planning, raised an $11 million Series A back 2019.

After leaving the startup, DiMare says he met up with Chiau at a San Francisco diner, where the pair discussed the challenges and opportunities in mapping the ocean floor. Today Bedrock is announcing that it has raised an $8 million seed round led by Eniac Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Quiet Capital and R7.

The company notes that more than 80% of the ocean remains unmapped. And those parts are often at fairly low resolution. As the CEO puts it in a press release tied this morning’s news, “A far greater percentage of the surfaces of the Moon and Mars have been mapped and studied than our own ocean floor has.”

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This Fingertip for Robots Uses Magnets to ‘Feel’ Things

By sensing the subtle changes in the finger’s own magnetic field, this new technology could one day make for ultra-sensitive prosthetic hands.

By MATT SIMON

IMAGINE, IF YOU will, the home robot of the future. It picks clutter off the floor, sweeps, and does the dishes. And it has to do so  perfectly: If the robot has an error rate of just 1 percent, it will drop one dish out of a hundred. Totally unacceptable. In no time, your floor would be covered in shards and the robot would get stuck in a sad, vicious feedback loop, dropping dishes and sweeping them up and dropping more dishes, ad infinitum.

To avoid this domestic nightmare, engineers will have to give robots a keen sense of touch. And for that, the machines will need fingertips, perhaps like the one recently described in the journal Science Robotics. It feels in a decidedly nonhuman way, by sensing the subtle changes in the finger’s own magnetic field, and it could one day make for ultra-sensitive prosthetic hands and robots that don’t maim tableware (or people) because they can’t control their grasp.

You, a human, can feel pressures and textures with your fingertips, thanks to specialized sensory cells in the skin called mechanoreceptors. These, along with the nervous system at large, translate mechanical information from the environment into signals your brain can comprehend as the perception of “touch.” Combined with thermoreceptors (which sense temperature) and nociceptors (which sense pain), you’re able to manipulate the world around you without hurting yourself.

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RoboEatz Shows Off Ark 03 Autonomous Robotic Meal Making Kiosk

By Chris Albrecht

It’s pretty remarkable to think of how much food robots have evolved over the three years I’ve been covering them. At the start of that time period, we had Flippy the robotic arm that could grill up burgers, and even that required human help. Fast forward to 2021, and RoboEatz is showing off its fully autonomous robotic meal-preparation system that can put together 1,000 meals on its own before a human is needed to refill its ingredients. 

RoboEatz Ark 03 is a 200 sq. ft. standalone kiosk featuring an articulating arm, 110 fresh ingredients (30 of which are liquids like soups and salad dressings), an induction cooker and a number of cubbies that hold orders for pickup. After an order is placed (via mobile app or tablet), the robot arm grabs ingredients, places them in the rotating induction cooker, and puts the finished meal container in a cubby. You can see it in action in this video: 

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Researchers create a device that can detect hand gestures

Shane McGlaun 

researchers-create-device-detect-hand-gestures

Researchers at UC Berkeley have created a device that uses wearable sensors and artificial intelligence software to recognize what hand gesture a person intends to make. The sensors and AI are able to determine the hand gesture a person intends to make based on electrical signal patterns in the forearm. Researchers say the device paves the way for improved prosthetic control and interaction with electronic devices.

The device has implications that could usher in a new era of controlling computers without using a keyboard or playing games without a controller. The system also has the potential to replace steering wheels inside cars. A more likely use is enabling amputees to control prosthetic devices or interact with electronics.

UC Berkeley doctoral student Ali Moin says reading hand gestures is a way to improve human-computer interaction. Human-computer interaction can be improved using cameras and computer vision, but Moin says the system her team has developed also maintains an individual’s privacy. The team created a flexible armband able to read electric signals from 64 points on the forearm.

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German Bionic raises $20M led by Samsung for exoskeleton tech to supercharge human labor

Ingrid Lunden@ingridlunden 

german-bionic-raises-$20M-samsung-exoskeleton


Exoskeleton technology has been one of the more interesting developments in the world of robotics: Instead of building machines that replace humans altogether, build hardware that humans can wear to supercharge their abilities. Today, German Bionic, one of the startups designing exoskeletons specifically aimed at industrial and physical applications — it describes its Cray X robot as “the world’s first connected exoskeleton for industrial use,” that is, to help people lifting and working with heavy objects, providing more power, precision and safety — is announcing a funding round that underscores the opportunity ahead.

The Augsburg, Germany-based company has raised $20 million, funding that it plans to use to continue building out its business, as well as its technology, both in terms of the hardware and the cloud-based software platform, German Bionic  IO, that works with the exoskeletons to optimize them and help them “learn” to work better.

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This $330,000 Kitchen robot will make you a tasty meal and even do the dishes

$330,000-kitchen-robot-make-you-tasty-meal-1


A lot of people will think a robot won’t be able to manage its way around a kitchen. But not only is this feat achieved, by the looks of it, but the kitchen robot by a London-based robotics company will also outshine even those who like to call themselves an established cook.

You can’t beat a robot that promises to whip up a choice of up to 5,000 recipes at the press of a button? The Moley kitchen robot even cooks from scratch and even cleans up afterward without complaint.

Russian mathematician and computer scientist Mark Oleynik have together created this novel robot developed with the assistance of Tim Anderson, a culinary innovator and winner of the 2011 series of BBC MasterChef. The idea behind creating this not-so-cheap contraption is to get restaurant standard meals without its owner having to lift a finger or order a takeaway.

Still, this comfort and luxury will come for nothing less than nearly $3,31,800. People who find cooking fun and therapeutic will laugh at the sum that brings home the Moley kitchen robot and opt to buy a home, a supercar, or maybe even a yacht for that amount instead! Nicole Pisani and Andrew Clarke to create 30 dishes to show what the Moley Kitchen robot is capable of, with more recipes to be added each month. Kicking back and relaxing comes for a considerable price, and surprisingly, the Moley Kitchen robot has already received 1,205 qualified sales inquiries.

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