Category: Robots

A recent study revealed that robots may be more effective than parent-reported or self-reported tests in diagnosing mental health disorders in youngsters.

A recent study revealed that robots may be more effective than parent-reported or self-reported tests in diagnosing mental health disorders in youngsters. A team of roboticists, computer scientists and psychiatrists from the University of Cambridge carried out a study with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13 and had a child-sized humanoid robot administer a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant.

The children were willing to confide in the robot, in some cases sharing information with the robot that they had not yet shared via the standard assessment method of online or in-person questionnaires. This is the first time that robots have been used to assess mental well-being in children. The researchers say that robots could be a useful addition to traditional methods of mental health assessment, although they are not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health support. The results will be presented today (1 September) at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) in Naples, Italy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, homeschooling, financial pressures, and isolation from peers and friends impacted the mental health of many children. Even before the pandemic, however, anxiety and depression among children in the UK have been on the rise, but the resources and support to address mental well-being are severely limited. Professor Hatice Gunes, who leads the Affective Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory in Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, has been studying how socially-assistive robots (SARs) can be used as mental well-being ‘coaches’ for adults, but in recent years has also been studying how they may be beneficial to children.

Continue reading… “Researchers discover robots can be used for diagnosing mental health disorders in children”

TX SCARA robot works, stocking drinks in the refrigerated section of a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo

THE MACHINE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY TELEXISTENCE, A TOKYO-BASED COMPANY, AND IS DRIVEN BY ITS AI, CALLED GORDON

To make up for shortage of staff, shops across Japan are using ‘TX SCARA’, a small robot with clip-like hands. It has been developed by Telexistence, a Tokyo-based company; in the words of CEO Jin Tomioka, it has been designed to ‘automate all the repetitive jobs and boring jobs done by humans’.

“…that is the direction we are going. And the best way to do that is to use the robots,” Tomioka added.

Continue reading… “This robot ‘works’ in convenience stores in Japan: All you need to know about TX SCARA”

These chameleon-like robots could pave the way for flexible electronics.

By Joaquin Victor Tacla

3D printing technology has come a long way throughout the years, and its vast potential in the field of robotics was even more materialized when it was recently used to develop chameleon-like robots.

Researchers from the Southern University have created flexible, elastic light-emitting devices that may be incorporated with soft robots using a 3D printing technique.

This technique was applied in a soft robot that can adjust its colors to blend in with its surroundings and might help create wearable electronics, next-generation smart displays, and artificial camouflage.

Continue reading… “‘Chameleon Robots:’ These Robots Can Change Colors and Mimic Their Surroundings Through 3D Printing”

Scythe Robotics has received 7,000 orders for its autonomous law mowers, according to a report

 BY DAVID EDWARDS

The startup company says it plans to expand its manufacturing facility in Colorado to be able to handle the orders, adding that its mowers have received strong interest from all across the United States.

Scythe Robotics specializes in building commercial-grade autonomous robotic solutions for the landscaping industry, and its first offering is an all-electric, fully autonomous mower, designed completely in-house. 

Scythe raised $13.8 million in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital with participation from existing investors True Ventures, Zigg Capital, and Lemnos, bringing the company’s total funding to $18.6 million.

The new investment will be used to grow the company’s existing operations in Texas, Florida and Colorado, expand with new customers, and accelerate development of further products to revolutionize how commercial landscape contractors care for outdoor environments.

Founded in 2018 by Jack Morrison, Isaac Roberts and Davis Foster, Scythe says its launch comes at a “pivotal moment” for the $105 billion commercial landscaping industry, which has been plagued for years by painful labor shortages and hasn’t seen substantial technological innovation in decades.

Continue reading… “Scythe Robotics receives 7,000 orders for its autonomous law mowers”

Hadrian X robot said to build homes quicker and cheaper than traditional methods 

By Emily Twinch

The Hadrian X robot that can built a home in up to three days.

A robot said to lay bricks with “absolute perfection” has completed the first clay block house for materials giant Wienerberger in Australia. 

The masonry robot Hadrian X built the home in the Australian suburb of Wellard with Wienerberger’s Porotherm bricks and will now construct more single- and multi-family homes with the same blocks as part of the pilot project.

In a statement the Austria-based brick and products giant, which is working in partnership with the robot’s Australian designer, Fastbrick Robotics, said: “The robot not only accelerates the bricklaying process, but also excels in terms of precision, laying bricks with absolute perfection. Wind and vibrations are measured and balanced in real time. 

“This forward-looking technology will revolutionise residential construction by making it faster, less expensive and more efficient, and guarantee a higher standard of quality.”

Continue reading… “‘Revolutionary’ robot brickie builds first house”

“Cargo sous terrain follows a similar principle to that of an automatic conveyor system.”

ByGeorgina Jedikovska

Photo shows underground autonomous cargo delivery in Switzerland in undated photo. The CST project commenced after the Swiss parliament passed the necessary legal framework on August 1, 2022. (Cargo sous terrain AG/Zenger)

Switzerland has moved further with the first part of an underground autonomous cargo delivery line worth between $30 and $35 billion which will open in 2031.

Cargo Sous Terrain – CST – Switzerland’s planned underground logistics system – started its first tunnel after half a decade of studies on Monday, August 1.

The system involves underground cargo tubes full of automated delivery carts carrying goods that travel back and forth between cities and across Switzerland at 18.6 miles per hour.

The Swiss parliament passed the necessary legal framework and thus greenlighted the project in December 2021.

Continue reading… “Switzerland Moves Ahead With Underground Robot Cargo Delivery”

A screenshot of the robot, from China’s Central Television.

By Can Emir

And it looks like a big yak.

China’s state media, the Global Times, claims the country has developed the world’s largest electric-powered quadruped bionic robot. And to be honest, that thing looks just like a yak.

Bizarre appearances aside, this comes as the latest in China’s push to become a global leader in robotics by 2025. And also, of course, in military tech.

But, is it working?

Despite being very large and bulky, the robot can move forward and backward, and it can turn and even walk diagonally. It even sprints and dashes, and jumps high without losing its footing, thanks to an unconscionable 12 sets of joint modules. The mechanical yak is equipped with sensors to keep it in touch with the surrounding terrain and environment. It can also adapt to various types of terrains, including steps, trenches and cliffs, and even muddy roads, grasslands, deserts, and snowfields. And there’s more. Beyond its adaptive abilities, the robot could also be equipped with weapons.

Continue reading… “China’s New Electric Quadruped Robot Could Be the Largest in the World”

By Andrew McCollum 

Late last week, Google research scientist Fei Xia sat in the center of a bright, open-plan kitchen and typed a command into a laptop connected to a one-armed, wheeled robot resembling a large floor lamp. “I’m hungry,” he wrote. The robot promptly zoomed over to a nearby countertop, gingerly picked up a bag of multigrain chips with a large plastic pincer, and wheeled over to Xia to offer up a snack.

The most impressive thing about that demonstration, held in Google’s robotics lab in Mountain View, California, was that no human coder had programmed the robot to understand what to do in response to Xia’s command. Its control software had learned how to translate a spoken phrase into a sequence of physical actions using millions of pages of text scraped from the web.

That means a person doesn’t have to use specific preapproved wording to issue commands, as can be necessary with virtual assistants such as Alexa or Siri. Tell the robot “I’m parched,” and it should try to find you something to drink; tell it “Whoops, I just spilled my drink,” and it ought to come back with a sponge.

Continue reading… “Google’s New Robot Learned To Take Orders By Scraping The Web”

By Ishveena Singh

Remember how Hyundai Motor Group was so impressed by the robot dogs and humanoid bots developed by Boston Dynamics that it decided to acquire a majority stake in the robotics firm in 2020? Well, the two companies are now ready to take their relationship to the next level with the formation of the Boston Dynamics AI Institute.

The car manufacturer and the MIT spin-off will make an initial investment of more than $400 million in the new organization, which will be led by Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics.

At its core, Boston Dynamics AI Institute will be a research-oriented establishment. It will work on solving some of the most important and difficult challenges facing the creation of advanced robots. Combining the best features of university research labs with those of corporate development labs, the institute’s work will focus on four technical areas: cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design, as well as ethics and policy.

Continue reading… “Hyundai, Boston Dynamics to invest $400M in AI robotics research”

Xiaomi CyberOne is said to identify 85 types of environmental sounds and 45 classifications of human emotion.

By Nithya P Nair 

Xiaomi CyberOne can listen to human interactions.

Xiaomi unveiled its first humanoid robot named CyberOne alongside the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 during a live event on Thursday. The robot can listen to human interactions and is capable of recognising individuals and their emotions. The CyberOne is 177cm tall, weighs 52kg, and has an arm span of 168cm. It is claimed to be capable of perceiving 3D space. The CyberOne comes equipped with technologies to recognise 85 types of environmental sounds and 45 classifications of human emotion. Xiaomi also has a quadruped robot called CyberDog, which was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 in February.

During the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 launch event on Thursday, Xiaomi unveiled the CyberOne. The humanoid robot handed a flower to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun on stage and showcased some movements.

“CyberOne’s AI and mechanical capabilities are all self-developed by Xiaomi Robotics Lab. We have invested heavily in R&D spanning various areas, including software, hardware, and algorithms innovation,” said Lei Jun in a statement.

CyberOne comes with arms, legs, and supports bipedal motion and is said to reach a peak torque of up to 300Nm. It has an OLED module to display facial expressions and can see the world in 3D.

Continue reading… “Xiaomi Unveils CyberOne, a Humanoid Robot That Can Sense Human Emotions”

The underground excavation industry is exploring mini robots, plasma torches, and superheated gas to replace the massive boring machines now in use.

By CHRIS BARANIUK

FOR DECADES, ENGINEERS seeking to build tunnels underground have relied on huge tube-like machines armed with a frightening array of cutting wheels at one end—blades that eat dirt for breakfast. These behemoths, called tunnel-boring machines, or TBMs, are expensive and often custom-built for each project, as were the TBMs used to excavate a path for London’s recently opened Elizabeth Line railway. The machines deployed on that project weighed over 1,000 tons each and cut tunnels over 7 meters in diameter beneath the UK capital.

But British startup hyperTunnel has other ideas. The firm proposes a future in which much smaller, roughly 3-meter-long robots shaped like half-cylinders zoom about underground via predrilled pipes. These pipes, around 250 millimeters (10 inches) in diameter, would follow the outline of the proposed tunnel’s walls. Once inside them, the bots would use a robotic arm topped with a milling head to penetrate into the surrounding earth and carve out small voids that would then get filled with concrete or some other strong material. Piece by piece like this, the structure of a new tunnel would come together.

“We’re talking about thousands of them,” says hyperTunnel’s director of engineering, Patrick Lane-Nott. “Much like an ant colony or a termite colony works in swarms.”

Continue reading… “Swarms of Mini Robots Could Dig the Tunnels of the Future”