Pieter Werner

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems.

Network provider Verizon has acquired Austrian-based incubed IT, the creator of a software platform that provides autonomous navigation tools to administer, manage and optimize mixed fleets of robots in industrial settings. This acquisition will expand Verizon’s robotic capabilities to power robotic automation for enterprise customers, for a large part based on 5G.

Seegrid, vendor of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for material handling, today premiered a new autonomous lift truck, Palion Lift AMR, further expanding the capabilities of the company’s fleet of mobile robotics solutions.

The global smart robots market size is expected to reach $25 billion by 2026, rising at a market growth of 27.2% CAGR during the forecast period, according to Researchandmarkets in their report “Global Smart Robots Market By Component, By Mobility, By Operating Environment, By End User, By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 – 2026”.

The two-day Machine Tending Expo, February 23-24, focuses on deploying cobots to tend machines such as CNC, press brakes, injection molding machines or 3D printers. In live demos, keynotes and interactive booth sessions with exhibiting partners, Universal Robots shows its solutions on how to implement cobots, tackling the labor shortage, while improving crucial machine uptime.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – has launched a new Focus Group to contend with the increasing prevalence and severity of natural disasters with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Peter Koo and collaborator Matt Ploenzke reported a way to train machines to predict the function of DNA sequences. They used “neural nets”, a type of artificial intelligence (AI) typically used to classify images.

Soft robots may not be in touch with human feelings, but they are getting better at feeling human touch. Cornell University researchers have created a low-cost method for soft, deformable robots to detect a range of physical interactions, from pats to punches to hugs, without relying on touch at all. Instead, a USB camera located inside the robot captures the shadow movements of hand gestures on the robot’s skin and classifies them with machine-learning software.

USC researchers have developed a new method to counter emergent mutations of the coronavirus and hasten vaccine development to stop the pathogen responsible for killing thousands of people and ruining the economy.

Using patient data, artificial intelligence can make a 90 percent accurate assessment of whether a person will die from COVID-19 or not, according to new research at the University of Copenhagen. Body mass index (BMI), gender and high blood pressure are among the most heavily weighted factors. The research can be used to predict the number of patients in hospitals, who will need a respirator and determine who ought to be first in line for a vaccination.