Bots & Brains

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology combined label-free microscopic imaging with artificial intelligence to quickly detect and classify SARS-CoV-2.

Funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the latest Small Starts project led by Abbas Rashidi of the University of Utah introduces a robust, deep neural network model for analyzing the automobile traffic impacts of construction zones.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), the world’s first autonomous racecar competition at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), has announced the IAC events currently scheduled for October 23, 2021, at IMS. Activities include the Autonomous Innovation Summit (invitation-only), bringing together global thought leaders and experts from industry, academia and government to discuss the status of the autonomous technology industry and explore ways to accelerate and amplify the benefits of an autonomous mobility future.

Flow Robotics, a Denmark-based producer of robots for automated liquid handling and the creator of the flowbot ONE, announced that it has established its North American Subsidiary, Flow Robotics, Inc., with operations in Princeton, NJ. The company’s first product, the flowbot ONE, is designed to transform how liquid handling responsibilities are performed in the laboratory by automating manual pipetting tasks.

When humans play in competition with a humanoid robot, they delay their decisions when the robot looks at them. This is the conclusion of Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), who investigated whether a humanoid robot’s gaze influences the way people reason in a social decision-making context. The study published in Science Robotics is supported by the European Research Council.

Artificial intelligence tools and deep learning models are a powerful tool in cancer treatment. They can be used to analyze digital images of tumor biopsy samples, helping physicians quickly classify the type of cancer, predict prognosis and guide a course of treatment for the patient. However, unless these algorithms are properly calibrated, they can sometimes make inaccurate or biased predictions.

Exoskeletons – wearable devices used by workers on assembly lines or in warehouses to alleviate stress on their lower backs – may compete with valuable resources in the brain while people work, canceling out the physical benefits of wearing them, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Computer Science and NVIDIA have unveiled a new simulator for robotic cutting that can accurately reproduce the forces acting on a knife as it slices through common foodstuffs, such as fruit and vegetables. The system could also simulate cutting through human tissue, offering potential applications in surgical robotics.

Surpassing the biological limitations of the brain and using one’s mind to interact with and control external electronic devices may sound like the distant cyborg future, but it could come sooner than we think. Researchers warn of the potential social, ethical, and legal consequences of technologies interacting heavily with human brains. 

Engineers at UC Riverside have unveiled an air-powered computer memory that can be used to control soft robots. The innovation overcomes one of the biggest obstacles to advancing soft robotics: the fundamental mismatch between pneumatics and electronics.