Light-controlled artificial maple seeds could monitor the environment even in hard-to-reach locations
Researchers have developed a tiny robot replicating the aerial dance of falling maple seeds. In the future, this robot could be used for real-time environmental monitoring or delivery of small samples even in inaccessible terrain such as deserts, mountains or cliffs, or the open sea. This technology could be a game changer for fields such as search-and-rescue, endangered species studies, or infrastructure monitoring.
A leaping robot could have application in search and rescue, construction, even forest monitoring. But how do you design a robot to stick a landing on a branch or pipe? Biologists worked with robot designers to discover how squirrels do it, and used what they learned to design a one-legged…
A video game in which participants herded virtual cattle has furthered our understanding of how humans make decisions on movement and navigation, and it could help us not only interact more effectively with artificial intelligence, but even improve the way robots move in the future.
A new tomato-picking robot is learning to think before it acts. Instead of simply identifying ripe fruit, it predicts how easy each tomato will be to harvest and adjusts its approach accordingly. This smarter strategy boosted success rates to 81%, with the robot even switching angles when needed. The breakthrough…