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 …

New work explores optimal circumstances for reaching a common goal with humanoid robots

Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) have demonstrated that under specific conditions, humans can treat robots as co-authors of the results of their actions. The condition that enables this phenomenon is that a robot behaves in a human-like, social manner. Engaging in gaze contact and participating in a common emotional …

Navigating the labyrinth: How AI tackles complex data sampling

The world of artificial intelligence (AI) has recently seen significant advancements in generative models, a type of machine-learning algorithm that “learns” patterns from sets of data in order to generate new, similar sets of data. Generative models are often used for things like drawing images and natural language generation—a famous example are the models used …