robots

Google self-driving car makes history by driving like your grandpa, crashing into bus

This is the first time Google took the blame for a crash.

Could one of these robots save you in a climate disaster?

In a DARPA-sponsored contest, experts from industry and academia debut robots that could save our butts from climate disaster.

In search of artificial muscles, scientists have turned to onions

How squishy robots of the future could one day be made of gold-plated onion skin.

Robots, plants team up to make humans fall flat on their faces

By making plants mobile, you make them the natural enemies of a) humans and b) cats

Meet the brave little solar-powered robot who’s helping us understand hurricanes

Chasing a tornado might be nuts, but chasing a hurricane is beyond nuts. Being in a car near a tornado sounds like a bad idea, but at least you might hit a Norse god or end up in Oz or something. You’d have to go hurricane-chasing in a boat or helicopter, though, and being in […]

Robots could make solar power super cheap

It’s a simple enough robot: an ATV equipped with a robotic arm and few cameras. But it’s already stealing green jobs from humans. Its suction cups grab onto the glass face of huge, power-plant-grade solar panels and lift them onto a metal frame. One robot, with three human helpers, can install a field of solar […]

Burrito robot problematizes fast food and nutrition, makes you a disgusting burrito

For his thesis project, Marko Manriquez, “a maker, interactive designer and foodie of all things delicious,” has created a robot that prints “a 3D edible extrusion combining a blend of digital fabrication and gastronomy.” That is the least appetizing possible way of saying “it makes a burrito.” Ladies and gents, we present, the Burritob0t: Why […]

Swarms of robots could replace tractors on farms

Most farm machinery right now consists of huge machines. But in the future, farm machinery could be “a swarm of planting, tending, and harvesting robots running game theory and swarm behavior algorithms to help optimize every inch of arable space in a given field,” Popular Science reports. That’s one Iowan’s vision, anyway, and he’s created […]

Robot jellyfish will use water for fuel, spy on you

A team working out of Virginia Tech and the University of Texas at Dallas is building a robotic jellyfish that mimics the real thing. Here it is in action: [youtube http://youtu.be/U2OSJQhHQp8] The robot gets its power from hydrogen and oxygenate, which reacts with platinum to create heat, driving the jellyfish’s “muscles.” One day, the jellyfish […]