A.I./Robotics

A research collaboration led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories is hoping to implement artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the capabilities to hypersonic vehicles like long-range missiles. Along with researchers from Sandia, several universities have signed on to form Autonomy New Mexico, an organization patterned on the U.S. Department of Defense,…

While single stream recycling is convenient for consumers, it has become a burden for recycling companies, as employees have to sift through piles of recycled items to determine what is plastic, paper or metal. This process includes newspapers, plastic bottles and other recycled items moving quickly through a conveyor belt where human workers will manually…

Bad news for ophiophobes: Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new and improved snake-inspired soft robot that is faster and more precise than its predecessor. The robot is made using kirigami — a Japanese paper craft that relies on cuts to change the properties…

Advanced robotics sensitive touch or next-generation wearable devices with sophisticated sensing capabilities could soon be possible following the development of a rubber that combines flexibility with high electrical conductivity. The new smart composite material, developed by researchers at the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, shows properties that have not previously…

Robots may have a knack for super-human strength and precision, but they still struggle with some basic human tasks—like folding laundry or making a cup of coffee. Enter Blue, a new low-cost, human-friendly robot conceived and built by a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Blue was designed to use recent advances…

A soft robot, attached to a balloon and submerged in a transparent column of water, dives and surfaces, then dives and surfaces again, like a fish chasing flies. Soft robots have performed this kind of trick before. But unlike most soft robots, this one is made and operated with no hard or electronic parts. Inside,…

Taking a cue from biological cells, researchers from MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have developed computationally simple robots that connect in large groups to move around, transport objects, and complete other tasks. This so-called “particle robotics” system — based on a project by MIT, Columbia Engineering, Cornell University, and Harvard University researchers — comprises many…

Can artificial intelligence (AI) help us understand how the brain understands language? Can neuroscience help us understand why AI and neural networks are effective at predicting human perception? Research from Alexander Huth and Shailee Jain from The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) suggests both are possible. In a paper presented at the 2018…

Both developing babies and elderly adults share a common characteristic: the many cells making up their bodies are always on the move. As we humans commute to work, cells migrate through the body to get their jobs done. Biologists have long struggled to quantify the movement and changing morphology of cells through time, but now,…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms such as Deep Learning have become integral parts of our daily lives: they enable digital speech assistants or translation services, improve medical diagnostics and are an indispensable part of future technologies such as autonomous driving. Based on an ever increasing amount of data and powerful novel computer architectures,…

The black box fallacy Progress from a field defined largely by academic work into real commercial applications had happened very rapidly. Many points along the diagnostic chain are poised for rapid transformation. But it’s still early days, and nothing happens overnight in healthcare. Patient data is sensitive, and human lives hang in the balance, two…

A study by German scientists from Jena and Hamburg, published today in the journal Nature, shows that artificial intelligence (AI) can substantially improve our understanding of the climate and the Earth system. Especially the potential of deep learning has only partially been exhausted so far. In particular, complex dynamic processes such as hurricanes, fire propagation,…

Before the age of GPS, humans had to orient themselves without on-screen arrows pointing down an exact street, but rather, by memorizing landmarks and using learned relationships among time, speed and distance. They had to know, for instance, that 10 minutes of brisk walking might equate to half a mile traveled. A new Johns Hopkins…