Latest robotics publications

Education authorities in the Chinese city of Luoyang have introduced an invigilating drone [Chinese] into the exam room, monitoring teenagers taking the two-day ‘gaokao’ assessment. The anti-cheating bots have been designed to scupper some of the inventive and high-tech tricks used by an increasing number of students in the region, such as paper scanning glasses, bugged stationary and… Read More

Media group NPR is the latest broadcaster to test the journalistic capabilities of robots. In a head-to-head the U.S. radio giant placed one of its top reporters and White House correspondent Scott Horsley against the computer software WordSmith, developed by a company called Automated Insights which programmes the artificial intelligence (AI) system to produce hundreds of… Read More

The U.S. Navy has unveiled its latest Cicada drone – a smaller model of the smart glider which military scientists have been developing for almost ten years. The tiny autonomous machine was presented last week at the Department of Defense’s Lab Day. The newest iteration of the Cicada, a yellow angular unit with two semi-circular wings,… Read More

Google’s latest self-driving car prototype is expected to make its debut on public roads in California this summer. The two-seater driverless vehicle is the first of its type to be purpose built for self-driving, according to the tech giant. Using sensors the smart car is able to drive, brake, and identify obstacles and hazards without… Read More

A robotic arm, designed to bend and contract like an octopus’ tentacle, has been created by scientists at an Italian university to support surgical procedures in compact areas of the body. The remote-controlled machine can extend and become soft or rigid depending on the surgical environment to enable a minimally-invasive operation. The prototype arm can squeeze… Read More