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Magazine
In the Oct. 28 SN: Real-life vampires, the ultimate flu shot, no rings for Pluto, tsunami debris stowaways, jellyfish flouts sleep stereotypes, honey carries pesticides, teen concussion stats, a shape-shifting robot and more.
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Teaser
The rise of respectful robots
10/06/2017 - 07:00 Robotics, TechnologyView the video
A new robot has the mobility of R2-D2 and the manners of C-3PO.
This knee-high, self-driving bot abides by social protocols as it weaves through foot traffic: keep right, pass left, respect others’ personal space. The machine, presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Vancouver on September 25, paves the way for robots...
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News
Origami outfits help these bots change tasks swiftly
09/27/2017 - 14:00 Robotics, TechnologyView the video
Robots are taking “dress for success” to a whole other level.
A new type of shape-shifting robot can undergo complete metamorphosis in a matter of minutes. The bot is composed of a simple metal cube that wraps itself in various high-tech origami sheets that fold into wings, wheels and other appendages for getting around. By donning and doffing different origami...
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News in Brief
In these bot hookups, the machines meld their minds
09/12/2017 - 11:00 Robotics, TechnologyView the video
Meet the first fleet of hive-minded robots.
These robots can latch onto one another and link up their individual “nervous systems” — the network of connections between their computer processors, cameras, wheels and other gadgetry — to create a single-minded machine. The composite robots, reported online September 12 in Nature Communications, pave the way for a new...
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News in Brief
Robot, heal thyself
08/16/2017 - 14:09 Robotics, MaterialsA new type of soft robot can go under the knife and make a full recovery in about a day.
Researchers fashioned a robotic hand, gripper and muscle from self-healing rubbery material. To test their robots’ resilience, the engineers sliced each with a scalpel, then put them in an oven. After cranking up the heat to 80° Celsius, baking the bots for 40 minutes, then cooling them to room...
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The Science Life
What Curiosity has yet to tell us about Mars
08/04/2017 - 16:29 Planetary Science, Chemistry, RoboticsView the video
After five years on Mars, the Curiosity rover is an old pro at doing science on the Red Planet. Since sticking its landing on August 5, 2012, NASA’s Little Robot That Could has learned a lot about its environs.
Its charge was simple: Look for signs that Gale crater, a huge impact basin with a mountain at its center, might once have been habitable (for microbes, not...
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Science Ticker
This robot grows like a plant
07/19/2017 - 17:26 Robotics, PlantsView the video
Robots are branching out. A new prototype soft robot takes inspiration from plants by growing to explore its environment.
Vines and some fungi extend from their tips to explore their surroundings. Elliot Hawkes of the University of California in Santa Barbara and his colleagues designed a bot that works on similar principles. Its mechanical body sits inside a plastic...
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News in Brief
Gecko-inspired robot grippers could grab hold of space junk
06/28/2017 - 14:08 Robotics, Astronomy, TechnologyView the video
Get a grip. A new robotic gripping tool based on gecko feet can grab hold of floating objects in microgravity. The grippers could one day help robots move dangerous space junk to safer orbits or climb around the outside of space stations.
Most strategies for sticking don’t work in space. Chemical adhesives can’t withstand the wide range of temperatures, and suction...
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Letters to the Editor
Readers question supernova physics
Supernova surprise03/22/2017 - 12:10 Particle Physics, Robotics, Condensed MatterAstronomers continue to learn a lot from supernova 1987A, which burst onto the scene 30 years ago. Thanks to new detectors that can pick up neutrino signals and even gravitational waves, scientists will be ready when the next nearby star explodes, Emily Conover reported in “Waiting for a supernova” (SN: 2/18/17, p. 24).
Steve Capps wondered how neutrinos inside an...
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The Science Life
Fleets of drones could pollinate future crops
03/07/2017 - 12:00 Agriculture, Robotics, EcologyView the video
Eijiro Miyako gets emotional about the decline of honeybees.
“We need pollination,” he says. “If that system is collapsed, it’s terrible.”
Insects, especially bees, help pollinate both food crops and wild plants. But pollinators are declining worldwide due to habitat loss, disease and exposure to pesticides, among other factors (SN: 1/23/16, p. 16).
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News in Brief
Bat robot takes wing
02/01/2017 - 14:13 Technology, RoboticsView the video
Fancy flight tricks are a breeze for a new flying robot. Call it an acrobat.
Bat Bot, a lightweight flier with thin silicone wings stretched over a carbon fiber skeleton, can cruise, dive and bank turn just like its namesake, researchers report February 1 in Science Robotics.
Such a maneuverable machine could one day soar up the towering structures of a...