Inside the mind of an autonomous delivery robot
Starship Technologies' autonomous delivery robots have driven thousands of miles. Here's how its bots experience the world -- and why it matters for our future.
This robot grabber is gentle enough to hold a jellyfish without damaging it
Soft robots are designed to interact with the living world without causing damage. Judging by this new jellyfish-gripping robot hand, mission accomplished!
This robot will change your tires in a fraction of the time a mechanic can
RoboTire is building robots which can change the tires on a car in a fraction of the time it takes a mechanic to do it. Here's what the company has planned.
This 3D-printed four-legged robot is ready to take on Spot — at a lower price
There are plenty of four-legged, dog-inspired robots about. Could 3D printing make them more ubiquitous? Ghost Robotics and 3D printing company Origin think so.
Boston Dynamics’ remarkable robot dog has landed its first gig
Spot the remarkable robot dog has landed its first job, carrying out various tasks for a Norwegian oil producer. The quadruped robot will start work soon.
Caltech wants to explore the ocean with swarms of bionic jellyfish
Engineers from Caltech and Stanford University have a plan to create bionically augmented jellyfish which may one day help explore the oceans.
Robot fry cook Flippy is getting a makeover to make it even more useful
Robot fry cook Flippy is getting a makeover. Here's how Miso Robotics' machine kitchen assistant is receiving an overhaul that will make it more useful than ever. While taking up a whole lot less kitchen floor space in the process. Coming soon to a burger joint near you?
Here’s what all the movies set in 2020 predicted this year would be like
Life in the 2020s might be new to you and me, but it’s far from fresh territory for movies and TV. What did screenwriters think the world would be facing in the year 2020? Check out our rundown of the future that, well, is no longer quite as futuristic as it once appeared.
A paralyzed man just broke a marathon world record with a robotic exoskeleton
Completing a marathon is an amazing achievement. Completing one wearing a robot exoskeleton, after suffering a spinal cord injury that left the wearer partially paralyzed, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. That’s what Adam Gorlitsky achieved when he completed the 2020 Charleston Marathon.
Ballie is a rolling robot from Samsung that can help around the smart home
Ballie is a new ball-shaped bot from Samsung that can be your friend and help around the smart home. The tech giant unveiled Ballie at CES on Monday. A video showed the robot that's about the size of a grapefruit performing tasks such as opening smart curtains and firing up a robot vacuum.
Vector the social robot has good news for its human buddies
The future of the Vector social robot has been uncertain since its creator, Anki, closed down in 2019. But now a Pittsburgh firm has stepped in to give the robot a new lease of life. When it launched in 2018, the diminutive robot was praised for its advanced features and ability to convey an array of emotions.
Want to lift 200 pounds without breaking a sweat? Strap into this exosuit
Sarcos Robotics has spent the past 20 years building the ultimate powered robot exosuit. Early next year, its Guardian XO wearable robot will ship to the first customers. Here's what the company has built -- and why CEO Ben Wolff thinks it will change the workplace as we know it.
10 Incredible technologies that didn’t exist a decade ago
Technology sure has come a long way in the past decade. But what would you expect from the 10-year stretch that included the year Blade Runner was set in? Here's our rundown of the top 10 pieces of tech excited gadget-lovers got to try out for the first time in the 2010s.
Liquid metal tendons could give robots the ability to heal themselves
Fans of Terminator 2's liquid metal T-1000 robot, pay attention: In Japan, roboticists have created a prototype robot leg with a metal tendon fuse that's able to repair fractures. How does it do this? Simple: By autonomously melting itself and then reforming as a single piece.
Startup founded by ex-Navy SEALs is building underwater robots to map the ocean
Terradepth, a startup founded by a pair of ex-Navy SEALs, is building autonomous submersible robots to map parts of the ocean that are difficult to monitor. Here's what it is developing — and when we can expect to see them venturing into the ocean for some underwater data collection.
Robot bartending company is handing out cash to the people it is replacing
For every robot bartender that robotics company Makr Shakr sells, it pledges that it will fork over a $1,000 monthly stipend to a select person in a field likely to be impacted by automation. How exactly will it work? These are the details of the scheme as we understand them.
SoftBank enters the cafe business with new robot-filled Pepper Parlor
SoftBank is getting into the cafe business. The tech firm has just opened an eatery in Tokyo staffed by lots of its Pepper robots. It says it wants to use the site to help it learn more about how people interact with robots so that it can improve the design of its current high-tech offerings.
The star of the world’s tiniest stop-motion movie is the size of a grain of dust
The lead performer in the Guinness World Record-winning short film Starship Odyssey is just 300 microns tall. That's just 0.3 millimeters or approximately the size of a single grain of dust. Check out the video -- and its "making of" story -- in all its smaller-than-life glory.
Meet the robotic pioneers that will help humanity colonize Mars
The race to populate Mars is on. But before humans can visit the red planet, we need to send out robot scouts to see the lay of the land. The next generation of Martian robotics will use sophisticated AI, novel propulsion methods, and flexible smallsats to meet the challenges of colonizing a new world.
Watch this disembodied set of robotic ostrich legs juggle a ball on its ‘head’
Want to see a robot carrying out an impressive juggling display? Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley have trained a bipedal robot to execute just such a trick. And while it sounds frivolous, it could actually turn out to be pretty darn important. Here's why.
You can now feed Sony’s Aibo robot dog with virtual food
Sony rolled out a version 2.5 software update for Aibo, adding the ability to program the robot dog with custom tasks and feed it with virtual food. A web-based API offers access to the Aibo Developer Program for seasoned developers and Aibo Visual Programming for novice programmers.
Meet OffWorld, the startup that wants to mine the moon with a swarm of robots
Will the future of space exploration involve swarms of smart robots aiding human pioneers by mining for resources, or even autonomously preparing new locations on other planets for human habitation? California-based startup OffWorld certainly thinks so. Here's what it is working on.
Robot overlords? More like co-verlords. The future is human-robot collaboration
Forget stealing our jobs; the next frontier of robotics is going to help humans by allowing them to carry out a whole host of tasks remotely -- whether it's maintenance or even surgery. Here's why it could prove to be such a major game changer for a whole lot of people.
What Blade Runner got right (and wrong) about 2019
1982's Blade Runner is rightly considered a masterpiece among science fiction movies. But how accurate were its predictions about the future? With November 2019 being the far-flung month and year in which the movie is set, here’s what the movie got right and, in one case, very wrong.
Digital Trends Live: #boycottuber, MIT’s mini cheetah robots, SpaceX launch
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, hosts Greg Nibler and Luke Larsen dive into the biggest trending tech topics of the day, including #boycottuber, a successful SpaceX launch, MIT’s mini cheetah robots, NASA’s Maxwell X57, Canada’s space hotels, and more.
Watch MIT’s Mini Cheetahs limber up for the robot apocalypse
The MIT Biomimetics Robotics recently took a number of its talented Mini Cheetah robots for some fun in the park. Take a moment to enjoy the incredible sight of the nine remote-controlled quadrupeds frolicking in the fall leaves, playing soccer, and even performing backflips.
Drone and rover tag teams could help solve the world’s deadly land mine problem
Roughly 20,000 people are maimed or killed each year due to land mines; the vast majority being civilians in parts of the world subject to ongoing conflict. Could a tag team of autonomous robots help solve the problem? Roboticists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute think so.
What happens when you mix foosball and robots? A new game called RoboSoccer
Looking for the next great game? RoboSoccer is a nifty modern-day upgrade of foosball that combines the addictive concept of the original game with some impressively agile miniature robots, controlled via mobile app, on a folding pitch. Here's how you can get your hands on it.
Dear robots: If you come to steal our jobs, please take these ones first
Over the coming decades, it’s likely that huge numbers of other jobs will be replaced thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. But are there jobs we should specifically try and automate away for the good of humankind? Here are some which fit the bill.
Robots aren’t coming to steal your job. They’re coming to improve it
Paul Daugherty, chief technology an innovation officer at Accenture, thinks it’s neither inevitable nor likely that machines will ultimately replace humans in the workforce
Bop it, twist it, pull it, grip it: MIT robot hand can pick up objects with ease
Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have figured out a way to make a robot grasp an object quicker and more efficiently. It can take a robot tens of minutes to plan out the possibilities of the sequence, but with a new algorithm, it takes less than a second.
Youbionic’s new robot appendage lends a hand without costing an arm and a leg
Robot arms are all kinds of awesome. But they're also very expensive, frequently reaching into the thousands of dollars. Federico Ciccarese, the engineer behind low-cost robotic arm company Youbionic, is working hard to change that. Check out his latest $250 robotic creation.
New flying fish-inspired robot uses explosive water farts for propulsion
Researchers from Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have built a flying fish-inspired swimming robot that can propel itself out of the water and glide for distances of 85 feet at a time. Check it out in action.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot is a cool robot. But is that enough for success?
When Boston Dynamics first showed off its Spot robot in 2009, the world hadn’t seen anything like it. Years later, it's finally ready to go to work for customers. But the robotics market of 2019 is a crowded place. Can Boston Dynamics triumph in a world where it's no longer a novelty?