Category: Robots

Though centipedes don’t typically have the 100 legs they are named for, they often have dozens of pairs, one per body segment. Goldman had long been fascinated by centipedes, but analyzing their movements was nearly impossible, because they have too many body segments and legs to track. When Ozkan-Aydin, now a robotics scientist at the University of Notre Dame, hooked two or three four-legged robots together, the longer machines could cross wider gaps and clamber over bigger obstacles, even outside on natural terrain, she and colleagues reported last year in Science Robotics. But, using a sophisticated video tracking program called DeepLabCut, Erikson found the centipede Scolopocryptops sexspinosus instead changes its gait to match the challenges of its terrain.

Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/centipedes-envy-engineers-inspire-new-generation-robots

The Department of Homeland Security stated in early February that it was preparing quadruped “robot dogs” to assist protect the US-Mexico border, describing the almost 2,000-mile stretch as “an unfriendly area for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may flourish there.” Semi-autonomous surveillance drones and observation towers armed with cameras and night vision, as well as radar, are among the equipment employed along the border, dubbed the “smart wall.” The border has long served as a testbed for a variety of new monitoring and police technology, which critics claim to make the environment even more hazardous for migrants, all in the name of protection, law, and order. 

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/16/robot-dogs-us-mexico-border-surveillance-technology 

On Tuesday, a remote-controlled robot was deployed to examine the most severely damaged nuclear reactor at Japan’s stricken Fukushima plant, as officials press on with clean-up efforts that have been plagued by delays and controversy. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the plant’s operator, said the underwater robot was launched inside Unit 1’s primary containment vessel to build a directing route for five following robots that would try to assess and gather samples of the melted fuel that produces lethal levels of radiation. The robot-led work, which had been postponed owing to technical issues since mid-January, is scheduled to last a few days before full-fledged investigations commence. Over the following few months, five more robots co-developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, government-funded cooperation, will be sent in for the inquiry. 

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fukushima-operators-send-robot-worst-hit-melted-reactor-82740751 

What appears to be ordinary robotics student work is really a team called Coordinated Robotics’ fevered build-up to a major event in the realm of autonomy: the last round of the Subterranean Challenge, held by the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. The SubT Challenge, which began in 2018 and will end in the Mega Cavern, challenges both robots and roboticists to overcome the perilous set of challenges that exist underground—low vision, inadequate connection, and concealed terrain. The virtual contests are based on the idea that anybody with enough intelligence and access to a computer may make a significant contribution to the study. A total of $5 million in prize money is on the line. 

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-challenge-robot-olympics-underdog/ 

A robotics and automation firm sponsored by Walmart, the world’s largest merchant, is in negotiations to merge with a “blank cheque” firm set up by SoftBank, Japan’s largest technology company. Symbotic is in talks with SVF Investment Corp 3, a New York-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), regarding a deal that would value the combined corporation at around $4.5 billion (£3.3 billion). If the contract is made successfully, Walmart is likely to join other investors in the capital-raising portion of the deal known as the PIPE (private investment in public equity). 

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/walmart-backed-robotics-group-symbotic-in-4-5bn-talks-to-merge-with-softbank-spac-12437669