Complutense University of Madrid

FreeMotionHandling: Autonomous flying gripping sphere Both gripping and flying have long been a topic for the Bionic Learning Network. In the FreeMotionHandling, Festo has for the first time combined both areas. The indoor flying object can manoeuvre autonomously in any direction, independently picking up and dropping off items where they are required. Flying assistance system for

The new technology has applications in nanometer-scale transistors and circuits Engineers at the University of California, Riverside, have demonstrated prototype devices made of an exotic material that can conduct a current density 50 times greater than conventional copper interconnect technology. Current density is the amount of electrical current per cross-sectional area at a given point.

Approach may enable robots to move around hospitals, malls, and other areas with heavy foot traffic. Just as drivers observe the rules of the road, most pedestrians follow certain social codes when navigating a hallway or a crowded thoroughfare: Keep to the right, pass on the left, maintain a respectable berth, and be ready to

Scientists from Princeton University and NASA have confirmed that 1,284 objects observed outside Earth’s solar system by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft are indeed planets. Reported in The Astrophysical Journal on May 10, it is the largest single announcement of new planets to date and more than doubles the number of confirmed planets discovered by Kepler so

UC Riverside research invokes quantum mechanical processes that occur when two atomically thin materials are stacked together Physicists at the University of California, Riverside have developed a photodetector – a device that senses light – by combining two distinct inorganic materials and producing quantum mechanical processes that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected.

Details of a touchscreen showing 3D images that can be felt and manipulated have been published by Microsoft’s research unit. The project combines an LCD flat panel screen with force sensors and a robotic arm that moves it back and forwards. By controlling how much resistance there is to a user’s fingertip the firm says it

Many of the robots in the not-too-distant future won’t be hard   More and more, it’s looking like many of the robots in the not-too-distant future won’t be hard, humanoid C-3PO-like affairs, but will instead be squishy, soft-bodied devices. Not only would such robots be better able to withstand mechanical shock, vibration and compression, but