Like maintaining a zen garden, or pruning a bonsai tree, some people stack and balance rocks as a way to relax. But robots don’t really experience emotional stress, so why bother teaching a bot to balance rocks? One day, this robot’s skills could prove invaluable when it comes to building structures on distant worlds…
So far 2016 has been a wild ride, but there’s one less thing to keep you awake at night, terrified about the future, now that Disney Research has finally found a way to render convincing computer-generated sugar that looks and moves just like the real thing. Phew!
As we work towards crossing the uncanny valley so that computer-generated humans don’t look like horrific plastic mannequins, every last facial feature needs to be recreated perfectly. That even includes teeth, which can now be digitized using nothing but a video of someone smiling.
Not even walls can stop Disney’s and ETH Zurich’s new four-wheeled robot called VertiGo that can quickly transition from rolling on the ground to climbing obstacles like a gecko—and without those sticky feet.
In the future war against the machines, humans might have gained a brief respite by powering through the flowing rivers where electronic killer robots cannot tread. These bridge-building quadrotors have now closed off that avenue of escape.
With the potential to revolutionize everything from busking to children’s parties, a researcher named Raffaello D’Andrea at ETH Zurich has built a simple sensor-less machine using four strategically placed paddles that are able to juggle four balls in the air with surprising accuracy.
We’ve covered the remarkable work that researchers at ETH Zurich have been doing with robots and quadcopters before, but did you know its facility has a dedicated Flying Machine Arena where they tether drones to poles and make them fly in circles at terrifying speeds? It’s even more amazing than it sounds.
Every year the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich trots out its weird and wonderful robotic creations adorned with festive garb as one of the more entertaining video holiday cards you'll see every year. At this point it's almost as much a holiday tradition as watching Charlie Brown or the Grinch on TV, and though…
There's a flood of new smartwatches and other wearable devices coming just around the corner, and every one of them will require a connection to your smartphone. Wireless NFC technology has already made things a little easier when it comes to pairing, but researchers at Disney want to make things even easier by just…
It will be years before Amazon's dream of same day package deliveries via drone will ever become a reality. But you can forget about trying to shoot one down for some free electronics thanks to new software that allows a quadcopter to stay aloft—and on course—even after losing one or more of its propellers.
Mankind's attempts to create robotic humans that move exactly like us have so far been far from perfect. They usually stumble around, desperately trying to keep their balance like a toddler taking its first steps. But recreating the natural motions of underwater creatures like sea turtles? We've damn near perfected…
Until now, MAVs found their way from A to B with one of two methods—GPS navigation or a human pilot. Problem is, both of those rely on external systems to guide the robot. For a more autonomous MAV, the quad-copter must see for itself.
