Groups that closely monitor the evolution of unmanned aircraft systems, including the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, have spotted some language in a bill making its way through Congress that would add another obstacle to the integration of UAS into the U.S. national airspace. Last week, the Senate Committee on Appropriations added language to
The International Federation of Robotics reported today that 159,000 industrial robots were sold in 2012 — the second highest total in history, but down slightly from 166,028 units in 2011. The decrease was mainly due to fewer sales in the electronics industry. In contrast, sales to the automotive industry rose 6 percent worldwide. Other industries
Recently, researchers at Sweden’s Örebro University released a video showcasing GiraffPlus, a “smart home” system designed to allow the elderly to live independently longer. The system consists of a network of home sensors that monitor residents’ health paired with a mobile telepresence robot, called Giraff, that allows caregivers to check in. The system has been
If robotics has anything close to a Super Bowl, it’s probably the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which launched last year and will conclude in December 2014 with teams competing for a $2 million prize. The goal of the competition is to develop a robot that can provide meaningful assistance in disaster relief efforts. Sticking with the
It will be years before driverless cars are available to the public thanks to technological and regulatory hurdles, but a new survey suggests that a delay is required for another reason as well: to get people comfortable with the idea of handing the wheel over to a computer. TE Connectivity Ltd. today shared the results
At today’s nestCON 1.2 Internet of Things conference, a company called Knightscope announced it is developing a new technology it calls “Autonomous Data Machines.” The machines are designed to collect massive amounts of real world data to provide organizations with real time information, behavioral analysis and user-defined alerts at any site they choose. The company
In the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recent policy statement on automated vehicles, the group defined five different levels of automation — from “no automation” to “full self-driving automation.” Many of the autonomous advancements car manufacturers will introduce during the next several years will fall between those two extremes, yet they will still represent revolutionary
In yet another sign of how quickly 3-D printing is growing, Stratasys announced yesterday that it will acquire MakerBot in a stock-for-stock transaction initially valued at $403 million — not including performance-based incentives that could increase the total to more than $600 million (based on Wednesday’s stock price). It was just last week that we
Unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as unmanned aircraft systems to the U.S. Department of Defense and drones to most of the general public, are perhaps the most visible example of how far robotics has come in a relatively short period. Although primitive examples of UAS were used by the military as early as World War
Research published online this week in the latest edition of Advanced Materials could make possible a generation of miniaturized robots that until now have lacked sufficiently small and powerful batteries to operate. To create the grain-of-sand-sized lithium-ion microbatteries (shown above), researchers 3-D printed interlaced stacks of battery electrodes less than the width of a human hair, according
