Topic description and stories

Robot braille reader

Robot trained to read braille at twice the speed of humans

29 Jan 2024

Researchers have developed a robotic sensor that incorporates artificial intelligence techniques to read braille at speeds roughly double that of...

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Robots on a manufacturing line

Robots cause company profits to fall – at least at first

03 Aug 2023

Researchers have found that robots can have a ‘U-shaped’ effect on profits: causing profit margins to fall at first, before eventually rising again...

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The life robotic: Meet the Cambridge University researchers fostering human wellbeing using robots

19 Jul 2023

The team is exploring the capacity robots have to inspire self-reflection, and support the work of psychologists and clinicians.

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Robot arm reaching for a piece of broccoli

Robot ‘chef’ learns to recreate recipes from watching food videos

05 Jun 2023

Researchers have trained a robotic ‘chef’ to watch and learn from cooking videos, and recreate the dish itself.

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Robot hand picking up a plastic ball

It’s all in the wrist: energy-efficient robot hand learns how not to drop the ball

12 Apr 2023

Researchers have designed a low-cost, energy-efficient robotic hand that can grasp a range of objects – and not drop them – using just the movement...

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Humanoid QT robot and toy-like Misty robot

Robots can help improve mental wellbeing at work – as long as they look right

15 Mar 2023

Robots can be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace – but perception of their effectiveness depends in large part on what the robot...

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Robot shaking hands with Dr Micol Spitale

Robots can be used to assess children’s mental wellbeing, study suggests

01 Sep 2022

Robots can be better at detecting mental wellbeing issues in children than parent-reported or self-reported testing, a new study suggests.

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Taste of the future: robot chef learns to ‘taste as you go’

04 May 2022

A robot ‘chef’ has been trained to taste food at different stages of the chewing process to assess whether it’s sufficiently seasoned.

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Self-healing materials for robotics made from ‘jelly’ and salt

18 Feb 2022

Researchers have developed self-healing, biodegradable, 3D-printed materials that could be used in the development of realistic artificial hands and...

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Whiteness of AI erases people of colour from our ‘imagined futures’, researchers argue

06 Aug 2020

The overwhelming ‘Whiteness’ of artificial intelligence – from stock images and cinematic robots to the dialects of virtual assistants – removes...

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A good egg: robot chef trained to make omelettes

01 Jun 2020

A team of engineers have trained a robot to prepare an omelette, all the way from cracking the eggs to plating the finished dish, and refined the ‘...

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Robotic hand made of self-healing material that can heal at room temperature

Machine learning to help develop self-healing robots that ‘feel pain’

07 Aug 2019

Researchers from the University of Cambridge will use self-healing materials and machine learning to develop soft robotics as part of a new...

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