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Categories: Engineering: Robotics Research, Environmental: Biodiversity

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World War II concluded decades ago, but live mines lurking on the ocean floor still pose threats, potentially spewing unexpected geysers or releasing contaminants into the water. Experts conduct controlled explosions to clear underwater munitions, but concerns have arisen over the environmental impacts from these blasts. New results show that the contamination produced by detonation depends on the blast type, with weaker explosions leaving behind more potentially toxic residues.

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A landmark study into the geological timescale distribution of sediment and nutrients over 500 million years shows that species biodiversity on Earth is driven by landscape dynamics.

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New technology often calls for new materials -- and with supercomputers and simulations, researchers don't have to wade through inefficient guesswork to invent them from scratch.

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An inspection design method and procedure by which mobile robots can inspect large pipe structures has been demonstrated with the successful inspection of multiple defects on a three-meter long steel pipe using guided acoustic wave sensors.

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Planting flowers beside food crops on farms in India attracts bees, boosts pollination and improves crop yield and quality, researchers have found.

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Engineers have come up with a new way to teach robots to know when they don't know. The technique involves quantifying the fuzziness of human language and using that measurement to tell robots when to ask for further directions. Telling a robot to pick up a bowl from a table with only one bowl is fairly clear. But telling a robot to pick up a bowl when there are five bowls on the table generates a much higher degree of uncertainty -- and triggers the robot to ask for clarification.

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The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize. Researchers found that in areas of the rainforest in which Indigenous farmers using slash-and-burn techniques created intermediate-sized farm patches -- neither too small nor too large -- there were increases in forest plant diversity.

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Researchers report that they have developed a new composite material designed to change behaviors depending on temperature in order to perform specific tasks. These materials are poised to be part of the next generation of autonomous robotics that will interact with the environment.

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Nearly a third of the world's mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, new research has found.

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A new technique enables an AI agent to be guided by data crowdsourced asynchronously from nonexpert human users as it learns to complete a task through reinforcement learning. The method trains the robot faster and better than other approaches.

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Researchers taught an autonomous excavator to construct dry stone walls itself using boulders weighing several tons and demolition debris.

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Tandem solar cells based on perovskite semiconductors convert sunlight to electricity more efficiently than conventional silicon solar cells. In order to make this technology ready for the market, further improvements with regard to stability and manufacturing processes are required. Researchers have succeeded in finding a way to predict the quality of the perovskite layers and consequently that of the resulting solar cells: Assisted by Machine Learning and new methods in Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is possible assess their quality from variations in light emission already in the manufacturing process.

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Using 700 years' worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. Long considered myth, freakishly large rogue waves are very real and can split apart ships and even damage oil rigs.

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Concerted action is required to mitigate the impact of warming on polar ecosystems and sustainably manage these unique habitats.  

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A novel technology to manage demands on mobile networks from multiple users using Terahertz frequencies has been developed by computer scientists.

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Nature photographers posting to social media are helping improve biodiversity conservation mapping in South Asia, and the method could go global.

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Engineers investigating the load-bearing capacity of conical shells, made from soft materials, have discovered performance-limiting weaknesses that could have implications for soft robotics -- affecting the ability of morphing cones to perform fundamental mechanical tasks.

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Human trade and transport have led to the intentional and accidental introductions of non-native species outside of their natural range globally. These biological invasions can cause extinctions, cost trillions, and spread diseases. A study has investigated how many of these non-native species already exist worldwide and which species groups are particularly prone to become non-native.

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Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide. Each year more than 15 million people worldwide have strokes, and three-quarters of stroke survivors will experience impairment, weakness and paralysis in their arms and hands. Many stroke survivors rely on their stronger arm to complete daily tasks, from carrying groceries to combing their hair, even when the weaker arm has the potential to improve.

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For the first time, researchers have succeeded in printing a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of different polymers using a new laser scanning technique. The new technology makes it possible to 3D print special plastics with elastic qualities in one go. This opens up completely new possibilities for the production of soft robotic structures.