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Categories: Engineering: Robotics Research, Paleontology: General

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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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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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Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks.  A study of the evolution of longirostrine gomphotheres, an ancestor of the modern day elephant, suggests moving into open-land grazing helped develop their coiling and grasping trunks.

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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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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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Modern hippos first dispersed in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, according to a new study.

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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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Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography.

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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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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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Using historical records from around Australia, an international team of researchers have put forward the most accurate prediction to date of past Antarctic ice sheet melt, providing a more realistic forecast of future sea level rise.   The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest block of ice on earth, containing over 30 million cubic kilometers of water.   Hence, its melting could have a devasting impact on future sea levels. To find out just how big that impact might be, the research team turned to the past.  

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Australia's only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the Pleistocene period more than 50,000 years ago -- and now researchers are bringing them to 'life' again.    Along with new scientific information, a bold new pictorial reconstruction of a newly named eagle and the only known Australian vulture will be unveiled at the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia's Limestone Coast this month.  

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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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The discovery of 27 avian footprints on the southern Australia coast -- dating back to the Early Cretaceous when Australia was still connected to Antarctica -- opens another window onto early avian evolution and possible migratory behavior.

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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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Ancient cycad lineages that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs may have done so by relying on symbiotic bacteria in their roots to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The finding came from an effort to understand ancient atmospheres, but became an insight into plant evolution instead.

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In the geological past, several groups of crocodiles evolved towards a morphology adapted to marine life. However, the extent of these adaptations and their evolutionary trajectories remained unknown. An exhaustive study of their morphology has now shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms at work, thanks to three-dimensional reconstructions.

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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.