Someday, scientists believe, tiny DNA-based robots and other nanodevices will deliver medicine inside our bodies, detect the presence of deadly pathogens, and help manufacture increasingly smaller electronics.
Researchers took a big step toward that future by developing a new tool that can design much more complex DNA robots and nanodevices than were ever possible before in a fraction of the time.
In a paper published today (April 19, 2021) in the journal Nature Materials , researchers from The Ohio State University – led by former engineering doctoral student Chao-Min Huang – unveiled new software they call MagicDNA.
A technique to plan paths for multiple robots in flexible formations
Multi-robot systems have recently been used to tackle a variety of real-world problems, for instance, helping human users to monitor environments and access secluded locations. In order to navigate unknown and dynamic environments most efficiently, these robotic systems should be guided by path planners, which can identify collision-free trajectories for individual robots in a team.
"Compared to a single robot, using multi-robot systems made of smaller dedicated robots working in collaboration could have several advantages," Prof. Madhu Vadali, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "For instance, these systems allow for better coverage, better performance, more flexibility, reliability and versatility.
New Compact HEIDENHAIN Rotary Encoder Made for Robots
Schaumburg, IL, April 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With its small dimensions and high reliability, HEIDENHAIN 's new KCI/KBI 1300 series of inductive rotary encoders are made specifically to support compact servomotors for collaborative and service robots .
First presented at the international virtual trade show SPS in November of 2020, these new KCI 1319 / KBI 1335 measurement feedback devices are now available and are proving to be of great interest to those in this ever-growing market.
Want to Get Along With Robots? Pretend They're Animals | WIRED
WIRED : The metaphor of robots and animals is particularly powerful because it spans such a range of roles that we want robots to assume. We put oxen to work doing a very specific job that frees up humans to do the not-horrific part of farming. But you also see this in companion robots filling the role of an actual pet, a cat or a dog.
Kate Darling : We've used animals in war, we've used them as our companions. We've domesticated them, not because they do what we do, but because they have skill sets that are supplemental to ours. So when we're thinking about robots, instead of trying to think about recreating ourselves, we should be thinking more about: What are the skill sets that can complement our own?
Using different teams of robots to model environmental processes
Teams of multiple robots could help to tackle a number of complex real-world problems, for instance, assisting human agents during search and rescue missions, monitoring the environment or assessing the damage caused by natural disasters. Over the past few years, multi-robot systems have proved to be particularly useful for solving problems that involve a distribution over space or time (i.e., allowing agents to cover large distances or monitor processes over time).
"We propose a coupled strategy, where robots of one type collect high-fidelity measurements at a slow time scale and robots of another type collect low-fidelity measurements at a fast time scale, for the purpose of fusing measurements together," Tahiya Salam and M. Ani Hsieh wrote in their paper.
Bill allowing robots to deliver goods straight to Oklahomans' door heading to
A bill heading to Gov. Kevin Stitt's desk would allow small autonomous robots into Oklahomans' neighborhoods, but the idea is getting some pushback from local gig workers.
State Rep. Logan Phillips defended Senate Bill 706 last week. The bill would authorize personal delivery devices to operate on sidewalks and crosswalks.
"It sits inside a delivery truck, so the delivery driver comes to your neighborhood instead of him having to go to each house individually," Phillips said. "He can unload the drones, drop the packages directory to you. So, it speeds up efficiency."
South Florida restaurant buys robots to fight staffing issues
A restaurant in Florida has added several new high-tech workers to its roster. After struggling with staffing issues, the seafood place decided to invest in robots to help deliver food to tables and perform other important tasks.
Mr. Q Crab House in Hollywood, Fla., invested in three foodservice robots, Fox 23 reports. The electronic workers have been performing various tasks normally assigned to servers and other front-of-house workers.
Save Mart to pilot inventory robots at seven California supermarkets | Grocery Dive
Save Mart plans to initially test the Tally robots' ability to monitor shelves to make sure items are in stock and in the proper place in the store. Later, the grocer may test software that crunches data collected by the devices to provide information on a store's inventory that can improve in-stock levels while boosting in-store and e-commerce sales, according to the press release.
The robots, which Simbe says can each scan as many 30,000 products during a day traversing a store's aisles and help retailers reduce out-of-stocks by nearly a third, also free store staff to handle other roles, like working with customers, the technology firm noted.
Happening on Twitter
DNA Robots Designed In Minutes Instead of Days https://t.co/9Ng2uxz6Jg slashdot (from The Internet) Tue Apr 20 02:03:22 +0000 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment