New report calls for ban on 'killer robots' amid UN meeting

Technology allowing a pre-programmed robot to shoot to kill, or a tank to fire at a target with no human involvement, is only years away, experts say. A new report called Monday for a ban on such "killer robots."

Robot innovation automates short production runs

The quick-control system developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd slashes substantially the programming time for industrial robots, enabling the use of automation also in short production runs of single-item ...

New smart robot accelerates cancer treatment research

A new smart research robot accelerates research on cancer treatments. The new robot system finds optimal treatment combinations. Today Scientific Reports is publishing an article about the robot, authored by Dr Mats Gustafsson, ...

Biophysicists take small step in quest for 'robot scientist'

Biophysicists have taken another small step forward in the quest for an automated method to infer models describing a system's dynamics - a so-called robot scientist. Nature Communications published the finding - a practical ...

Helping robots handle uncertainty

Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes are a way to model autonomous robots' behavior in circumstances where neither their communication with each other nor their judgments about the outside world are ...

Robotic sonar system inspired by bats

Rolf Mueller, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has developed a prototype of a dynamic sonar system inspired by horseshoe bats.

Controlling swarms of robots with light and a single finger

Using a smart tablet and a red beam of light, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a system that allows people to control a fleet of robots with the swipe of a finger. A person taps the tablet to control ...

Battle lines drawn around the legality of 'killer robots'

The future of lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) – often referred to in the popular press as "killer robots" – remains uncertain following a week-long meeting in Geneva to discuss their legality.

Car safety system could anticipate driver's mistakes

It may be a while yet before we have cars that drive themselves, but in the near future your car may help you drive. In particular, it could warn you when you're about to do something stupid.

page 7 from 24