Category: Robots

  • Algorithms. Jail. Peoples’ lives.

    An algorithm takes decisions about peoples’ live and decides whether and how they will potentially go to jail again. The algorithm is one of many making decisions about people’s lives in the United States and Europe. Local authorities use so-called predictive algorithms to set police patrols, prison sentences and probation rules. In the Netherlands, an […]

  • Finding your way…

    A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. (1) Finding your way without a map. Is there any other way? With a map, you will always return at home. But what is home? Were you not born […]

  • The front door… Mind the front door…

    The front door… Mind the front door…

    Engineers have developed a navigation method that doesn’t require mapping an area in advance. Instead, their approach enables a robot to use clues in its environment to plan out a route to its destination, which can be described in general semantic terms, such as ‘front door’ or ‘garage,’ rather than as coordinates on a map. […]

  • Counting. Playing music.

    Counting. Playing music.

    Bees can solve seemingly clever counting tasks with very small numbers of nerve cells in their brains, according to researchers. (1) Scientists have developed a 3D-printed robotic hand which can play simple musical phrases on the piano by just moving its wrist. (2) Everyone feeling so important when counting. But every animal can do it. […]

  • Mimicking an insect. Mimicking nothingness.

    A novel insect-inspired flying robot, developed by TU Delft researchers from the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory (MAVLab), is presented in Science. Experiments with this first autonomous, free-flying and agile flapping-wing robot – carried out in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research – improved our understanding of how fruit flies control aggressive escape maneuvers. Apart from […]