The GD01 expands the Hangzhou-based company’s portfolio at a time when Chinese manufacturers are significantly outstripping their US rivals.
Category: robotics/AI – Page 18
Engineered exosomes reverse sleep deprivation brain damage in mice
Sleep is a vital physiological process that allows humans and other animals to restore both the mind and body, while also consolidating memories, clearing out toxins and regulating their metabolism. Several past studies showed that getting insufficient sleep for prolonged periods of time can trigger inflammatory responses and can negatively impact people’s memory, mood, attention and decision-making.
Researchers at Quanzhou First Hospital, affiliated with Fujian Medical University, recently carried out a mouse study aimed at assessing the potential of a new treatment based on exosomes, tiny membrane-covered vesicles that transport biological material between cells, for reversing some of the adverse effects of chronic sleep deprivation. Their findings, published in Translational Psychiatry, suggest that the delivery of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) via exosomes could prevent cells in the mouse brain from becoming damaged following prolonged periods of stress and lack of sleep.
“Chronic sleep deprivation impairs cognition and triggers neuroinflammation, but effective molecular therapies are lacking,” wrote Zhenming Kang, Guoshao Zhu and their colleagues in their paper. “Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) offers neuroprotection, though its delivery across the blood–brain barrier remains a challenge. This study investigates exosomes as a vehicle to enhance brain delivery of HSP70 for treating chronic sleep deprivation.”
Qatsi Director Godfrey Reggio: We Are in the Cyborg State!
Thirteen years ago, I sat down with a filmmaker who had spent his life warning us about a future we are now living inside.
Godfrey Reggio is the director of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi, the Qatsi trilogy. Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi word. It means life out of balance.
In our conversation, he said something I have never been able to shake:
“It’s our behavior that determines the content of our mind. We become what we do. We become what we see. We become the routine that we are a part of.”
Read that again. Slowly.
Now look at your phone. Look at your feed. Look at the average screen time of the people around you, including yourself.
Unitree Unveils: GD01, A Manned Transformable Mecha, from $650,000
The world’s first production-ready manned mecha. It can transform. It’s a civilian vehicle.
It weighs ~500kg with you inside.
Please everyone be sure to use the robot in a friendly and safe manner.
This tiny grain-of-rice sensor gives robots a new sense and changes what delicate tools can detect
Researchers have developed a sensor about the size of a grain of rice that can measure forces and twisting motions in all directions using light instead of traditional electronics. The new sensor could help robotic tools and medical devices “feel” what they are touching, especially at very small scales.
“Although modern imaging systems can show structures clearly, they do not provide information about physical interaction, such as force or torque, and existing force sensors are often too bulky or complex to fit into miniature tools,” said research team leader Jianlong Yang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. “By allowing machines to measure contact force, pressure, shear and twisting, our technology could make it possible for robots to detect unsafe contact early and adjust their actions in real time, especially in small and sensitive environments.”
In Optica journal, the researchers describe their new sensor, which measures just 1.7 millimeters and uses a single optical signal to measure forces and torques in all directions at once. Proof-of-concept tests showed that the sensor can detect stiffness variations and locate hidden structures in models that mimic a tumor embedded in tissue.
Hybrid AI architecture could turn neuromorphic systems into reliable discovery machines
The artificial intelligence (AI) machines that guide the world can be grouped into three main categories: inference machines, learning machines and discovery machines. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are tackling the rarest of these machines. A new study points to a better way to build discovery machines, thanks to recent research led by Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
The work, now published in Nature Communications, builds off previous research on establishing a hybrid systems architecture, one that employs “neuromorphic” architecture modeled on human neurobiology functions combined with systems that leverage quantum mechanics to find optimal solutions to complex problems.
The research shows that these machines can consistently produce state-of-the-art solutions with high reliability and with competitive time-to-solution metrics, Chakrabartty said.
Google: Hackers used AI to develop zero-day exploit for web admin tool
Researchers at Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) say that a zero-day exploit targeting a popular open-source web administration tool was likely generated using AI.
The exploit could be leveraged to bypass the two-factor authentication (2FA) protection in a popular open-source, web-based system administration tool that remains unnamed.
Although the attack was foiled before the mass exploitation phase, the incident shows that threat actors are relying more on AI assistance for their vulnerability discovery and exploitation efforts.
TrickMo Android banker adopts TON blockchain for covert comms
A new variant of the TrickMo Android banking malware, delivered in campaigns targeting users across Europe, introduces new commands and uses The Open Network (TON) for stealthy command-and-control communications.
The TrickMo banker was first spotted in September 2019 and has remained in active development, constantly receiving updates since then.
In October 2024, Zimperium analyzed 40 variants of the malware delivered via 16 droppers, communicating with 22 distinct command-and-control (C2) infrastructures, and targeting sensitive data belonging to users worldwide.
