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Category: robotics/AI – Page 190

From stiff to soft in a snap: Magnetic jamming opens new frontiers for microrobotics

Could tiny magnetic objects, that rapidly clump together and instantly fall apart again, one day perform delicate procedures inside the human body? A new study from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and at ETH Zurich introduces a wireless method to stiffen and relax small structures using magnetic fields, without wires, pumps, or physical contact.

In music, “jamming” refers to the spontaneous gathering of musicians who often improvise without aiming for a predefined outcome. In physics, jamming describes the transition of a material from a fluid-like to a solid-like state—like a traffic jam, where the flow of cars suddenly stops. This transformation can also be triggered on demand, offering a powerful and versatile way to control stiffness for .

In most robotic applications, jamming is achieved using vacuum systems that suck air out of flexible enclosures filled with materials such as particles, fibers, or grains. But these systems require pumps, valves, and tubing—making them difficult to miniaturize.

Learning the language of lasso peptides to improve peptide engineering

In the hunt for new therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases, lasso peptides prove to be a catch. Their knot-like structures afford these molecules high stability and diverse biological activities, making them a promising avenue for new therapeutics. To better unleash their clinical potential, a team from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology has developed LassoESM, a new large language model for predicting lasso peptide properties.

The collaborative study was recently published in Nature Communications.

Lasso peptides are made by bacteria. To produce these peptides, bacteria use ribosomes to build chains of amino acids that are then folded by biosynthetic enzymes into a unique slip knot-like structure. Through this process, thousands of different lasso peptides are generated, many of which have demonstrated antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer properties.

These Tiny Robots Can Swarm, Adapt, and Heal Themselves

Scientists designed microrobots that use sound to swarm, adapt, and heal themselves — working together like a living organism. The discovery could transform medicine, environmental cleanup, and robotics.

Nature’s Blueprint for Robot Swarms

Animals such as bats, whales, and insects have long relied on sound to communicate and find their way. Drawing inspiration from this, an international group of scientists has developed a model for tiny robots that use sound waves to move and work together in large, coordinated swarms that behave almost intelligently. According to team leader Igor Aronson, Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics at Penn State, these robotic collectives could eventually take on challenging missions like exploring disaster areas, cleaning polluted environments, or performing medical procedures inside the human body.

Schellman AI Summit 2025 · Luma

Join Adam Perella and I at the Schellman AI Summit on November 18th, 2025 at Schellman HQ in Tampa Florida.

Your AI doesn’t just use data; it consumes it like a hungry teenager at a buffet.

This creates a problem when the same AI system operating across multiple regulatory jurisdictions is subject to conflicting legal requirements. Imagine your organization trains your AI in California, deploys it in Dublin, and serves users globally.

This means that you operate in multiple jurisdictions, each demanding different regulatory requirements from your organization.

Welcome to the fragmentation of cross-border AI governance, where over 1,000 state AI bills introduced in 2025 meet the EU’s comprehensive regulatory framework, creating headaches for businesses operating internationally.

As compliance and attestation leaders, we’re well-positioned to offer advice on how to face this challenge as you establish your AI governance roadmap.

Cross-border AI accountability isn’t going away; it’s only accelerating. The companies that thrive will be those that treat regulatory complexity as a competitive advantage, not a compliance burden.

Continue reading “Schellman AI Summit 2025 · Luma” | >

3D-printed microrobots adapt to diverse environments with modular design

Microrobots, small robotic systems that are less than 1 centimeter (cm) in size, could tackle some real-world tasks that cannot be completed by bigger robots. For instance, they could be used to monitor confined spaces and remote natural environments, to deliver drugs or to diagnose diseases or other medical conditions.

Researchers at Seoul National University recently introduced new modular and durable microrobots that can adapt to their surroundings, effectively navigating a range of environments. These , introduced in a paper published in Advanced Materials, can be fabricated using 3D .

“Microrobots, with their insect-like size, are expected to make contributions in fields where conventional robots have struggled to operate,” Won Jun Song, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “However, most microrobots developed to date have been highly specialized, tailored for very specific purposes, making them difficult to deploy across diverse environments and applications. Our goal was to present a new approach toward creating general-purpose microrobots.”

Checking the quality of materials just got easier with a new AI tool

Manufacturing better batteries, faster electronics, and more effective pharmaceuticals depends on the discovery of new materials and the verification of their quality. Artificial intelligence is helping with the former, with tools that comb through catalogs of materials to quickly tag promising candidates.

But once a material is made, verifying its quality still involves scanning it with specialized instruments to validate its performance — an expensive and time-consuming step that can hold up the development and distribution of new technologies.

Now, a new AI tool developed by MIT engineers could help clear the quality-control bottleneck, offering a faster and cheaper option for certain materials-driven industries.

TSMC Announces the Intent to Rapidly Expand U.S. Operations, Introducing Cutting-Edge 2nm Chips With New Facilities in Arizona

TSMC plans to scale up its operations in America at a rapid pace, as announced during the recent earnings call, including the acquisition of a second piece of land to expand the Arizona fabs.

The Taiwan giant is currently witnessing extraordinary demand for its chip production in the US, mainly driven by AI and how clients like NVIDIA, AMD, and Apple are pursuing manufacturing in America. TSMC is the primary supplier of cutting-edge semiconductors in the US, with the Arizona facilities mass-producing the 4nm process at the time of reporting. However, at the Q3 earnings call, TSMC’s CEO expressed the intention to bring N2 and beyond technologies to the US, and also announced plans to secure a second piece of land to expand the Arizona facilities.

We are making tangible progress and executing well to our plan. In addition, we are preparing to upgrade our technologies faster to N2 and more advanced process technologies in Arizona, given the strong AI related demand from our customers.

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