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Transparent gel-based robots can catch and release live fish

A new technology for cleaning and maintaining your aquarium as well as useful for zoos, public aquariums, etc.

A new technology for fishing industry and hobbyists.1092647.htm


Engineers at MIT have fabricated transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out of them. The bots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, and grabbing and releasing a live fish.

The robots are made entirely of hydrogel — a tough, rubbery, nearly transparent material that’s composed mostly of water. Each robot is an assemblage of hollow, precisely designed hydrogel structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When the researchers pump water into the hydrogel robots, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the bots to curl up or stretch out.

The team fashioned several hydrogel robots, including a finlike structure that flaps back and forth, an articulated appendage that makes kicking motions, and a soft, hand-shaped robot that can squeeze and relax.

Who Has the Manufacturing Edge? May Countries With the Best Robots Win

I was just telling someone today this very message. Of course they believe borders keep things from happening. Maybe physically; but not in an online retail and consumer world. Who are the most advance and real time responsive in meeting the interests and demands of consumers; will be the winners.


From time to time, the Singularity Hub editorial team unearths a gem from the archives and wants to share it all over again. It’s usually a piece that was popular back then and we think is still relevant now. This is one of those articles. It was originally published October 7, 2015. We hope you enjoy it!

You’ve heard the chatter: Robots and AI want your job. One famous study predicted 47% of today’s jobs may be automated by 2034. And if you want to know how likely it is you’ll be replaced by a robot, check out this BBC tool. (Writer = 33%. Yay?)

But nowhere is automation as immediately evident as it is in manufacturing. It’s been going on for decades, most obviously in automotive assembly and heavy machinery. Increasingly, however, more advanced robot factory workers are branching out.

Robots and bio-printing change the face of surgery in UAE

Highly sophisticated robotics and ‘bio-printing’ are rapidly changing the face of modern surgery, significantly eliminating the risk of human error and in some cases even allowing doctors to perform procedures remotely, according to experts at Arab Health.

Dr Peter C.W. Kim, vice-president and associate surgeon-in-chief of the Joseph E. Roberts Jr. Centre for Surgical Care at Washington DC’s Children’s National — which has received millions of dollars in donations from the UAE’s government — noted that doctors will soon be able to 3D-print using bio-tissue, such as for an eardrum.

“What our engineers and researchers have done is not only design the plastic with it, but also graft cells onto it,” he said. “This is where we are going. You will (in the future) be able to have organs on the shelf. Instead of harvesting it, you can print it.”

Meet Bat Bot: The First Flying Robot

Could we see Humanoid robots with wings someday?


Bat Bot, a lightweight flier with thin silicone wings stretched over a carbon fiber skeleton, can cruise, dive and bank turn just like its namesake, researchers report February 1 in Science Robotics, Joinfo.com reports with reference to Science News.

Such a maneuverable machine could one day soar up the towering structures of a construction site, flying in and out of steel beams to help keep track of a building’s progress, study coauthor Seth Hutchinson, a roboticist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a news briefing January 31.

Other aerial robots, like some drones, aren’t so agile, relying on four whirling rotor blades to lift off the ground, Hutchinson said. These bots also have trouble flying in the wind, because they can exert force in only one direction, he said. Bat Bot’s flexible wings could make it a more versatile flier.

Cognitive electronic warfare: Countering threats posed by adaptive radars

A little delayed in sharing this.


Threats posed by to systems are a colossal challenge for the U.S. Navy, but a combo of advanced , intelligent algorithms, and are being developed to help warfighters detect and counter them.

Electronic warfare (EW) systems – whether on land or aboard U.S. military ships and aircraft – tap the to sense, protect, and communicate. But, when necessary, these same systems can be turned against adversaries to deny their ability to disrupt or use radio, infrared, or signals.

Today’s EW systems tend to rely on databases of known threats with predefined countermeasures, which can limit their ability to quickly adapt and respond to new advanced threats. Soon, these systems may increasingly be tasked with isolating unknown hostile radar signals within dense electromagnetic environments and responding quickly with effective electronic countermeasures.

Whoosh! Swish! Meet Bat Bot, the new flying batlike drone

WASHINGTON (AP) — Holy drone, Batman! Mechanical masterminds have spawned the Bat Bot, a soaring, sweeping and diving robot that may eventually fly circles around other drones.

Because it mimics the unique and more flexible way bats fly, this 3-ounce prototype could do a better and safer job getting into disaster sites and scoping out construction zones than bulky drones with spinning rotors, said the three authors of a study released Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics. For example, it would have been ideal for going inside the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, said study co-author Seth Hutchinson, an engineering professor at the University of Illinois.

The bat robot flaps its wings for better aerial maneuvers, glides to save energy and dive bombs when needed. Eventually, the researchers hope to have it perch upside down like the real thing, but that will have to wait for the robot’s sequel.

The most complex problem in physics could be solved by machines with brains

Will we finally solve world peace though with AI on QC? Hmmm.


I work in computational quantum condensed-matter physics: the study of matter, materials, and artificial quantum systems. Complex problems are our thing.

Researchers in our field are working on hyper-powerful batteries, perfectly efficient power transmission, and ultra-strong materials—all important stuff to making the future a better place. To create these concepts, condensed-matter physics deals with the most complex concept in nature: the quantum wavefunction of a many-particle system. Think of the most complex thing you know, and this blows it out of the water: A computer that models the electron wavefunction of a nanometer-size chunk of dust would require a hard drive containing more magnetic bits than there are atoms in the universe.

I started thinking about how machine learning and artificial intelligence could help our field when Google DeepMind defeated world champion Lee Sedol in the ancient game of Go.

D-Wave open sources software tool to build foundation for a quantum computing community

Congrats again to Geordie Rose and Vern Brownell for their company’s awesome achievements so far in 2017! I also, would like to take this time to recognize a very special friend of mine Yanbo Xue who continues to do amazing advancements in QC for D-Wave. Congrats Yanbo in your new and incredible role as Research Lead for D-Waves Deep Learning research team and work. I expect we will see many more great things as a result of this great move.


D-Wave open sourced its software tool with the hopes of encouraging more companies to adopt quantum computing technology.

Norwegian robot learns to self-evolve and 3D print itself in the lab

Experts at the University of Oslo, Norway have discovered a new way for robots to design, evolve and manufacture themselves, without input from humans, using a form of artificial evolution called “Generative design,” and 3D printers – although admittedly the team, for now at least, still has to assemble the final product, robot, when it’s printed.

Generative design is something we’ve talked about several times before and it’s where artificial intelligence programs – creative machines, if you will – not humans, innovate new products – such as chairs and even Under Armour’s new Architech sneakers.

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