Robots

A hospital stay can be a stressful experience for anybody, and especially for a child. But a smiling new robot named Robin plays games, tells stories and comforts children in need of a friend.

By Jesslyn Shields

AI already can outperform humans in some narrow domains, but in the future AI may go inside the human brain to enhance intellectual capabilities, turning users into human-machine hybrids.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Many people worry that drones will invade their privacy, though experts say the fear is greater than the actual threat.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A new robot ant uses the same technology desert ants use to safely, efficiently navigate through the searing Saharan sun.

By Jesslyn Shields

We humans may 'know it when we see it,' but the bots sure don't. At least not yet.

By Greg Fish

Well, heck yeah, we can, and we have. Let's take a look.

By Robert Lamb

Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece '2001: A Space Odyssey' premiered 50 years ago, and it got a lot of things right. But what about HAL? How close are we to those kinds of capabilities?

By Oisin Curran

With the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots heating up, we step back a few decades to look at the first human death by robot.

By Bryan Young

And guess what? You can browse them all for yourself.

By Jonathan Strickland

Researchers want to make it easy for beginners and nonengineers to design a custom robot in minutes, then print and assemble the parts themselves.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A newly filed patent suggests that the famously stiff animatronics in Disney theme parks could get a lifelike upgrade.

By Laurie L. Dove

The android known as FEDOR used pistols to display its decision making and dexterity, officials said, not as a preview of robot warfare.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Baxter, a collaborative robot, even blushes when he messes up a task.

By Shelley Danzy

Anything you can do on the pingpong table, FOPRPHEUS can show you how to do better.

By Chris Opfer

We've taught the machines to make decisions, but we haven't been paying as much attention to how and why they're learning.

By Patrick J. Kiger

How can you keep motors from overheating without bulky fans and cooling systems? Engineers looked to the human body for inspiration.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Researchers have developed wearable, mobile robots that can act as sensors, displays and even a necklace.

By Yves Jeffcoat

A new application called Statcheck is bringing some academics a lot closer to AI. Not everyone's a fan.

By Kate Kershner

What are the benefits of growing living tissue in a lab and fusing it to a robotic body? This Fw:Thinking video explores our cyborg future.

By Laurie L. Dove

A robot to simulate mudskipper locomotion gives scientists a look into the success of the first land vertebrate ancestors, and points to our future on other planets.

By Jesslyn Shields

For the first time, Israeli researchers have developed a system that lets a human use brain waves to control nanobots in a cockroach. How could that help your health?

By Patrick J. Kiger

And someday soft-bodied bots like this could slither in and out of your belly and revolutionize biomedical technology.

By Robert Lamb

While the recent robotic lethal force by police in Dallas may be shocking, experts say it's legal, and we're likely to see it happen again.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of volunteers for doctors to practice manual prostate exams on. Enter the robotic rectum. We like to call it a robum.

By Kate Kershner

Parking tickets are a pain. Chatbots can be too. But that hasn't stopped one programmer from creating a bot to help overturn thousands of tickets.

By Jonathan Strickland