This video, released by the IDSIA Robotics Lab as part of the ongoing work in the EU-funded project IM-CLeVeR, shows recent skills learned by the iCub humanoid.

The IM-CleVeR project, launched in 2009, aims at “developing a new methodology for designing robots that can cumulatively learn new skills through autonomous development based on intrinsic motivations, and reuse such skills for accomplishing multiple, complex, and externally-assigned… read more

TED | Plenty of robots can fly — but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.

Related:
TED | “A robot that flies like a bird”

Stanford’s self-driving Audi TTS, Shelley, hit 120 mph on a recent track test. Combined with new research on professional drivers’ brain activity, the car’s performance could get even better.

Shelley is the product of collaboration between Stanford’s Dynamic Design Lab, led by mechanical engineering Associate Professor Chris Gerdes, and the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab.

There’s very little difference between the path a professional driver takes around the course… read more

It looks like a creation from Frankenstein’s lab: a robot with tentacles modelled on an octopus — the world’s first entirely soft robot.

The first prototype has six silicone legs designed for locomotion, while two specialized arms use artificial muscles, motors and sensors to detect and grasp objects. A spring-like structure inside these tentacles, made from a shape-memory alloy, can expand, contract or bend in any direction with… read more