Stanford University researcher Mac Schwager entered the world of penguin counting through a chance meeting at his sister-in-law’s wedding in June 2016. There, he learned that Annie Schmidt, a biologist at Point Blue Conservation Science, was seeking a better way to image a large penguin colony in Antarctica. Schwager, who is an assistant professor of…
Stanford developing tetherless soft robot that changes shape
Advances in soft robotics could someday allow robots to work alongside humans, helping them lift heavy objects or carrying them out of danger. As a step toward that future, Stanford University researchers have developed a new kind of soft robot that, by borrowing features from traditional robotics, is safe while still retaining the ability to…
Researchers study birds to improve how aerial robots land
Under the watchful eyes of five high-speed cameras, a small, pale-blue bird named Gary waits for the signal to fly. Diana Chin, a graduate student at Stanford University and Gary’s trainer, points her finger to a perch about 20 inches away. The catch here is that the perch is covered in Teflon, making it…
Reward learning framework combines demos, preferences to train robots
Told to optimize for speed while racing down a track in a computer game, a car pushes the pedal to the metal … and proceeds to spin in a tight little circle. Nothing in the instructions told the car to drive straight, and so it improvised. This example – funny in a computer game but…
Stanford Doggo robot acrobatically traverses tough terrain
Stanford University students have created a quadruped robot to navigate difficult terrain, and they’ve made the designs and source code open-source.
Neural network helps autonomous car learn to handle the unknown
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new way of controlling autonomous cars that integrates prior driving experiences – a system that will help the cars perform more safely in extreme and unknown circumstances. Tested at the limits of friction on a racetrack using Niki, Stanford’s autonomous Volkswagen GTI, and Shelley, Stanford’s autonomous Audi TTS,…
JackRabbot 2 studying socially-aware autonomous navigation
If you’ve ever been caught in the dreaded sidewalk tango, failing to gracefully maneuver around someone directly in your path, you have some idea of the challenges ahead for a Stanford University robot, JackRabbot 2. With a squat body, friendly eyes and a two-fingered Kinova Robotics arm, JackRabbot 2 is tasked with learning all it…