Sea Machines and MARAD have agreed to demonstrate the capabilities of autonomous systems installed aboard an MSRC oil spill response vessel.
‘Boaty McBoatface’ shows promising future of AUVs
The biggest mystery in the universe could possibly be right here on Earth. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as much as 95% of the oceans and 99% of the ocean floor has yet to be explored. Given more than 70% of the planet is covered by water, the promise for unmanned…
Toyota AI Ventures looks for Fund 2 partners to find where robotics is heading
Toyota AI Ventures is looking for innovative startups for its second $100 million fund. Learn about its criteria, the types of companies receiving investment, and Toyota’s outlook for the short and long term.
Roboats, autonomous boats from MIT and AMS Institute, can connect for different applications
MIT and the Advanced Metropolitan Solutions Institute in Amsterdam have developed “roboats,” autonomous boats that can connect for a variety of uses. Researchers are scaling up their designs to be more stable.
XPRIZE releases fiction anthology to inspire engineers for World Oceans Day
Robotics developers and the general public can find inspiration for exploring the oceans in a new fiction anthology from XPRIZE entitled Current Futures: A Sci-Fi Ocean Anthology.
Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE announces winners advancing robotic undersea exploration
The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE winner was the GEBCO-NF Alumni team, which consisted of people from 14 countries. The executive director of the competition describes the teams and goal of advancing undersea mapping technology.
MIT engineers program marine robots to take calculated risks
We know far less about the Earth’s oceans than we do about the surface of the moon or Mars. The sea floor is carved with expansive canyons, towering seamounts, deep trenches, and sheer cliffs, most of which are considered too dangerous or inaccessible for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to navigate. But what if the reward…
Underwater robot autonomously hunts invasive lionfish
If asked to name an oceanic apex predator, sharks are usually the first to come to people’s minds. But ask a fisherman or conservationist in the Carribean or coastal U.S. and you might get a different answer. There, a much smaller creature is terrorizing the underwater ecosystem. Lionfish, a colorful aquarium fish native to the…
RAD sampler robot claw helps scientists study delicate sea creatures
The open ocean is the largest and least explored environment on Earth, estimated to hold up to a million species that have yet to be described. However, many of those organisms are soft-bodied – like jellyfish, squid, and octopuses – and are difficult to capture for study with existing underwater tools, which all too frequently…
A.I.-Equipped Robots Develop Situational Awareness in Earth’s Most Uncertain Environment
Underwater robots to take on task of inspecting the nation’s aging piers, bridges, pipelines and dams at a time when people’s relationship with water is changing. Waves, winds, currents, wakes from passing boats and eddies swirling around structures make water one of the most complex environments for experienced boat captains, let alone robots. Now,…
Festo Bionic Learning Network adds robot bats, fish, spiders
The Festo Bionic Learning Network has released it latest biomimicry innovations to support ongoing research in engineering, manufacturing, and materials science drawn from natural systems. Here are the 2018 additions to the Festo Bionic Learning Network: A transforming spider that rolls or creeps A robotic fish that autonomously maneuvers through acrylic water-filled tubing A semi-autonomous flying…
Aquabotix SwarmDiver: A micro drone for ocean swarming
Communication in robot swarms and bio-inspired robots were recently cited as two of the major challenges facing the robotics industry. Fall River, Mass.-based Aquabotix is addressing both of those issues head on with its new SwarmDiver, a hybrid unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). Each SwarmDiver drone is 29.5 inches long, weighs…
MIT’s SoFi Robot Fish Swims in Ocean to Study Marine Life
The Robotics Summit and Showcase is just a couple months away. Find out all about our agenda here and register by April 20 for a 20% discount to learn from the best in the robotics industry. A team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) unveiled the untethered SoFi robot fish that can…
Research Arrows Are up With One Common Thread: Digital Data
MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said that “data is the new oil.” Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, says that artificial intelligence combined with data gathered by billions of sensors is bringing on an information revolution. Manufacturers everywhere are changing – some, with government assistance – because of new technologies, new competitors, new ecosystems, and new ways…
CES 2018: Robots, AI, Massive Data, Prodigious Plans
This year’s CES was a great show for robots. “From the latest in self-driving vehicles, smart cities, AI, sports tech, robotics, health and fitness tech and more, the innovation at CES 2018 will further global business and spur new jobs and new markets around the world,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. But with that…
$7 million XPRIZE competition for autonomous submarine ocean exploration
Robotic vehicles and advanced AI. Swarms of autonomous submarines and mapping pods launched from the air and sea … all working at depths down to 4,000 meters. Cold, dark and at pressures that are up to 400 times greater than the pressure at sea level. There’s $7 million on the line, and the first teams have already […]