Technology

Local business notes: Schnucks testing robot technology in St. Louis

The St. Louis-based supermarket chain, which has two stores in Springfield, plans a six-week pilot test of the scanning technology. Two more St. Louis stores will be added in coming days. Tally’s “job,” according to a company announcement, is to scan...

7 Robots That Were Inspired By Nature

Nature has inspired robotics for a long time. In this article, you can find robots such as the Octobot, the Dragonfly, and the robot known as Cassie (an ostrich).

Meet Salto, the Most Hyperactive One-Legged Robot You’ll Ever See

Salto will let roboticists study jumping locomotion and could one day participate in search and rescue missions, too. If someone built a robot whose locomotion was modeled on that of a three-year-old kid hopped up on too much candy, it would probably act a...

Human Locomotion, Robotic Exoskeleton and Prostheses

Why is it so difficult to make walking more efficient in humans? There are a few challenges. People are highly complex, in the dynamics of our movements, in our hundreds of muscles and tendons, and in our wildly complex nervous systems. More on this...

These Soft Robots are Inspired by Plants and Move Like Sentient Vines

A thick tendril snakes its way across a desk. It turns sharply, heading up to wrap its single, tube-like appendage around a valve that moves slowly under its pressure. Though it looks like the work of a sentient vine, it’s actually a robot: a soft,...