IEEE Spectrum

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

Mechanical metamaterials can have their rigidity tuned, offering a new approach to soft robotics

First the stent electrode listened for brain signals. Now it talks back

We needed to implement a cost-effective low-altitude aerial testbed that can verify novel wireless communications applications between the airborne node and ground terminals while meeting tight constraints for payload weight, volume and power consumption

Critics say the agency’s proposed coverage obligations “disregard the laws of physics”

AlphaZero, a general-purpose game-playing system, quickly taught itself to be the best player ever in Go, chess and Shogi

How UAVs benefit consumers through faster estimates, quicker response times and faster delivery of benefits

Energy harvesting IoT chips could compute with low power relays

Roku succeeded in a chaotic market and despite daunting odds—and then set standards copied by much bigger rivals

Xbox was a blindingly spectacular exception in Microsoft’s otherwise mostly dismal record in consumer-oriented hardware

Here are the stories behind the best gadgets of the past 50 years

RadioShack hoped PC sales would offset the income decline caused by waning interest in CB radios

The Zojirushi was among the first appliances to use fuzzy logic, and made it almost impossible to ruin a pot of rice

A project to build the ultimate CD player hinged on the design of a low-pass filter

The Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

Adapting Microsoft's mixed reality technology to meet soldiers' needs could be challenging, one expert says

Productivity gains will continue through the next two or three chip generations, but after that we’ll need something bigger and better

Their goal is to allow passengers to keep streaming videos, even when their train passes through a tunnel

Experts in the field give a hard-headed assessment of just how hard the technology is

Stern Pinball is seeing sales surge as it provides sophisticated new machines for an arcade business renaissance. Meanwhile, new technology is keeping old machines running in New York

A robot that can detect a plant's electrochemical signals goes where the plant wants it to go

Three twenty-somethings—one from Ecuador, one from France, and one from India—teamed up in Silicon Valley to tackle the challenge of spotting a wildfire before it gets out of control

The pioneering social robot company has sold its IP and assets, meaning that this is pretty much the end

Mass production has become hybridized with customization to allow for the production of unique goods at scale.

The role of high-precision test solutions is going to be crucial in early 5G chipset prototyping, development and device design validation.

The Optimizer Smart system could help millions of patients with congestive heart failure

Researchers used the chip to test a simple neural net and identify numerals with 100 percent accuracy

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

When building a completely new system or test bed, the risks of designing or developing a fully custom radio from a circuit board are too great to take on because the development stage may require plenty of redesigning

The pioneering inventor nearly killed himself in pursuit of a practical use for electricity

Pilots on flight JT610 struggled to control the Boeing aircraft and fought against automated systems

In this article, we’ll take a look at the next wave of 5G NR technologies, including key ongoing efforts to 5G into its future and realize the full 5G opportunity

A new role for humans: prepping data so AI can learn to do our jobs

A novel field emission transistor that uses air gaps could breathe life into Moore’s Law

Depth sensing and 6-DoF spatial awareness for $400

A new model attempts to simulate social contagion at political gatherings

But before adopting startup PathAI’s tools, doctors must see if they are worth the cost

Silicon Valley takes on a tough biology challenge—and falls short

It’s absolutely, definitely, seriously not cold fusion

Engineering graduates can look forward to working in an innovative and lucrative occupation in a variety of fields

Astronauts planted seismometers on the moon long ago. Now, the data recorded there is producing new insights

The cofounder of Starsky Robotics says the sensor is superfluous when human teleoperators are supervising things

ANYmal spends a week doing inspection tasks on an offshore platform

An odd device known as an optical Ising machine could route airplanes and help the NFL schedule its games

In their crystal ball, they see memories moving to China, Intel building its last fab, and design—not process—innovation stepping up to save the U.S. semiconductor industry

It can classify a pedestrian by the way he's standing