The first single actuator wave-like robot (SAW) has been developed by engineers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The 3D-printed robot can move forward or backward in a wave-like motion, moving much like a worm would in a perpendicular wave. SAW can climb over obstacles or crawl through unstable terrain like sand, grass and gravel, reaching a top speed of 57 centimetres per second, five times faster than similar robots. Its minimalistic mechanical design produces an advancing ...

During a recent high-profile criminal trial, headlines appeared in the national newspapers stating that the victim had ‘walked into the knife’. While this scenario was surprising for some, for those working in forensic medicine, this situation poses a well-known difficult challenge. [caption id="attachment_30872" align="alignright" width="300"] Figure 1a: Experimental stab-penetration test rig[/caption] When a stabbing is fatal, the amount of force required to inflict a stab wound is ...

Once they have mastered the skills of toddlerhood, humans are pretty good at what roboticists call "motion planning" - reaching around obstacles to precisely pick up a soft drink in a crowded fridge, or slipping their hands around a screen to connect an unseen cable. But for robots with multi-jointed arms, motion planning is a hard problem that requires time-consuming computation. Simply picking an object up in an environment that has not been pre-engineered for the robot may require ...

Surgeons removing a malignant brain tumor don't want to leave cancerous material behind. But they're also trying to protect healthy brain matter and minimise neurological harm. Once they open up a patient's skull, there's no time to send tissue samples to a pathology lab, where they are typically frozen, sliced, stained, mounted on slides and investigated under a bulky microscope, to definitively distinguish between cancerous and normal brain cells. But a handheld, miniature microscope ...

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in the UK is calling for a major rethink about education and the role of schools and colleges in promoting engineering. Its latest report is calling for a major rethink about the role of schools and colleges in promoting engineering. The ‘Big Ideas: the future of engineering in schools’ report, supported by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, reflects the views of leading engineering education experts and key stakeholders such as ...

  Can machines think? Well, what does it mean 'to think'? Thinking about thought is a journey into philosophy. Instead Alan Turing asked a different question in 1950: can machines do what humans (who are thinking entities) do ? Earlier this month, a computer – Google’s DeepMind – beat Lee Sedol, the world champion Go player, four times in five matches. Go is disarmingly trivial to play: you alternately place pieces on a board with a 19x19 grid of lines to try and surround your ...