One of the most persistent challenges in robotics is what engineers call the “kidnapped robot” problem. It happens when an autonomous robot suddenly loses track of its position, for example after being physically moved, powered off, or displaced. In dynamic, real-world environments, this loss of localization can bring operations to a halt. Now, researchers at […]
A team of roboticists from the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics has discovered that combining traditional force-torque sensors with machine learning algorithms offers robots a new method for sensing touch. In their study, published in Science Robotics, the researchers explored a novel approach to endow robots with touch sensitivity, without the need […]