Robotics

Nightmare fuel? Maybe – but in a historic moment for the dental profession, an AI-controlled autonomous robot has performed an entire procedure on a human patient for the first time, about eight times faster than a human dentist could do it.

Endiatx has begun clinical trials of its ingestible PillBot™, which will enable doctors to remotely examine the gastrointestinal tract of a patient over a zoom call.

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder will know that it presents challenges that impact many aspects of daily life, including missed deadlines and forgotten appointments. This executive-function desktop friend is here to help.

In what sounds more like the opening scene from a B-grade sci-fi/horror flick, head transplant operations performed entirely by AI-robot surgeons could be coming to a hospital near you within a decade, if startup BrainBridge is to have its way.

A strange sea creature known as the salp reproduces asexually, building long chains of clones. Researchers have now decoded the way these long salp chains propel themselves, a finding that could lead to better propulsion systems for underwater vehicles.

Scientists have long puzzled over why some dinosaurs had feathers and wings long before they evolved the ability of flight. Experiments with a robot dinosaur may now have revealed the answer – they used them for hunting.

Implants and tiny machines could eventually help treat disease or monitor activity, but communication is tricky. Now scientists at EPFL have developed a system whereby devices can communicate by releasing molecules into a patient’s bloodstream.

The world is edging closer to fully functional prosthetic limbs, with the success of the bionic Mia Hand. This futuristic piece of biotech connects to the nervous and skeletal systems to offer 80% of normal, daily use to someone who has lost a hand.

Not satisfied with sending rovers to other worlds one at a time, NASA is sending three miniature robots to the Moon in 2024 as part of the CADRE project. The goal is to see how such explorers can work as a team without direct control from Earth.

In an exciting step forward in surgery advances, the first successful liver transplant performed by a robot has taken place in the US, offering minimal invasiveness and speedy recovery time. Clinics now plan to ramp up wider use of this innovative tech.

In a win for both bees and ecologists, a team of roboticists and biologists has developed a robotic honeycomb that both keeps the bees toasty during cold snaps and allows them to be studied unobtrusively.

As their sense of balance deteriorates, seniors are at an increased risk of potentially debilitating falls. A new wearable assistive robot could help, by detecting and preventing such falls before they actually occur.