Malicious hackers can take over control of vacuum and lawn mower robots made by Ecovacs to spy on their owners using the devices’ cameras and microphones, new research has found. Security researchers Dennis Giese and Braelynn are due to speak at the Def Con hacking conference on Saturday detailing their research into Ecovacs robots. When […]
Researchers are training home robots in simulations based on iPhone scans
There’s a long list of reasons why you don’t see a lot of non-vacuum robots in the home. At the top of the list is the problem of unstructured and semi-structured environments. No two homes are the same, from layout to lighting to surfaces to humans and pets. Even if a robot can effectively map […]
Elon Musk sets 2026 Optimus sale date. Here’s where other humanoid robots stand.
Ahead of Tuesday’s earnings, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the carmaker will begin selling its Optimus humanoid robot in 2026. In fact, Optimus has already started performing tasks autonomously, like handling batteries, in one of Tesla’s facilities, according to its earnings report. “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla […]
Meet the soft robots that can amputate limbs and fuse with other robots
Roboticists at The Faboratory at Yale University have developed a way for soft robots to replicate some of the more unsettling things that animals and insects can accomplish — say, a reptile self-amputating a limb, or ants building bridges by temporarily fusing their bodies. In one demo video, we see a soft quadruped robot crawling […]
Agility’s humanoid robots are going to handle your Spanx
Up to now, the humanoid robotics industry has been all promises and pilots. While important in the eventual deployment of new technology, these programs involve a small number of robots and often don’t graduate into anything more meaningful. On Thursday, however, Agility announced that it has entered into a formal deal following a successful pilot […]