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AquaPack Robotics refreshes its design cycle

robotics

A underwater photograph of a manta ray swimming in the ocean in French Polynesia.

Dec 16, 2024

The world’s fastest swimming robot

Drawing inspiration from manta rays, NC State researchers have engineered a soft robot that can swim even faster than its record-breaking predecessor. 
left image is titled support and shows a black polymer sheet lifting four stacked petri dishes that are loaded with spheres. right image is title manipulates and shows a black polymer sheet undulating in a way that rotates the multicolored spheres in a petri dish in a counterclockwise direction

Dec 9, 2024

Magnetically controlled kirigami surfaces move objects: no grasping needed

The new technology is useful for lifting and moving items that cannot be easily grasped, such as fragile objects, gels or liquids. 
time-lapse image from a video shows a manta-shaped soft robot swimming over and under obstacles in a glass tank filled with water

Dec 5, 2024

Manta rays inspire the fastest swimming soft robot yet

A team of researchers has drawn inspiration from manta rays and beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot. 
Tomatoes and their leaves

Dec 2, 2024

Robots + Drones + AI = Hardier Tomatoes?

Each year, plant diseases take a bite out of agricultural yields and profits, causing estimated global agricultural losses of $30 billion to $50 billion. At NC State University, experts in optical… 
a group of people making wolf signs with their hands and holding a small robot

Nov 5, 2024

Run with the RoboPack

RoboPack and WOLFadvance design teams give agricultural robotics students hands-on experiences to sharpen their skills so they’re ready to future-proof the food supply. 
He “Helen” Huang (right) develops next-generation prosthetics, which is a team effort. Postdoctoral researcher Josh Tacca (left) is leading a clinical study on prosthetic ankles and works with study participants like Greg Phillips (center) to test the technology created in the lab. (photo by Alyssa LaFaro)

Nov 1, 2024

Symbiotic strides

In the last 20 years, as batteries and mechanical motors have become smaller, lighter, and more powerful, Huang has watched the prosthetics field expand drastically. When she began doing this research in the 2000s, patients were still using 100-year-old technologies. But so much has changed since then. 
An image of a structure made of plastic cubes connected by hinges and tiny motors.

Oct 10, 2024

Researchers create shape-shifting ‘transformer bots’

Using 3D printing, the researchers engineered a cubed structure made of plastic that can transform into more than 1,000 configurations. 

Jul 26, 2024

Accelerating discovery

There are vast numbers of undiscovered molecules and materials that offer solutions to the challenges in health care, the environment, energy and other areas facing our world. Using artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and lab automation, self-driving labs (SDLs) are teaming up with human scientists to accelerate the rate at which we can solve these challenges. 
The NC State AquaPack Robosub student-led team poses for a group photo on a sunny day behind their submersible robot which is sitting on a table with a white tablecloth and the Robosub logo in blue and teal on the front.

Jul 26, 2024

AquaPack Robotics refreshes its design cycle

Until recently, AquaPack Robotics would build an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named SeaWolf, repair and use it until it was ready to retire, and then scrap the old robot for parts to build a new one.