Would you trust a robot to look after your cat? New research suggests it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well as human interaction.

Actually, sometimes consumers don't want to talk to a real person when they're shopping online, a new study suggests. In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it is not human at all. In a new study, researchers found that people preferred interacting with chatbots when they felt embarrassed about what they were buying online...

A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task. The researchers also built a simulator that can evaluate control algorithms for shape-shifting soft robots.

Researchers have developed a robotic feeding system that uses computer vision, machine learning and multimodal sensing to safely feed people with severe mobility limitations, including those with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.

Walking and running is notoriously difficult to recreate in robots. Now, a group of researchers has overcome some of these challenges by creating an innovative method that employs central pattern generators -- neural circuits located in the spinal cord that generate rhythmic patterns of muscle activity -- with deep reinforcement learning. The method...

Conversational agents (CAs) such as Alexa and Siri are designed to answer questions, offer suggestions -- and even display empathy. However, new research finds they do poorly compared to humans when interpreting and exploring a user's experience.