I’ve been reviewing robot vacuums for more than a decade, and robot mops for just as long. It’s been astonishing how the technology has evolved, from the original iRobot Roomba bouncing off of walls and furniture to robots that use lidar and vision to map your entire house and intelligently keep it clean.As part of this evolution, cleaning robots...

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAEICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARKCybathlon 2024:...

“What do I need for cold weather golf?” “What are the differences between trail shoes and running shoes?”“What are the best dinosaur toys for a five year old?”These are some of the open-ended questions customers might ask a helpful sales associate in a brick-and-mortar store. But how can customers get answers to similar questions while shopping online?Amazon’s...

Robert Dennard Inventor of Dynamic RAM Fellow, 91; died 23 AprilIn 1967 Dennard invented what is known as DRAM—a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell consisting of a tiny capacitor and transistor. Before his invention, RAM required bulky, power-hungry components that were expensive to produce. His...

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.In space, high-energy gamma radiation can change the properties of semiconductors, altering how they work or rendering them completely unusable. Finding devices that can withstand radiation is important not just to keep astronauts safe but also to ensure...

When NASA decided in the 1970s that the Hubble Space Telescope should be serviceable in space, the engineering challenges must have seemed nearly insurmountable. How could a machine that complex and delicate be repaired by astronauts wearing 130-kilogram suits with thick gloves? In the end, spacewalkers not only fixed the telescope, they...