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People are more comfortable talking to female rather than male robots working in service roles in hotels, according to a study by Washington State University researcher Soobin Seo.

A team of researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) analysed people’s primary motivations and their trust in the use of robotics in surgery. After analysing the opinions of around 28,000 citizens from 28 countries in the European Union, the results of this study present a broad spectrum of attitudes stemming from a lack of trust in robot-assisted surgery (RAS).

Propelled by a surge in non-automotive sectors, the number of robots sold in North America set a new record in 2021, with 39,708 units sold at a value of $2 billion, a 14% increase over the previous high in 2017.

A growing number of organizations turn to technology to achieve business benefits and to enable  Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs. The IDC white paper – Automation as a Force for Good – 6 Steps to Transform Theory into Practice explores pathways for how automation can be used to benefit the economy, society, and the environment.

A new community platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), launched by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aims to step up global collaboration on the use of AI to drive sustainable development.

The Internal Revenue Service is using software robots from UiPath to better manage its finance and procurement functions.

Knightscope, developer of security robots, has announced that it will be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “KSCP.” Knightscope based in Silicon Valley, and builds fully autonomous security robots that deter, detect and report. Their ambition is ‘to make the United States of America the safest country in the world’.

A robot has performed laparoscopic surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without the guiding hand of a human – a significant step in robotics toward fully automated surgery on humans. Designed by a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) is described today in Science Robotics.

NEC Corporation is developing control technology that must double the efficiency of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) in warehouses, while maintaining a high level of safety. NEC plans to put this technology into practical use by March 2024 and to have it installed in NEC’s cooperative AMRs in Japan.

The study of robotics has long been a point of fascination as researchers have sought to discover the potential for automated technology. While the development of autonomous machines certainly isn’t new, mobile robots have found their way into a variety of industries as of late, especially in the manufacturing industry—specifically, quadrupedal robots.