For years, scientists have been exploring how we can use signals from the brain to control prosthetic limbs. Usually, this work is focused on restoring motor function to people who have lost an arm or a leg, but new research from Japan shows how the same technology can also be used to augment existing human capabilities.

In 1872, Charles Darwin published his third major work on evolutionary theory, “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” which explores the biological aspects of emotional life. In it, Darwin writes: “Hardly any expressive movement is so general as the involuntary erection of the hairs, feathers and other dermal appendages … it is common throughout three of the great vertebrate classes.” Nearly 150 years later, the field of robotics is starting to draw inspiration from those words.

New UV Disinfection Robots have the ability to sanitize healthcare facilities fare better than humans - and they are already sanitizing hospitals around the world.

Creator, a new restaurant in San Francisco, is home to the world’s first entirely robot-made burger. It costs $6–and it’s actually really good.

Smart weed-killing robots are here and could soon reduce the need for herbicides and genetically modified crops.

As if the line between human and machine wasn't already blurry enough, researchers in Tokyo have developed a new method for using living rat muscle tissue in robotics. The “biohybrid” design, described today in the journal Science Robotics, simulates the look and movements of a human finger. Video shows how it bends at the joint, picks up a loop, and places it down. It's a seemingly simple movement but one that researchers say lays the groundwork for more advanced—and even more lifelike—robots. (Meet Sophia, the robot that looks almost human.)

Some experts predict the food service industry will be heavily automated by 2025.

If there’s one thing that scientists absolutely should be working on, it’s a self-regenerating robo-Deadpool or the eerily-fluid T-1000 Terminator. Thankfully, a team of scientists just took an important first step towards building a robot that can keep on truckin’ even with a couple of bullet holes improve its ventilation.

Is there anything robots can’t do? They can perform our jobs, get periods and now . . . gIs there anything robots can’t do? They can perform our jobs, get periods and now . . . grow human organs. Scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine have developed an automated system that uses robots to produce human mini-organs from stem cells. According to Science Daily, the ability to mass produce “organoids” promises to expand the use of mini-organs in basic research and drug discovery.

Researchers are developing little robots able to interact within animal societies such as honeybees. They believe that creating mixed societies of animal and robots can be a new way to protect many endangered species and the environment. The 20th of May has been declared World Bee Day by the United Nations. Bees and wild pollinators are crucial to ecosystem biodiversity and food security, and they have been used as bioindicators of environmental pollution for decades.

Boston Dynamics’ robots look more natural and more amazing with each video, and today the company posted two more clips to its YouTube channel showing the latest progress of its Atlas and SpotMini robots. The clips don’t reveal much we haven’t seen before, but they both show how naturally these robots are able to move around. In one video, Atlas, the humanoid robot, goes for a jog in a grassy yard that appears to be sloped here and there.

Robots can’t yet bake a souffle or fold a burrito, but they can cook up vegetables and grains and spout them into a bowl — and are doing just that at a new fast casual restaurant in Boston. Seven autonomously swirling cooking pots — what the restaurant calls a “never-before-seen robotic kitchen” — hum behind the counter at Spyce, which opened Thursday in the city’s downtown.

Millions of hotel rooms are vulnerable to hackers after researchers found a technique to create master keys that can open rooms. Researchers from the cybersecurity firm F-Secure discovered the flaw with key cards used by some of the world’s biggest hotel chains, including Intercontinental, Radisson and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. Tomi Tuominen and Timo Hirvonen from F-Secure began investigating the vulnerability 15 years ago after a laptop belonging to one of their colleagues mysteriously went missing from a hotel room.

It’s not every day that the prospect of space exploration makes us feel a little bit nauseous. But that’s certainly the case with a new excreting robot designed to mimic the function of the human intestines. It was created by researchers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Japan’s Chuo University. While it kind of looks like something that might appear on the robot version of Jackass, in fact it’s a tool intended to replicate the involuntary wavelike contractions of the digestive tract for the purpose of properly mixing rocket fuel.

Automation is changing the face of nearly every industry in the world, but the construction industry may lead the way for robots. The Associated Press reports on the intersection between tech and construction, with new startups unleashing a wave of innovation in robots, drones, and software. A big part of the reason is that construction companies can’t find workers. But robots don’t mind getting dirty.

The "Star Wars" robots R2-D2 and BB-8 are the droids that NASA is looking for — "astromechs" that can help repair spaceships on the fly, a NASA robotics engineer says. Future NASA robots might resemble humanoid droids such as C-3PO and K-2SO from the waist up, but have giant mechanical spidery legs from the waist down, the engineer added in a new piece for the journal Science Robotics.

Researchers in Texas are developing robots that have minds of their own. The scientists are creating systems that can learn for themselves and be able to operate in the home, the workplace and even on the sports field. The University of Texas, Austin team is incorporating artificial intelligence into its machines so that they can deal with real-world situations. Among the systems are automated assistants that will carry out simple tasks in a working office

The International Space Station has hosted more than 230 astronauts over the years, and now it’s set to host its first floating robotic head. A ball-shaped robot known as CIMON — that’s short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion — will join German astronaut Alex Gerst when he and his crewmates rocket to the ISS this June. Roughly the size of a medicine ball and weighing about 11 pounds, CIMON is designed to accompany and assist Gerst and his crewmates as they move about the ISS.

The Caliburger chain can’t keep burger flippers employed — they quit too often, it says. So the plan is to try something new: A robot that has been programmed to flip hamburgers all day long. Named Flippy, the $100,000 machine is capable of flipping as many as 2,000 burgers a day. As of Monday, a human at Caliburger's restaurant here is making the burger patties and seasoning them, and then placing them in a tray for the robot. Flippy then pulls them out, places them on the griddle, monitors their temperature, flips them and then takes them off the griddle to cool. They then get placed by a human into buns for customers.

Digital Information World recently published an infographic that outlines the trends in AI and machine learning to be expected in 2018. The research comes from CB Insights, Callaghan Innovation, PwCDigital, Forrester, and Gartner. Businesses, particularly in the healthcare, finance, commerce and agriculture industries, are increasingly investing in AI and machine learning solutions.