06/08/12 — Discovery News—A group of researchers from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome showed for the first time that a robotic zebrafish attracts living fish, casing them to gather around it and shoal. It may be possible to use similar robots in the future with other kinds of fish, to draw away pest species or save endangered ones by leading them out of danger. The results are being published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. DNEWS VIDEO: ROBOTIC SNAILS MAY SAVE LIVES Marizio Porfiri, who led the work, has looked at fish…

05/07/12 — Experts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Aerospace Robotics and Control Laboratory (ARCL) announce the successful development of a flying robot capable of perching on a human hand at landing. This is made possible by sophisticated control algorithms, coupled with an innovative design of the airplane itself. The prototype has articulated wings and no vertical tail, allowing it to complete a variety of maneuvers that conventional aircraft are simply not capable of. Researchers drew their inspiration from how actual birds fly, since they had millions of years at their disposal to become as efficient as possible at flying.…