Using LiDAR to get one step closer to fully automated vehicles and how Tesla is trying to accomplish the same goal but going different paths. LiDAR, radar, and sonar all sound so similar they got to have something in common right???? That was my first thought when I first heard about LiDAR. After a quick google search, I found out that LiDAR, radar, and sonar are actually very similar to one another. All 3 of these have the same goal: creating an accurate 3D map of their environments.

Each of these robotic systems is a product of an ad hoc design process specific to that particular system. In designing an autonomous robot, engineers must run countless trial-and-error simulations, often informed by intuition. These simulations are tailored to a particular robot's components and tasks, in order to tune and optimize its performance. In some respects, designing an autonomous robot today is like baking a cake from scratch, with no recipe or prepared mix to ensure a successful outcome. Now, MIT engineers have developed a general design tool for roboticists to use as a sort of automated recipe for success.

U.K. startup Opteran is pioneering autonomous navigation systems inspired by bee brains

Whether it's autonomous vehicles or assistive technology in healthcare that can do things like help the elderly do core tasks like feeding themselves, some of the most challenging problems in the field of robotics involve how robots interact with humans, with all of our many complexities. Drawing from fields as varied as cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics, Stanford computer scientist Dorsa Sadigh is exploring how to train robots to better understand humans – and how to give humans the skills to more seamlessly work with robots. Stanford HAI's mission is to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition.

Robots are on the verge of an evolutionary leap, where they get bigger and smarter -- more C-3PO, less R2-D2. WSJ's Wilson Rothman tracked down our future helpers at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

Experts who want to build a better robot are calling for brain scientists and artificial intelligence programmers to work together, saying it will benefit both the advancement of AI technology and our understanding of the human mind. Neuroscientist-turned-AI researcher Pascal Kaufmann told International Business Times that the focus should be on understanding how the brain works as a whole, rather than piece by piece, and then using the principles that govern it in an artificial mind. He compares the development of artificial intelligence to the invention of the airplane: Human beings could not replicate a bird wing with all its nuances, but they created a plane by using the scientific principles by which a bird flies and it worked just as well. Some programmers are trying to mimic the human brain but "I think that's pointless … to copy [and] paste nature," Kaufmann said. The relationship between the different fields could be a good thing for both.

Dr. Cynthia L. Breazeal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is famous for her robots, not just because they they are programmed to perform specific tasks, but because they seem to have emotional as well as physical reactions to the world around them. They are ''embodied,'' she says, even ''sociable'' robots -- experimental machines that act like living creatures. As part of its design triennial, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York is exhibiting a ''cyberfloral installation,'' by Dr. Breazeal, which features robotic flowers that sway when a human hand is near and glow in beautiful bright colors. ''The installation,'' said Dr. Breazeal, 35, ''communicates my future vision of robot design that is intellectually intriguing and remains true to its technological heritage, but is able to touch us emotionally in the quality of interaction and their responsiveness to us -- more like a dance, rather than pushing buttons.'' Dr. Breazeal (pronounced bruh-ZILL) wrote about her adventures as a modern-day Mary Shelley in her book ''Designing Sociable Robots,'' released this year by M.I.T. Press.

In the wake of the tragic accident that killed 12 trapped miners in West Virginia, US, roboticists are saying that a new generation of search-and rescue-robots could help save lives in future disasters. The miners died in the Sago Mine in Talmansville, West Virginia, after an explosion on Monday. The cause of the blast is not yet known – state and federal mining experts opened their investigation of the explosion on Wednesday. The miners are thought to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, as their bodies were found, as if sleeping, behind a makeshift barricade. In a further harrowing twist shortly after the explosion, victims' families received news that their loved-ones had survived, only to learn several hours later that all but one of the trapped miners had in fact died.