Robot vacuums can make cleaning up a lot more convenient but, depending on your home's layout, might not work with every floorplan. Chinese appliance maker Dreame is hoping to address that with its X50 robot vacuum that's able to climb over small stairs without assistance. Though the robot vac has yet to launch in the US, it's already generated some buzz thanks to a teaser posted on YouTube last year (the X50 is already available in China). Now, the 1699 X50 is making its US debut at CES 2025, with Dreame offering an up-close look at its abilities. Dreame says the X50 can handle stairs up to 6cm high (about 2.4 inches), thanks to its "ProLeap System," which relies on a motorized arm underneath the vacuum that's able to swing out and boost it over steps. So while the X50 won't be able to climb up a full-size staircase (the average stair height in a home is between 7 and 8 inches, according to Google), it should be able to maneuver over smaller steps and other obstacles that may trip up other robot vacuums.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and the University of California have designed a system that enables a small, low-cost robot to climb and descend stairs, traverse uneven and varied terrain, walk across gaps, and even operate in the dark. The research could be a step toward solving existing challenges facing legged robots and bringing them into people's homes, say researchers. A paper supporting the research - Legged Locomotion in Challenging Terrains Using Egocentric Vision - will be presented at the upcoming Conference on Robot Learning in Auckland, New Zealand. "Empowering small robots to climb stairs and handle a variety of environments is crucial to developing robots that will be useful in people's homes as well as search-and-rescue operations," says Deepak Pathak, an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. "This system creates a robust and adaptable robot that could perform many everyday tasks."

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and the University of California, Berkeley, have designed a robotic system that enables a low-cost and relatively small legged robot to climb and descend stairs nearly its height; traverse rocky, slippery, uneven, steep and varied terrain; walk across gaps; scale rocks and curbs; and even operate in the dark. "Empowering small robots to climb stairs and handle a variety of environments is crucial to developing robots that will be useful in people's homes as well as search-and-rescue operations," said Deepak Pathak, an assistant professor in the Robotics Institute. "This system creates a robust and adaptable robot that could perform many everyday tasks." The team put the robot through its paces, testing it on uneven stairs and hillsides at public parks, challenging it to walk across stepping stones and over slippery surfaces, and asking it to climb stairs that for its height would be akin to a human leaping over a hurdle. The researchers trained the robot with 4,000 clones of it in a simulator, where they practiced walking and climbing on challenging terrain.

To help make the process faster and cheaper, Ford recently sought the help of a four-legged robot dog made by Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. "It's a huge breakthrough for us," said Mark Goderis, digital engineering manager at Ford. The robot, nicknamed "Fluffy" by one of Ford's digital engineers, weighs 70 pounds and is equipped with five cameras that give it 360-degree vision, letting it observe what's in front of it and avoid obstacles. It can climb stairs and stabilize itself on slippery surfaces and metal grates using optimization algorithms. It can also access hard-to-reach areas within the plant, as long as they are at least 2 feet wide. The robot dog, officially called "Spot" by Boston Dynamics, costs $74,500.

To help make the process faster and cheaper, Ford recently sought the help of a four-legged robot dog made by Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. "It's a huge breakthrough for us," said Mark Goderis, digital engineering manager at Ford. The robot, nicknamed "Fluffy" by one of Ford's digital engineers, weighs 70 pounds and is equipped with five cameras that give it 360-degree vision, letting it observe what's in front of it and avoid obstacles. It can climb stairs and stabilize itself on slippery surfaces and metal grates using optimization algorithms. It can also access hard-to-reach areas within the plant, as long as they are at least 2 feet wide. The robot dog, officially called "Spot" by Boston Dynamics, costs $74,500.

History has time and again taught us that, science fiction is only a fantasy until science makes it a reality. In the 1940s Isaac Asimov, a prolific science fiction writer wrote about a future where robots are a part of the human world. Similarly, in a sci-fi film, Robocop made more than 30 years ago, a robot is built-up in order to solve an unprecedented crime problem in dystopian crime-ridden Detroit. Today science fiction has become a reality. Police in different parts of the world are using robots for law enforcement and first, ever robotic police officers have become deployed across China, Dubai and Hyderabad in India.

Artificial intelligence (AI) that reasons like a human remains elusive, but Honda hopes to make inroads. The Tokyo company's U.S.-based Research Institute today announced a collaboration with three academic institutions -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), and the University of Washington -- to advance the field of artificial cognition. MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) lab, in partnership with Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science and the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, will develop prototypes, working examples, and demonstrations of what Honda calls the "mechanisms of curiosity." Specifically, MIT CSAIL will focus its efforts on systems capable of predicting future percepts -- concepts developed as a consequence of perception -- and the effect of future actions, while Penn's engineering department and the Paul G. Allen School will develop perception models informed by biology and robots that can work safely in human environments. Grants will fund the first leg of research.

Instead, it nimbly "feels" its way through its surroundings in a way that engineers describe as "blind locomotion," much like making one's way across a pitch-black room. "There are many unexpected behaviors the robot should be able to handle without relying too much on vision," says the robot's designer, Sangbae Kim, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "Vision can be noisy, slightly inaccurate, and sometimes not available, and if you rely too much on vision, your robot has to be very accurate in position and eventually will be slow. So we want the robot to rely more on tactile information. That way, it can handle unexpected obstacles while moving fast." Researchers will present the robot's vision-free capabilities in October at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots, in Madrid.

Whether you hate them for threatening your jobs or love them for handling a range of tasks, robots have become that quintessential part of our lives which can be ignored for a while but not completely written off. Many fear that one-day machines may rise above humanity and trigger the so-called "robocalypse" but, over the last few years it has also become evident that it is nearly impossible to shut them off and live a life with no bots around to do things the better way. The fact now is we have to move ahead with them, doing things for the betterment of humanity. Well, 2017 is coming to an end and it is the ideal time go back and see which machines got smarter or nailed some really complicated tasks this year -- things that we never thought could be done in a better way. Developed by Hanson Robotics, humanoid robot Sophia came to the limelight earlier this year, spoke at the UN, appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show and then wooed the Saudi Arabian government with its phenomenal way with words to win a citizenship of the oil-rich kingdom.

Google's bizarre four-legged robot called Spot has started delivering parcels in Boston. The canine-like machine can jump, climb stairs, get back up if it falls and even withstand a kick. Its inventors said Spot is '70 per cent of the way' through its trials and may one day be used to deliver parcels all over the world. Google's bizarre four-legged robot called Spot (pictured) has started delivering parcels in Boston A video showing Spot being kicked last year sparked an ethical debate. It was intended to show how stable the machine is, but viewers complained the'dog'in the clip had been mistreated.