The robotic services allow farmers to rely less on chemicals. ‘This solves a lot of problems,’ workers say On a sweltering summer day in central Kansas, farm fields shimmer in the heat as Clint Brauer watches a team of bright yellow robots churn up and down the rows, tirelessly slicing away any weeds that stand in their way while avoiding the growing crops. The battery-powered machines, 4ft (1.2 metres) long and 2ft (0.6 metres) wide, pick their way through the fields with precision, without any human hand to guide them ..read more

Casio says Moflin can develop its own personality and build a rapport with its owner – and it doesn’t need food, exercise or a litter tray. But is it essentially comforting or alienating? It looks faintly like one half of a small pair of very fluffy slippers. It squeaks and wriggles and nestles in the palm of my hand, black eyes hidden beneath a mop of silvery-white fur. It weighs about the same as a tin of soup. It doesn’t need to be fed or walked and it doesn’t use a litter tray; it’s guaranteed not to leave “gifts” on my doorstep. Which is just as well, because Moflin is abou ..read more

Humanoid called Digit fuelled boosterism at Web Summit, but also raised concerns about jobs, safety and climate This year’s Web Summit, in Lisbon, was all about artificial intelligence – and a robot sorting laundry. Digit, a humanoid built by the US firm Agility Robotics, demonstrated how far AI has come in a few years by responding to voice commands – filtered through Google’s Gemini AI model – to sift through a pile of coloured T-shirts and place them in a basket ..read more

Portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing was created by Ai-Da, one of the most advanced robots in the world A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing has become the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching US$1.08m (£566,000, A$1.63m) in New York on Thursday. The 2.2 metre (7.5 feet) portrait, titled A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing, was created by Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist. It smashed pre-sale expectations between $120,000 and $180,000 when it went under the hammer at Sotheby’s, which confirmed that 27 bids were placed on the wo ..read more

Researchers hope to recreate entire bodies of ancient creatures using paleo-inspired robotics A robotic Tyrannosaurus rex might seem best placed in a Jurassic horror movie but researchers say machines based on extinct animals could help shed light on evolution. Scientists say the nascent field of “paleo-inspired robotics” can bring fossils to life and help researchers explore how changes in anatomy have affected the way animals move, their speed, and how much energy they use ..read more

German city’s Sinfoniker says aim is not to replace humans but to play music human conductors would find impossible She’s not long on charisma or passion but keeps perfect rhythm and is never prone to temperamental outbursts against the musicians beneath her three batons. Meet MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor who made her debut this weekend in Dresden. Her two performances in the eastern German city are intended to show off the latest advances in machine maestros, as well as music written explicitly to harness 21st-century technology. The artistic director of Dresden’s Sinfonik ..read more

Tesla and others are trying to infuse robots with artificial intelligence, yet their development is dogged by technical and safety challenges. But the dream of a multipurpose domestic droid lives on In 2013, US robotics company Boston Dynamics revealed its new robot, Atlas. Unveiled at the Darpa Robotics Challenge, the 6ft 2in humanoid could walk on uneven ground, jump off boxes, and even climb stairs. It was like a vision frequently depicted in fiction: a robot designed to operate like us, able to take on all manner of everyday tasks. It seemed like the dawn of something. Robots were going to ..read more

Fitted with robotic arms and navigation cameras, the rovers are being developed for mooted missions to the moon and Mars Two space rover prototypes that could be used to help search for life on Mars are being trialled at a quarry in Bedfordshire. The robots are being put through their paces by the European aerospace giant Airbus, which is considering using the technology to aid missions to the moon. A four-wheeled rover, named Codi, features navigation cameras and a robotic arm that it can use to collect rocks sealed in small tubes without the need of a human operator ..read more

Exclusive: Developers say the Fieldworker robot will soon be in use in the UK, Australia and Portugal A new version of the world’s first raspberry-picking robot, a four-armed machine powered by artificial intelligence and able to do the job at the speed and effectiveness of a human, is to be employed on farms in the UK, Australia and Portugal over the coming 12 months. The developers claim that Fieldworker 1, nicknamed Robocrop, can detect more accurately than previous models whether a berry is ripe, and can pick fruit faster because its grippers have greater reach and flexibility ..read more

My mentor, Toby Wall, who has died aged 77 of cancer, was a committed educator and scholar who made a globally significant contribution to the field of occupational psychology. Through his research as director of the Medical Research Council Social and Applied Psychology Unit (Sapu), then its successor, the Institute of Work Psychology (IWP), over three decades at Sheffield University, Toby identified aspects of jobs that enhance workers’ motivation, health and wellbeing, transforming the quality of millions of lives. He developed new theoretical explanations for how work affects learning, as ..read more