MIT News May 4, 2020 In this three part series, a team of researchers in the US (MIT, Boston University) shows theoretically that robots may reduce employment and wages and that their local impacts can be estimated using variation in exposure to robots—defined from industry-level advances in robotics and local industry employment. They estimate robust negative effects of robots on employment and wages across commuting zones. According to the researchers the areas most exposed to robots after 1990 do not exhibit any differential trends before then, and robots’ impact is distinct from other capital and technologies. One more robot per […]
Category Archives: Robots
Technique uses magnets, light to control and reconfigure soft robots
Science Daily August 2, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (North Carolina State University, Elon University) has developed a technique that allows them to remotely control the movement of soft robots, lock them into position for as long as needed and later reconfigure the robots into new shapes. They used soft robots made of a polymer embedded with magnetic iron microparticles. Under normal conditions, the material is relatively stiff and holds its shape. However, when the material is heated using light from an LED the polymer becomes pliable the shape of the robot can be changed by remotely […]