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Have you ever wondered how insects are able to go so far beyond their home and still find their way? The answer to this question is not only relevant to biology but also to making the AI for tiny, autonomous robots. TU Delft drone-researchers felt inspired by biological findings on how ants visually recognize their environment and combine it with counting their steps in order to get safely back home.

Eindhoven researchers have developed a soft robotic 'hand' made from liquid crystals and graphene that could be used to design future surgical robots. The new work has just been published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. In our future hospitals, soft robots might be used as surgical robots.

A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains. Animal brains use less data and energy compared to current deep neural networks running on GPUs (graphic chips).

For the first time ever, wireless millirobots navigated a narrow blood vessel both along and against arterial flow. Researchers from the University of Twente and Radboudumc inserted the screw-shaped robots in a detached aorta with kidneys where they controlled them using a robotically controlled rotating magnet.

Facial expressions are extremely important in understanding what the other person is saying, according to PhD research by Naomi Nota. Frowning in particular turns out to play a major role. Nota will defend her PhD thesis at Radboud University on 6 December. In the past, linguists mainly looked at speech and how it affects language processing.

For the first time ever, researchers at the Surgical Robotics Laboratory of the University of Twente successfully made two microrobots work together to pick up, move and assemble passive objects in 3D environments. This achievement opens new horizons for promising biomedical applications. Imagine you need surgery somewhere inside your body.

Scientists have developed a theory that can explain how flying insects determine the gravity direction without using accelerometers. It also forms a substantial step in the creation of tiny, autonomous drones. Scientists have discovered a novel manner for flying drones and insects to estimate the gravity direction.

Applications in tissue scaffolds for artificial organs, and functional devices The University of Amsterdam has reached a license agreement with the Gouda-based company Atum3D on a method for fast, large-scale 3D-printing with sub-micron resolution.

With the completion of NPEC at the end of this month, plant research enters a new era. The era of automation and a lot of data. NPEC stands for Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre. The focus here is not the plant's genetic baggage - its genotype - but its outward appearance, or phenotype. The research entails measuring aspects of the plant's appearance and the influence of the environment.