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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


These Nifty Drones Can Lock Together in Mid-Air to Form a Bigger, Stronger Robot
From ACM TechNews

These Nifty Drones Can Lock Together in Mid-Air to Form a Bigger, Stronger Robot

Researchers at Japan's University of Tokyo have developed drones that can assemble and dissemble in mid-air.

Robot Uses Fake Raspberry to Practice Picking Fruit
From ACM TechNews

Robot Uses Fake Raspberry to Practice Picking Fruit

Scientists engineered a robot that practiced raspberry-picking on a silicone raspberry mockup with an artificial stem to ensure it learned how to handle the fragile...

Seals Provided Inspiration for Waddling Robot
From ACM TechNews

Seals Provided Inspiration for Waddling Robot

Seals and other pinnipeds inspired researchers to develop a waddling soft robot that reportedly features "improved degrees of freedom, gait trajectory diversity...

Inside the Lab Growing Mushroom Computers
From ACM TechNews

Inside the Lab Growing Mushroom Computers

The Unconventional Computing Laboratory of the U.K.'s University of the West of England focuses on developing chemical or living computers that can interface with...

Vocal Amplification Patch Could Help Stroke Patients, First Responders
From ACM TechNews

Vocal Amplification Patch Could Help Stroke Patients, First Responders

Scientists at China's Tsinghua and Shanghai Jiao Tong universities have engineered a "graphene-based intelligent, wearable artificial throat"patch that can amplify...

The March of the Penguins Has a New Star: An Autonomous Robot
From ACM TechNews

The March of the Penguins Has a New Star: An Autonomous Robot

Researchers built a ground vehicle that may be operated in autonomous or remote-controlled modes to study hundreds of Emperor penguins in Antarctica.

Smart Tugboat to Journey More Than 1,000 Miles, Autonomously
From ACM TechNews

Smart Tugboat to Journey More Than 1,000 Miles, Autonomously

A 35-foot-long tugboat carrying passengers will embark from Hamburg, Germany, on a 1,000-nautical-mile (1,150-mile) autonomous voyage around Denmark.

DARPA's New Combat Drones Could Catch a Ride from Other Aircraft
From ACM News

DARPA's New Combat Drones Could Catch a Ride from Other Aircraft

The program aims to create autonomous, fighter-jet-like craft that would deploy from the sky and then wield air-to-air weapons.

These Fold-Up Robots Fly Just Like Ladybugs
From ACM TechNews

These Fold-Up Robots Fly Just Like Ladybugs

Researchers in South Korea have built remote-controlled robots inspired by ladybugs, with wings that snap open, lock, and fold up like origami upon landing.

Squishy Robots Now Have Squishy Computers to Control Them
From ACM TechNews

Squishy Robots Now Have Squishy Computers to Control Them

Researchers at Harvard University have developed a rubber computer that runs on "digital logic," which could serve as a software replacement for hard electronic...

3D Technology Revolutionizing Face Transplants
From ACM TechNews

3D Technology Revolutionizing Face Transplants

Face transplants are a proving ground for medical applications of three-dimensional printing and imaging.

Soldier Shoots Down Drone with Cyber Rifle at Defense Secretary's Feet
From ACM News

Soldier Shoots Down Drone with Cyber Rifle at Defense Secretary's Feet

A coding (but not smoking) gun.

This Ancient Paper Art Makes Flexible, Super Strong Electronics
From ACM TechNews

This Ancient Paper Art Makes Flexible, Super Strong Electronics

Teams of researchers  are using Kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, as inspiration for developing flexible and stretchable electronics. 

Have We Found Alien Life?
From ACM News

Have We Found Alien Life?

Kenneth Nealson is looking awfully sane for a man who’s basically just told me that he has a colony of aliens incubating in his laboratory.

Experimental Google Smartphone Becomes Brain of Space Robot
From ACM News

Experimental Google Smartphone Becomes Brain of Space Robot

Robots excel at the tedious, repetitive tasks that bore humans into ineffectiveness.

Will These Guys Kill The Computer Interface As We Know It?
From ACM News

Will These Guys Kill The Computer Interface As We Know It?

David Holz took the main stage at this year's South by Southwest Interactive, the annual innovation conference in Austin, Texas, looking like a hobbit on casual...

Pneumatic Ball-Levitating Robot Wins at Beer Pong
From ACM News

Pneumatic Ball-Levitating Robot Wins at Beer Pong

A pair of grad students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are using a computer-controled gimbaled air-jet system with two degrees of motion to not...
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