Contents
Vol 5, Issue 46
Focus
- Good vibrations for flapping-wing flyers
Studies of insect flight reveal how flapping-induced vibrations augment flight stability of tailless flapping-wing flyers.
- Understanding robots
Elucidating the mechanisms underlying human interpretation of robot behavior can inform the design of interactive autonomous systems.
- A more human prosthetic hand
Co-creation leads the way for bioinspired prosthetics with improved design and performance.
- Preparing to adapt is key for Olympic curling robots
Continued advances in machine learning could enable robots to solve tasks on a human level and adapt to changing conditions.
Research Articles
- The human brain reveals resting state activity patterns that are predictive of biases in attitudes toward robots
Biases toward treating robots as intentional agents or mechanical artifacts show a distinct neural activation pattern at rest.
- Vibrational control: A hidden stabilization mechanism in insect flight
Large insects exploit a passive flight stabilization mechanism due to their high-frequency flapping.
- The Hannes hand prosthesis replicates the key biological properties of the human hand
A prosthetic hand with human-like grasping behavior outperforms what is required in the execution of activities of daily living.
- An adaptive deep reinforcement learning framework enables curling robots with human-like performance in real-world conditions
An AI curling robot can compete and win against top-ranked human teams in the game of curling.
About The Cover

ONLINE COVER The Hannes Hand. Developing prostheses with improved functionality and better embodiment may reduce the abandonment rate of these devices. Laffranchi et al. report a bioinspired prosthetic upper limb system, called Hannes, that exhibits key properties of the human hand: accurate anthropomorphism, biomimetic performance, and human-like grasping behavior. Pilot clinical trials involving amputees showed that Hannes performed better than existing devices. This month's cover is a photograph of the Hannes hand prosthesis (see also the Focus by Nazarpour). [IMAGE CREDIT: DDPSTUDIO ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN]