Researchers at the Zurich-based ETH public university, along with a US-based startup affiliated with MIT, have done the impossible. They’ve printed a robot hand complete with bones, ligaments and tendons for the very first time, representing a major leap forward in 3D printing technology. It’s worth noting that the various parts of the hand were printed simultaneously, and not cobbled together after the fact.

Each of the robotic hand’s various parts were made from different polymers of varying softness and rigidity, using a new laser-scanning technique that lets 3D printers create “special plastics with elastic qualities” all in one go. This obviously opens up new possibilities in the fast-moving field of prosthetics, but also in any field that requires the production of soft robotic structures.

Basically, the researchers developed a method to 3D print slow-curing plastics, whereas the technology was previously reserved for fast-curing plastics. This hybrid printing method presents all kinds of advantages when compared to standard fast-cure projects, such as increased durability and enhanced elastic properties. The tech also allows us to mimic nature more accurately, as seen in the aforementioned robotic hand.

“Robots made of soft materials, such as the hand we developed, have advantages over conventional robots made of metal. Because they’re soft, there is less risk of injury when they work with humans, and they are better suited to handling fragile goods,” ETH Zurich robotics professor Robert Katzschmann writes in the study.

ETH Zurich/Thomas Buchner

This advancement still prints layer-by-layer, but an integrated scanner constantly checks the surface for irregularities before telling the system to move onto the next material type. Additionally, the extruder and scraper have been updated to allow for the use of slow-curing polymers. The stiffness can be fine-tuned for creating unique objects that suit various industries. Making human-like appendages is one use case scenario, but so is manufacturing objects that soak up noise and vibrations. 

MIT-affiliated startup Inkbit helped develop this technology and has already begun thinking about how to make money off of it. The company will soon start to sell these newly-made printers to manufacturers but will also sell complex 3D-printed objects that make use of the technology to smaller entities. 

iRobot's Roomba Combo j5+ robot vacuum is $300 off in an early Black Friday deal via Wellbots. This is a record-low for the appliance, dropping the price to $500 instead of the MSRP of $800. In the past, discounts for the j5+ stalled at around $200 off. As typical with Wellbots deals, there’s a promo code. Just enter “ENGBF300” at checkout and you’ll be good to go.

The Roomba Combo j5+, as the name suggests, is a combination unit that includes both a vacuum and a mopping feature. It can pinpoint no-mop zones, so you don’t have to worry about the robot spraying fluid all over your brand-new carpet. The j5+ can also avoid more than 80 common floor obstacles. As a matter of fact, iRobot will replace the unit for free if it doesn’t avoid pet waste, as part of the company’s “P.O.O.P.” pledge. No, we didn’t make that up. It stands for “Pet Owner Official Promise.”

This is a well-regarded robovac with one obvious downside when compared to pricier models like the Roomba j7+ and the flagship j9+. Despite the combo functionality, you have to manually swap out the bins when switching between vacuuming and mopping. The more expensive robots do this automatically. Still, the j9+ costs $900 and the j5+ is currently on sale for $400. You’ll have to decide if that automation feature is worth the price difference.

Wellbots is also selling the junior-grade Roomba 694 vacuum for $115 off. Just enter “ENGBF115” and grab it for $159. This is your basic workhorse robovac with no mopping functionality. It does one job and it does it well, which is why it ended up on our lists of the best robot vacuums for 2023 and the best budget robot vacuums.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

The use for humans in the world of robotics, even as teachers, is shrinking thanks to AI. NVIDIA Research has announced the creation of Eureka, an AI agent powered by GPT-4 that has trained robots to perform tasks using reward algorithms. Notably, Eureka taught a robotic hand to do pen spinning tricks as well as a human can (honestly, as you can see in the YouTube video below, better than many of us).

Eureka has also taught quadruped, dexterous hands, cobot arms and other robots to open drawers, use scissors, catch balls and nearly 30 different tasks. According to NVIDIA Research, the AI agent's trial and error-based reward programs are 80 percent more effective than those written by human experts. This shift meant the robots' performance also improved by over 50 percent. Eureka also self-evaluates based on training results, instructing changes in reward functions as it sees fit.

NVIDIA Research has published a library of its Eureka algorithms, encouraging others to try them out on NVIDIA Isaac Gym, the organization's "physics simulation reference application for reinforcement learning research."

The idea of robots teaching robots is seeing increased interest and success. A May 2023 paper published in the Transactions on Machine Learning Research journal presented a new system called SKILL (Shared Knowledge Lifelong Learning), which allowed AI systems to learn 102 different skills, including diagnosing diseases from chest X-rays and identifying species of flowers. The AIs shared their knowledge — acting as teachers in a way — with each other over a communication network and were able to master each of the 102 skills. Researchers at schools like MIT and the University of Bristol have also had success, specifically in using AI to teach robots how to manipulate objects.

If you've been looking to buy a robot vacuum for yourself, or you know someone who would love to receive one as a gift this holiday season, Amazon's October Prime Day has a number of deals you'll want to check out. Big sale events like this one are a good time to shop for big-ticket items like robot vacuums, because you can usually find premium models at close to record-low prices. And affordable models aren't excluded either, so you could pick up a budget-friendly robot vacuum for even less. Here are the best robot vacuum deals we found for October Prime Day.

iRobot Roomba 694

iRobot's Roomba 694 has dropped to $199 for Prime Day. It's our favorite cheap robot vacuum thanks to its strong suction power, attractive design and easy to use app. It'll be a good option for robo-vac novices, or anyone that doesn't want to fuss too much with an automatic dirt sucker. It clears hard and carpeted floors well, and it automatically returns to its base once a cleaning job is finished so it can recharge.

iRobot Roomba s9+

The premium Roomba s9+ is on sale for $600 right now, if you have Prime. It's the most expensive model that iRobot makes, and it's currently one of our favorite high-end robo-vacs. Most people don't need something this advanced, but it's hard to deny how well this machine sucks up dirt and debris, and it doesn't choke up at the first sign of pet hair either. It also comes with a self-emptying base, so when it returns after each job to recharge, it will empty its dustbin into the base — no human interaction required.

Shark 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop

Shark's 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop machine is on sale for $400 right now, which is nearly half off its regular price. If you're looking for a robot that can thoroughly vacuum and give hard floors a good scrub with water and cleaning solution, this is a good pick. As a vacuum, it has strong suction power and decent obstacle avoidance. As a mop, it uses its reservoir and attached cloth to get rid of messier grime and stains. It also comes with a self-emptying base for the vacuum only that the machine will empty its dustbin into after every vacuuming job.

Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum

One of our favorite robot vacuums at the moment, Shark's AI Ultra is on sale for $403. It's just as easy to use and effective as a similar Roomba, but you can often find it at a notably cheaper price point. It cleans hard and carpeted floors well, and it has a bagless, self-emptying base, which is great because you will not have to continuously purchase proprietary bags over time to keep using it.

Your Fall Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Ancient, vine-draped monuments and towering obelisks protrude from the forest floor, connected by a maze of stone paths and one hyper-speed transit capsule. Statues loom among the monoliths: hooded human figures and mythological beasts surrounded by saintly geometry in gold and turquoise. I’m running down an overgrown platform by the water, sun radiating off the side of my face, trying to find the next puzzle. I take a sharp turn, the shadows shift and my silhouette is suddenly projected in front of me: waist on a slim pivot, hip joints jutting out, sticklike arms. I remember I’m made of metal and wires, and for a brief moment, I’m surprised. I forgot — I’m a robot.

The Talos Principle 2 reintroduces a post-apocalyptic world filled with the puzzles and dreams society left behind, and populates it with a race of machines who simultaneously worship humans and consider themselves to be the natural evolution of humanity. The game’s first quarter, which spans roughly seven hours, offers a beautiful and immersive playground of puzzle solving and philosophical inquiry, and it feels both grander and more cohesive than the original Talos Principle. That game came out in 2014 and featured a lone robot in an AI-powered testing ground. The sequel features an entire society of sentient machines. It also has lots of laser-powered, logic-based spatial puzzles, of course.

Croteam

The Talos Principle 2 is set in a futuristic society of robots, and you’re the 1,000th machine to come off the line. There’s debate among the citizens about whether you should be the final addition to the group, as one of its founders once dictated, and your presence unlocks a new prophecy tied to a mysterious island. Elohim, the AI antagonist of the first game, has calmed down significantly and acts as a caretaker to the robots, gently guiding their sleep cycles with a booming voice.

Each robot has its own personality, and it doesn’t take long for these machines to feel fully human, despite their lack of meat and bones. Developers at Croteam took the time to build out backstories and individual points-of-view for each supporting character, and their conversations and arguments flow seamlessly. The Talos Principle 2 features full voice acting and branching dialogue trees with multiple meaningful responses for players to choose from. It’s not uncommon to see six to eight options in conversations, presenting discrete approaches to heavy prompts about faith, doubt, consciousness, life, death and love. This is a game for curious minds, and the dialogue system supports this with rich character development and high-quality conversational writing.

Croteam

This robot society provides the narrative framework for actual gameplay. On the mysterious, prophesied island players encounter a series of puzzles hidden among humanity’s ruins, much like in the original game. The structures on the island are widespread and vast, but navigation is intuitive, thanks to subtle environmental cues, a compass with waypoints and directions from the other robots on the expedition team. This time around, you’re not alone (no offense, Elohim).

The puzzles themselves are devilish. They start simply, prompting players to divert laser beams into portals of the same color using connector rods, jammers, blocks, pressure pads and fans. As players progress through the riddle rooms, the game introduces new tools, like a drill that can create holes in some walls and an inverter that reverses the laser color, adding unexpected complexity to the puzzles. It’s my firm belief that the best puzzles in video games are ones that appear simple, but have a single, incredibly tricky solution buried beneath layers of almost-there answers. Nothing beats that breakthrough feeling when the entire room suddenly makes sense, the lasers align, and all the right doors slide open. The beginning hours of The Talos Principle 2 effortlessly capture this sensation, again and again.

Tetrominoes are back in the sequel, and they’re big. Not only metaphorically (the robots often theorize about the shapes’ supposed purpose), but also in physical size. I made literal bridges out of building-sized tetrominoes, swapping out pieces and rotating them on a grand scale. While this segment wasn’t particularly challenging, it was satisfying in a new kind of way.

Croteam

In its first quarter, The Talos Principle 2 reproduces the brilliance of the original game and adds to this foundation, expanding its world narratively and mechanically. Philosophical conversations are no longer siloed in read-only terminals, though there are still datasets scattered around the map. The story’s main prompts are instead integrated into gameplay via deep, player-driven conversations with NPCs, and even a little bit of light gossip. The Talos Principle 2 has secrets to discover, personalities to explore and questions to answer — and that’s all on top of being a uniquely fantastic (and optimistic) sci-fi puzzle game.

Footage captured by a food delivery robot in Los Angeles was used to arrest and convict two people after a failed attempt to steal it off the street earlier this year, according to 404 Media. Serve Robotics, which works with Uber Eats for last-mile deliveries in the area, shared videos of the incident with the Los Angeles Police Department both proactively and after a subpoena. Serve previously met with LAPD to “open a line of communication” between the two ahead of any potential troubles, emails obtained by 404 also show.

It comes at a time when public wariness around the technology is already high, with concerns about just how much the robots are recording and where that footage ultimately goes. Serve Robotics CEO Ali Kashani boasted about the resulting convictions on social media, tweeting, “Some genius once tried to steal one of our robots… It didn’t end well (for them).” In a follow-up blog post, Kashani takes a softer stance, attempting to explain how the company balances its approach to involving law enforcement with its responsibility to the public and fostering trust.

The company’s principles, according to Kashani, include “not using robots for surveillance or other purposes that violate the public’s sense of privacy,” and not putting unnecessary strain on public resources by calling in the police “to address every minor incident of robot vandalism.” In this case, in which the police were immediately notified and arrests were made, the robot got away on its own and was, as Kashani describes it, “unharmed.” The company turned in all relevant footage before deleting it.

It remains unclear how long Serve keeps its robots’ recordings under normal circumstances, and its vagueness around the videos' potential use doesn’t inspire much confidence. In a statement to 404 Media, Serve’s head of communications, Aduke Thelwell, said it is the company’s policy to “regularly delete camera feed unless otherwise required, and to comply with subpoena requests.”

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is implementing a new security measure at the Times Square subway station. It's deploying a security robot to patrol the premises, which authorities say is meant to "keep you safe." We're not talking about a RoboCop-like machine or any human-like biped robot — the K5, which was made by California-based company Knightscope, looks like a massive version of R2-D2. Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of privacy rights group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, has a less flattering description for it, though, and told The New York Times that it's like a "trash can on wheels."

K5 weighs 420 pounds and is equipped with four cameras that can record video but not audio. As you can guess from the image above, the machine also doesn't come with arms — it didn't quite ignore Mayor Eric Adams' attempt at making a heart. The robot will patrol the station from midnight until 6 AM throughout its trial run that's running over the next two months. But K5 won't be doing full patrols for a while, since it's spending its first two weeks mapping out the station and roaming only the main areas and not the platforms. 

It's not quite clear if NYPD's machine will be livestreaming its camera footage, and if law enforcement will be keeping an eye on what it captures. Adams said during the event introducing the robot that it will "record video that can be reviewed in case of an emergency or a crime." It apparently won't be using facial recognition, though Cahn is concerned that the technology could eventually be incorporated into the machine. Obviously, K5 doesn't have the capability to respond to actual emergencies in the station and can't physically or verbally apprehend suspects. The only real-time help it can provide people is to connect them to a live person to report an incident or to ask questions, provided they're able to press a button on the robot. 

NYC is leasing K5 for around $9 an hour for the next two months. The mayor sounds convinced that's worth what the robot can do even though, as The Times notes, he recently ordered several agencies to reduce spending by 15 percent. "This is below minimum wage," he said. "No bathroom breaks, no meal breaks." Adams has a history of supporting the use of machines as police tools. Earlier this year, the mayor also announced that the NYPD will acquire two Digidog robots for $750,000 each for use in hostage and other critical situations. That's quite a reversal from the NYPD's decision in 2021 to cancel its lease on what was then known as Boston Dynamics' Spot after facing backlash for its use.

Fighting fires was always dangerous. But with climate change, there have been more wildfires, which means even more risky rescue missions for local firefighting squads. That’s why multiple different companies and teams of scientists are working to develop robots that can scope out burning buildings before human firefighters have to enter. The latest entrant is FireBot, a remote-controlled robot that can withstand temperatures as high as 650 degrees Celsius. At that scalding temperature, a firefighter wearing a protective suit can only withstand about 15 minutes of exposure.

FireBot, which can be operated for four hours at a time, looks like an object straight out of a sci-fi film. With its saw-like “arms” that help the metallic boxy device move, the bot can climb obstacles in its path using tracks that allow it to climb stairs and debris – a requirement for navigating raging fires. According to TechCrunch, which hosted FireBot’s parent company at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week, the bot uses MIMO wireless technology that can transfer data to a receiver as far as 0.9 miles away. That way, a crew can safely examine the inside of a burning building while using a joystick and display to maneuver the bot.

The device has built-in sensors that include HD optical and thermal imagers, as well as various mechanisms to detect dangerous gasses. In addition, it can check for the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which are the two deadliest fumes that can injure or kill humans in a fire. Also importantly, the device is seemingly fast despite its boxy appearance. The FireBot can move twice as fast as a firefighter wearing full personal protective equipment that can, on average, be as heavy as 45 pounds.

Paradigm Robotics

The robot is expected to cost at least $90,000 when it goes on sale in the third quarter of 2024. Alternatively, fire departments could lease it. Although this device isn’t exactly cheap, it can help alleviate the annual fees associated with firefighter injuries, which is estimated to cost fire departments up to $197,860 a year, according to a paper the National Fire Protection Association published in late 2019.

The FireBot is not the first device that uses robotics to make firefighting safer. Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are developing what’s known as SAFFiR, or the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. The bi-pedal humanoid robot is being engineered to navigate ships, interact with people, and use thermal imaging to identify and handle a hose to put out small fires.

When Engadget covered the Navy’s robot back in 2019, SAFFiR was still not water- and fire-proof, which may be why the Navy said its more advanced prototypes are still in the experimental stages of R&D. Similarly, there’s DARPA's Atlas, a disaster-response robot that hosts an infrared and a rotating light detection and ranging (LIDAR) laser that allows it to navigate dense smoke. Still, nothing is as seemingly advanced as Paradigm’s FireBot in terms of being able to withstand and navigate heat at fire scenes.

In a similar vein, the Los Angeles Fire Department even experimented with specialized drones that can aid in scope and rescue missions as well as a ridiculously large 3,500-pound “Thermite RS3” robot. That robot costs $272,000, making the FireBot seem almost reasonable by comparison.

Agility Robotics, the creator of the bipedal robot Digit, is opening a manufacturing plant in Salem, Oregon that will give the company the capacity to produce more than 10,000 humanoid robots a year. The 70,000 square foot factory coined “RoboFab” is set to open later this year and will employ upwards of 500 workers in Salem.

Agility Robotics says its facility will also employ its very own Digits, the iconic humanoid robot, in the new factory. The Digits will help move, load and unload warehouse goods.

The company says some customers can expect delivery of the first Digits in 2024, with general market availability in 2025. In a statement, Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ co-founder and CEO says that the ultimate goal of creating Digits is to “Solve difficult problems in today’s workforce like injuries, burnout, high turnover and unfillable labor gaps.”

The manufacturing of bipedal robots is something we have seen teased by competitors like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Tesla’s Optimus robot prototype. However, none have matured to the extent of being able to churn out thousands of robots like that being seen in this effort by Agility Robotics. Still, until these robots are actually in production, it's too soon to say if Agility Robotics’ warehouse robots, which are designed to fill a gap in the logistics and distribution industry, will actually surpass its competitors in this newly burgeoning market.

Sony has launched the "Aibo Foster Parent" program for its $2,900 robot dogs, allowing owners whose basic plans have been canceled to donate them. The company will then refurbish the Aibos as necessary and donate them to medical facilities, foster homes and other organizations. The aim is to "make Aibo more sustainable," the company said, by giving the units a second home where they can provide emotional support and more. 

The Aibo robot dogs in question are the newer 2019 ERS-1000 units still being sold, which are a reboot of its "entertainment" robotic dogs from the late 1990s. It's not exactly a fully charitable project, as Sony will charge "foster parents" an unnamed fee for service. It also notes that depending on condition, some donated units may serve strictly as parts for other Aibo robots. 

As we discussed in our review back in 2019, Aibo can do a number of tricks like standing on its hind legs and greeting its owner at the door, and has been engineered to "mature" over time like a real dog. It also offers a web-based interface that lets you program custom actions. The units have a suite of sensors and respond to voice and touch, and can even recognize specific people, so they're ideal as emotional support devices. That means they can sub in at facilities that don't allow real animals, so the program seems like a good use of older units — while also reducing e-waste.