Trending News in the Robotics Field for May 2022

What's the trending news in the robotics field for May 2022? Welcome to the 32nd installment in our monthly series, What's Trending in Robotics News! We cover all the breaking news, hot issues, trending stories, and cool stuff that's happening — or has happened — in the robotics industry.

There were plenty of amazing things happening in the robotics industry throughout May. Let's see what caught our attention this month with the trending news in the robotics field for May 2022!

When You're Here, You're (Robot) Family: The Pasta-Shaped Robot Arrives

Here's one of the coolest robots you'll ever see. As reported by Penn Today, CNET, New Scientist, Popular Mechanics, and Futurity, this pasta-esque "rotini" robot (with no moving parts) can navigate through mazes all on its own. In the future, this type of robot could exist and thrive in harsh desert environments (this is but one example of its practical usage). Just don't accidentally drop it in boiling water with some alfredo sauce. 

Do Your Chores!

Here's one way of getting out of doing things around the house. Per Dezeen, The Verge, Yahoo, and Gizmodo, Dyson is preparing to roll out a whole line of robots to help with everyday chores. Big news for everyone that likes to sleep in on the weekends. What chores would you like to outsource to some robotic friends?

Talk About Advanced Art

What would you have a robot paint? For the Queen of England's upcoming "Platinum Jubilee" (wow, what an achievement), an AI-powered bot called "AI-DA" created a remarkable portrait of Elizabeth. You can check out the picture in The Independent, The Guardian, and the BBC.

What do you think about AI-DA's royal creation? Does it have a future in the art world, or should it get relegated to "starving artist" status? Do you think there's a future in robotic art for the walls of your home and museums? Oh, and (most importantly), what season of The Crown will this appear in?

The Crab Robots Arrive

Good luck turning these creatures into crabcakes. Per USA Today and CNN, miniature "crab" robots have arrived and may help out with invasive surgeries or repair machinery one day. Go ahead and click through the links above to see how small these amazing robots are. It makes you wonder just how small science can actually make these robots.

Quick Hits

• From Inverse.com and The Robot Report: you might as well jump! This jumping robot set an all-new robotics record with a remarkable 100-foot jump. How's that for some distance? 
• Big news out of Walmart: per Gizmodo, Futurism, and Digital Trends, there's a new plan for Walmart drone deliveries. 
• It's a little dusty here: according to Mashable and The Daily Beast, the NASA "Insight" lander has reached the end of its remarkable Mars mission. Godspeed, friend!

What's To Come?

There is a lot of news out there — but these are the stories that caught our eye this month. If we could give one big theme for the month, it would be "art."

We mean this in two ways. First, it's incredible that robotics are actually creating artworks for people to enjoy, as we see with the amazing AI-created portrait of the queen for her platinum jubilee. However, it's also important sometimes to step back and marvel at the sheer artistic creations coming out of robotics. In a way, they are wondrous art: shockingly small robots that can balance on a penny, robots that can whirl around the house to clean, pasta-shaped robots that can wiggle and crawl through mazes. Hey, the Mona Lisa can only hang on a wall, right? 

The bottom line: Robotics, as a whole, is on a roll. It's adapting to every aspect of our lives and touching every element of what we do, from how we eat to where we will go as a species. Our best advice? Sit back and enjoy the ride.

One more thing, readers — if you know of anything we should add for the next edition, let us know! What caught your attention in the robotics world throughout May? Comment below, and we might feature it in our next issue!

To stay up-to-date with trending news in the robotics field, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or the community site!

Picture Credit: Ai-Da and Aidan Meller/PA / Northwestern University / Dyson