Michigan Robotics News | Michigan Robotics

Ram Vasudevan presents legged robotics research to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Robotics celebrates standout staff and faculty excellence in 2026

June 29, 2026

The department congratulates Ram Vasudevan on the Robotics Departmental Faculty Award and Samantha Price on the College of Engineering Staff Excellence Award.

Artist Adnan Charara paints with a robot arm programmed to collaborate on artwork.

Artists paint with robots to study creative expression

June 23, 2026

U-M researchers paired eight abstract artists with a robot arm over three weeks, and their feedback reveals what it’s like to co-create a painting with a robot.

The SPPIRO robot, a soft origami in-pipe robot, shown inside a section of pipe.

An earthworm-inspired robot to inspect complex pipelines

June 9, 2026

An untethered robot can crawl along pipelines and maneuver around sharp turns and tight junctions to detect potential defects before they lead to costly failures.

A researcher wearing motorized knee exoskeletons on both legs ascends a flight of stairs.

Knee exoskeletons to relieve arthritis pain, preserve mobility

June 1, 2026

Extending a motorized brace approach to take the load off arthritic knees, a U-M research team shifts from boosting strength to reducing joint contact forces.

Athena Lieu and a volunteer from Michigan Technological University at a FIRST Robotics Competition in Escanaba, Michigan.

FIRST Robotics alumni help Michigan teams from Escanaba to Detroit

May 28, 2026

Michigan students who grew up in FIRST Robotics travel across the state to give back by mentoring and volunteering with teams from Detroit, the Upper Peninsula, and even Ohio.

A simulated warehouse environment shows a red robotic arm picking boxes from shelves above a control console with a serial-number display, score and timer monitors, and red, blue, and green buttons used by a human operator.

human-robot interaction & teaming

Do robots need bodies? UMSI researchers say it depends

May 27, 2026

UMSI researchers challenge the assumption that virtual robot representations yield the same human responses as physically present robots, arguing the field should focus on when virtual alternatives are appropriate.