MIT researchers have developed a new soft robotics platform able to grip items such as tools using the appropriate amount of force. The Series Elastic End Effectors (SEED) has been designed to allow robots to carry out tasks that require the application of force of a grasped tool with proper pressure.

Robotic advancements are still ongoing, but traditional rigid robots still have difficulty completing tasks that are easy for humans. To complement robots, SEED uses embedded cameras and soft bubble grippers that use deformation that is carefully mapped. Everything the robot senses can be tracked in real-time in a 3D image that changes shape around a particular object that is being used - and each experience can be later utilized as a learned model.

SEED makes it possible for robots to successfully move objects with six degrees of freedom so it can move an object back and forth, up or down, left or right, roll, yaw, and pitch. Tasks demonstrated included how to set a screw to the proper torque, use a squeegee to clean up a spill, and write with a marker.

The automotive industry is still working through a semiconductor shortage that has caused major headaches for carmakers. Strong demand persists despite the chip shortage starting in 2020 and will likely continue to finish this year and into 2023, analysts predict.

It's a mixed bag of results for different manufacturers, with Hyundai, Volkswagen, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, BW, and Volvo all recovered - but Toyota, General Motors, and Ford are still suffering shortages. Honda still has an uncertain outlook related to the shortage, with production expected to remain lower than pre-pandemic levels for at least the next year.

Even if chip supply logistics are getting better, a temporary shift from custom made chips towards general purpose semiconductors, with Infineon Technologies and Renesas Electronics recovering through shortages in 2022. STMicroelectronics is sold out through next year, while NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments still supporting inventories below desired levels.

The CLEVON 1 autonomous delivery vehicle will find its way to the roads in North America, after Clevon announced a new headquarters in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

The company hopes its vehicle can help retailers reduce time constraints for on-demand, same day or next day delivery, while demand continues to increase. The modularly designed vehicle is electric so it's environmentally friendly and sustainable for owners to use over a long duration.

A single charge provides a 50-mile driving range or 5 hours of use, with a top speed up to 31 mph. CLEVON 1 supports up to 225 pounds of cargo weight and is designed to operate on open public roads, not sidewalks or bike paths.

There will be a time in the future where drivers will share the road with autonomous semi-trucks without a driver behind the wheel. In a recent announcement, Torc Robotics, a Daimler Truck independent subsidiary, has partnered with the Schneider National logistics company while they prepare to launch an autonomous semitruck test fleet.

Torc will rely on Schneider to provide freight loads for the pilot program, offering live truckload freight expertise. Both companies aim for the heavily customized 18-wheelers to be an industry standard and realistic solution with commercial pilots beginning in 2023.

Even though autonomous consumer cars receive most of the attention, plenty of research continues to be dedicated towards autonomous trucks.

Certain Affinity reveals new tidbits on Halo Infinite's new mysterious Tatanka game mode, which is rumored to be Halo's very own unique answer to the battle royale genre.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Certain Affinity studio boss Max Hoberman outlines a few new details about Halo Infinite's upcoming Tatanka gametype. There's no confirmation on whether or not it's a BR, or when it will release, but Hoberman does acknowledge a few interesting things.

"The biggest thing we're doing that's public right now...For more than two years now we've been working on Halo Infinite," Hoberman said.

Sources close to Twitch have told Bloomberg that the billion-dollar streaming company is more focused on profits than it is on creators.

Following 2021's reported earnings of $2.65 billion in revenues, Twitch is universally enacting a 50/50 revenue split for all streamers. In 2023, Twitch's top streamers will go from a lucrative premium contract that gave them 70% of all revenues while Twitch kept 30% to an even-keeled 50/50 split. The announcement was controversial and caused uproar in Twitch's top echelon, especially streamers that employ workers to help run their brands--millionaire streamers have turned Twitch broadcasting into a business.

This latest business decision was made by management who reportedly cares more about numbers than they do about streamers. Twitch makes less than one half of a percent of Amazon's yearly revenues ($2.67 billion compared to $470 billion), and the service also runs on Amazon Web Services to boot. Sources have told Bloomberg that Twitch's top brass, which includes CEO Emmet Shear and President Dan Clancy, who made the wildly unpopular 50/50 split announcement, are targeting profits and product rather than creators.

Automakers are working to develop new vehicles and the industry is under pressure to meet changing consumer demands - and the release of new convertibles cannot keep up. Car features such as glass tops and panoramic sunroofs are becoming more popular, while the practicality and cost increases in convertibles are leading to a drastic decline.

Traditional convertible sales have dropped to less than 100,000 units per year, despite once-popular models such as the Ford Mustang, Mazda Miata, and Chevrolet Camaro once racking up strong sales, according to the S&P Global Mobility. Despite 320,000 vehicles sold in 2006, a noticeable 2% of all US sales in 2006, which continued to slide to less than 150,000 (0.8%) in 2015 - and that figure is expected to get worse before better.

The only positive note for convertibles is in "super premiums," with 28% of the niche market share, including models from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and other high-end automakers.

Cyberpunk 2077 continues gaining strong momentum following the release of Edgerunners on PC.

Cyberpunk 2077 is now CD Projekt RED's most popular game in terms of concurrent players on PC. While The Witcher 3 still holds the top spot for game copies sold (The Witcher 3 has sold 40 million versus Cyberpunk 2077's 18 million), more people are playing the sci-fi shooter on PC right now than they ever have in The Witcher 3.

At the time of writing, Cyberpunk 2077 had over 114,000 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24-hours, beating The Witcher 3's all-time concurrent player peak of 103,329 by some 11,647 users. In short, Cyberpunk 2077 had more players in the last 24 hours on Steam than The Witcher 3 ever has.

NASA has been concerned about astronauts conducting sexual relations during missions for quite some time, even to the point where the space agency officially prohibits sex and conception in space.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Haig Aintablian, an emergency physician and fellow in space medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that there are good reasons why NASA bans sex in space, and its reasons aren't so astronauts are distracted from their duties. NASA bans conception in space simply because of the limited knowledge it, and other space agencies have about pregnant women working in space and the possible health impacts that would follow.

Humans have known for quite some time that space impacts the health of humans in various forms, hence NASA and other space agencies' enforcement of astronauts sticking to a rigorous workout schedule while aboard a long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). As for pregnancies, NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos have "limited success" in invertebrates and insects successfully conceiving offspring while in space. Scientists suspect that there would be limited impediments to human conception in space, but they don't know for sure.

The graphics and effects aren't the only thing that's getting upgraded with the new Splinter Cell remake--Ubisoft has said it will update the game with a new modernized story.

Ubisoft is completely remaking the original Splinter Cell in Avalanche's powerful Snowdrop engine, complete with next-gen effects, lighting, and graphics. The game's subject matter and story are also getting a revamp to reflect a contemporary timeline; the world has changed quite a bit since the original game's release on the original Xbox, and Ubisoft wants to capture the technological and sociological evolutions in the new remake.

In a new job listing for a Splinter Cell remake scriptwriter, Ubisoft confirms its teams are "rewriting and updating the story" to make it fit in today's high-tech world.