News

An international team led by researchers at Waterloo Engineering has found a way to dramatically strengthen smart, rubber-like materials to replace rigid motors and pumps in robots with flexible “artificial muscles.”

Soft robots differ from hard robots in that they are pliable and flexible, making them safe for interaction with people, but the materials now used for components enabling their movement aren’t strong enough to be effective.

Our very own Brandon DeHart, RoboHub Manager and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has been invited to give a talk as part of a workshop at the IEEE Humanoids Conference in Seoul, South Korea.

Building on his work with the IEEE Humanoids Study Group to pull together the report on the state of standards and safety for humanoid robots, titled "A Pathway Study for Future Humanoids Standards" and available via https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27892.21122, Brandon was invited to give a talk as part of a workshop on the topic at the IEEE Humanoids Conference this year.

An MME professor recently lent their expertise to an article in the Globe and Mail on exoskeleton companies looking to break into the mainstream market.  

Exoskeletons are wearable devices that can provide assistance with mobility, allowing individuals who need or want it to have a greater range of motion—generally, they help people move more easily.

Today, CENGN announced a Living Lab partnership with the University of Waterloo and Rogers Communications to advance Canadian innovation.  Through the partnership, the CENGN Living Lab Initiative will now include co-funded access to the Robotic Connectivity Living Lab, powered by the University of Waterloo’s RoboHub and Rogers. The Living Lab will enable Canadian startups and scaleups to test and validate their cutting-edge products and services in critical sectors like defence, robotics, and applied artificial intelligence, accelerating their path to market readiness.

Waterloo researchers have found that hackers can identify a robot’s action with a 97 per cent accuracy rate. A new study from the University of Waterloo has unveiled major privacy weaknesses in collaborative robots — calling for stronger defenses.

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) welcomes Dr. John McPhee to the 2025 class of Fellows, the country's highest academic honour. 

A research team led by Dr. Veronika Magdanz, a professor of systems design engineering, is developing technology to dissolve painful kidney stones in the urinary tract using tiny robots.

The new technique, tested in a life-size, 3D-printed model, features thin, spaghetti-like strips fitted with magnets that can be moved into place near uric acid kidney stones with a robotic arm operated by doctors (see right video clip).

Health-tech startup Cobionix has secured U.S. $3 million in funding to accelerate the commercialization of its flagship autonomous medical robot, CODI®, in North American and UK healthcare systems.

Co-founded in 2021 by Waterloo Engineering alumni Nima Zamani and Dr. Tim Lasswell (both BASc ‘14 and MASc ‘16, mechanical and mechatronics engineering) with John Van Leeuwen (BSc ‘81), Cobionix builds autonomous AI-driven solutions to help make health care more accessible.

The funding round was led by venture capital firm TitletownTech which specializes in digital health, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics and entertainment.

Real Life Robotics, a pioneering robotics and automation company at Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, today announces a first-of-its-kind robot-powered delivery partnership with Skip, Canada’s homegrown delivery network. 

Through an initial three-month deployment in Markham, Ont., the initiative will pave the way for enhanced innovation within the Canadian delivery ecosystem with the potential to expand across additional Canadian cities.

Every week, elementary school children visit the RoboHub to learn about robots and related technology as part of the "Kids on Campus" program run by Engineering Outreach.