Self-driving cars know their own way in unpredictable traffic, thanks to path planning technology. Among current AI-driven efforts to make path planning more efficient and reliable, a research team has developed an optimization framework proven especially effective in uncertain environments. The results were published June 3 under the title “Action-Curiosity-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Path Planning in a Nondeterministic Environment” in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.

Could robots help those with mobility issues make a pizza? With support from the National Science Foundation, a team of Virginia Tech mechanical engineers are using robotic grippers and artificial intelligence to make that idea a reality.

The targeted engineering of artificial proteins with unique properties – that is possible with the assistance of a novel method developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr Dominik Niopek at the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology (IPMB) of Heidelberg University. It centers around a new AI model. This allows for forecasting how two proteins have to be fitted together at the molecular level from individual parts – subunits – in order to engineer a functional, adjustable new protein. Called ProDomino, this open-source tool opens up many different possible applications in biotechnology and medicine.

Just like when multiple people gather simultaneously in a meeting room, higher-order interactions—where many entities interact at once—occur across various fields and reflect the complexity of real-world relationships. However, due to technical limitations, in many fields, only low-order pairwise interactions between entities can be observed and collected, which results in the loss of full context and restricts practical use. KAIST researchers have developed the AI model “MARIOH,” which can accurately reconstruct* higher-order interactions from such low-order information, opening up innovative analytical possibilities in fields like social network analysis, neuroscience, and life sciences.  *Reconstruction: Estimating/reconstructing the original structure that has disappeared or was not observed.

Chemical-free pesticides and integrated pest management are the need of the hour to limit the damage to the environment while improving food productivity. In a new study, researchers from Japan have turned their attention to aromatic bush basil plants to contain agricultural pests. They found that the volatile organic compounds emitted from bush basil could activate plant defense-related genes in the leaves of common bean plants cultivated closer to bush basil.

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems deliver electricity without cables but often struggle with voltage stability when loads change. In this study, researchers developed a machine learning-based design method that uses numerical optimization to achieve load-independent operation. Their approach ensures stable output voltage (fluctuations under 5%) and high efficiency (86.7%) under varying loads. This breakthrough simplifies WPT design and could help create more practical, reliable wireless power systems for a wide range of applications.