The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of robots and an urgent need for an advanced human-machine interface (HMI) system that can seamlessly connect users and robots. A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and collaborating institution recently developed an innovative HMI system, which consists of flexible, multi-layered electronic skin and provides both visual and haptic feedback to users. The system can teleoperate the robot to imitate the user's actions to perform complicated tasks. It demonstrates the potential for conducting Covid-19 swab tests and nursing patients with infectious diseases.

A research group has successfully developed a wave-based acoustics simulation that can make highly accurate time-domain estimations of acoustics in large-scale interior spaces (such as concert halls) at kilohertz frequencies. This proposed method could be utilized as a high level acoustic design tool that accurately reflects the effect of sound absorption, which is the principal method for controlling the acoustics of an architectural space. It is also hoped that this method will have applications in acoustics Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

Diarrhea is common in calves and causes enormous financial losses to the livestock industry worldwide. Antibiotics is often used to treat this, but it causes harmful side effects. A research group addressed this problem by exploring an alternative method. Feces from healthy donors were analysed before being transplanted into calves suffering from diarrhea in a process called fecal microbiota transplantation.