Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

ICRA@40: 23–26 September 2024, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAE

ICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARK

Cybathlon 2024: 25–27 October 2024, ZURICH

Enjoy today’s videos!

I think it’s time for us all to admit that some of the most interesting bipedal and humanoid research is being done by Disney.

[ Research Paper from ETH Zurich and Disney Research]

Over the past few months, Unitree G1 robot has been upgraded into a mass production version, with stronger performance, ultimate appearance, and being more in line with mass production requirements.

[ Unitree ]

This robot is from Kinisi Robotics, which was founded by Brennand Pierce, who also founded Bear Robotics. You can’t really tell from this video, but check out the website because the reach this robot has is bonkers.

Kinisi Robotics is on a mission to democratize access to advanced robotics with our latest innovation—a low-cost, dual-arm robot designed for warehouses, factories, and supermarkets. What sets our robot apart is its integration of LLM technology, enabling it to learn from demonstrations and perform complex tasks with minimal setup. Leveraging Brennand’s extensive experience in scaling robotic solutions, we’re able to produce this robot for under $20k, making it a game-changer in the industry.

[ Kinisi Robotics ]

Thanks Bren!

Finally, something that Atlas does that I am also physically capable of doing. In theory.

Okay, never mind. I don’t have those hips.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University have created the first legged robot of its size to run, turn, push loads, and climb miniature stairs.

They say it can “run,” but I’m skeptical that there’s a flight phase unless someone sneezes nearby.

[ Carnegie Mellon University ]

The lights are cool and all, but it’s the pulsing soft skin that’s squigging me out.

[ Paper, Robotics Reports Vol.2 ]

Roofing is a difficult and dangerous enough job that it would be great if robots could take it over. It’ll be a challenge though.

[ Renovate Robotics ] via [ TechCrunch ]

Kento Kawaharazuka from JSK Robotics Laboratory at the University of Tokyo wrote in to share this paper, just accepted at RA-L, which (among other things) shows a robot using its flexible hands to identify objects through random finger motion.

[ Paper accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters ]

Thanks Kento!

It’s one thing to make robots that are reliable, and it’s another to make robots that are reliable and repairable by the end user. I don’t think iRobot gets enough credit for this.

[ iRobot ]

I like competitions where they say, “just relax and forget about the competition and show us what you can do.”

[ MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge ]

I kid you not, this used to be my job.

[ RoboHike ]

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

RoboCup 2024: 17–22 July 2024, EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS

ICRA@40: 23–26 September 2024, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAE

ICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARK

Cybathlon 2024: 25–27 October 2024, ZURICH

Enjoy today’s videos!

At ICRA 2024, Spectrum editor Evan Ackerman sat down with Unitree Founder and CEO Xingxing Wang and Tony Yang, VP of Business Development, to talk about the company’s newest humanoid, the G1 model.

[ Unitree ]

SACRIFICE YOUR BODY FOR THE ROBOT

[ WVUIRL ]

From navigating uneven terrain outside the lab to pure vision perception, GR-1 continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

[ Fourier ]

Aerial manipulation has gained interest for completing high-altitude tasks that are challenging for human workers, such as contact inspection and defect detection. This letter addresses a more general and dynamic task: simultaneously tracking time-varying contact force and motion trajectories on tangential surfaces. We demonstrate the approach on an aerial calligraphy task using a novel sponge pen design as the end-effector.

[ CMU ]

LimX Dynamics Biped Robot P1 was kicked and hit: Faced with random impacts in a crowd, P1 with its new design once again showcased exceptional stability as a mobility platform.

[ LimX Dynamics ]

Thanks, Ou Yan!

This is from ICRA 2018, but it holds up pretty well in the novelty department.

[ SNU INRoL ]

I think someone needs to crank the humor setting up on this one.

[ Deep Robotics ]

The paper summarizes the work at the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory on end-to-end neural control of quadcopters. A major challenge in bringing these controllers to life is the “reality gap” between the real platform and the training environment. To address this, we combine online identification of the reality gap with pre-trained corrections through a deep neural controller, which is orders of magnitude more efficient than traditional computation of the optimal solution.

[ MAVLab ]

This is a dedicated Track Actuator from HEBI Robotics. Why they didn’t just call it a “tracktuator” is beyond me.

[ HEBI Robotics ]

Menteebot can navigate complex environments by combining a 3D model of the world with a dynamic obstacle map. On the first day in a new location, Menteebot generates the 3D model by following a person who shows the robot around.

[ Mentee Robotics ]

Here’s that drone with a 68kg payload and 70km range you’ve always wanted.

[ Malloy ]

AMBIDEX is a dual-armed robot with an innovative mechanism developed for safe coexistence with humans. Based on an innovative cable structure, it is designed to be both strong and stable.

[ NAVER Labs ]

As quadrotors take on an increasingly diverse range of roles, researchers often need to develop new hardware platforms tailored for specific tasks, introducing significant engineering overhead. In this article, we introduce the UniQuad series, a unified and versatile quadrotor hardware platform series that offers high flexibility to adapt to a wide range of common tasks, excellent customizability for advanced demands, and easy maintenance in case of crashes.

[ HKUST ]

The video demonstrates the field testing of a 43 kg (95 lb) amphibious cycloidal propeller unmanned underwater vehicle (Cyclo-UUV) developed at the Advanced Vertical Flight Laboratory, Texas A&M University. The vehicle utilizes a combination of cycloidal propellers (or cyclo-propellers), screw propellers, and tank treads for operations on land and underwater.

[ TAMU ]

The “pill” (the package hook) on Wing’s delivery drones is a crucial component to our aircraft! Did you know our package hook is designed to be aerodynamic and has stable flight characteristics, even at 65 mph?

[ Wing ]

Happy 50th to robotics at ABB!

[ ABB ]

This JHU Center for Functional Anatomy & Evolution Seminar is by Chen Li, on Terradynamics of Animals & Robots in Complex Terrain.

[ JHU ]