Jet-Powered Robot, Drone With Trunk, and More

Video Friday is your weekly number of superior robotics movies, collected by your folks at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We additionally put up a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics occasions for the subsequent few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

RSS 2025: 21–25 June 2025, LOS ANGELES

ETH Robotics Summer School: 21–27 June 2025, GENEVA

IAS 2025: 30 June–4 July 2025, GENOA, ITALY

ICRES 2025: 3–4 July 2025, PORTO, PORTUGAL

IEEE World Haptics: 8–11 July 2025, SUWON, SOUTH KOREA

IFAC Symposium on Robotics: 15–18 July 2025, PARIS

RoboCup 2025: 15–21 July 2025, BAHIA, BRAZIL

RO-MAN 2025: 25–29 August 2025, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS

CLAWAR 2025: 5–7 September 2025, SHENZHEN

CoRL 2025: 27–30 September 2025, SEOUL

IEEE Humanoids: 30 September–2 October 2025, SEOUL

World Robot Summit: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN

IROS 2025: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA

Take pleasure in at present’s movies!

That is the primary profitable vertical takeoff of a jet-powered flying humanoid robotic, developed by Synthetic and Mechanical Intelligence (AMI) at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). The robotic lifted ~50 cm off the bottom whereas sustaining dynamic stability, because of superior AI-based control systems and aerodynamic modeling.

We may have rather more on this within the coming weeks!

[Nature] by way of [IIT]

As a primary step towards our mission of deploying general-purpose robots, we’re pushing the frontiers of what end-to-end AI models can obtain in the actual world. We’ve been coaching fashions and evaluating their capabilities for dexterous sensorimotor insurance policies throughout totally different embodiments, environments, and bodily interactions. We’re sharing functionality demonstrations on duties stressing totally different points of manipulation: advantageous motor management, spatial and temporal precision, generalization throughout robots and settings, and robustness to exterior disturbances.

[Generalist AI]

Thanks, Noah!

Floor Management Robotics is introducing SCUTTLE, our latest elongate multilegged platform for mobility anyplace!

[Ground Control Robotics]

Teleoperation has been round for some time, however what hasn’t been is exact, real-time power suggestions. That’s the place Flexiv steps in to shake issues up. Now, whether or not you’re throughout the room or throughout the globe, you possibly can expertise seamless, high-fidelity distant manipulation with a way of contact.

This kind of factor often takes some human coaching, for which you’d be greatest served by robot arms with precise, real-time force feedback. Hmm, I ponder the place you’d discover these…?

[Flexiv]

The 1X World Mannequin is a data-driven simulator for humanoid robots constructed with a grounded understanding of physics. It permits us to foretell—or “hallucinate”—the outcomes of NEO’s actions earlier than they’re taken in the actual world. Utilizing the 1X World Mannequin, we will immediately assess the efficiency of AI fashions—compressing growth time and offering a transparent benchmark for steady enchancment.

[1X]

SLAPBOT is an interactive robotic paintings by Hooman Samani and Chandler Cheng, exploring the dynamics of bodily interplay, synthetic company, and energy. The set up contains a robotic arm fitted with a smooth, inflatable hand that delivers slaps by pneumatic actuation, reworking a visceral human gesture right into a programmed robotic response.

I requested, after all, whether or not SLAPBOT slaps folks, and it doesn’t: “Regardless of its provocative idea and evocative design, SLAPBOT doesn’t make bodily contact with human individuals. It simulates the gesture of slapping with out delivering an precise strike. The robotic arm’s actions are exactly choreographed to recommend the act, but it maintains a protected distance.”

[SLAPBOT]

Thanks, Hooman!

Inspecting the bowels of ships is one thing we’d actually like robots to be doing for us, please and thanks.

[Norwegian University of Science and Technology] by way of [GitHub]

Thanks, Kostas!

H2L Company (hereinafter known as H2L) has unveiled a brand new product known as “Capsule Interface,” which transmits whole-body actions and power, enabling new shared experiences with robots and avatars. A product introduction video depicting a synchronization by no means earlier than skilled by people was additionally launched.

[H2L Corp.] by way of [RobotStart]

How do you retain a robotic protected with out requiring it to take a look at you? Radar!

[Paper] by way of [IEEE Sensors Journal]

Thanks, Bram!

We suggest Aerial Elephant Trunk, an aerial continuum manipulator impressed by the elephant trunk, that includes a small-scale quadrotor and a dexterous, compliant tendon-driven continuum arm for versatile operation in each indoor and outside settings.

[Adaptive Robotics Controls Lab]

This video demonstrates a heavy weight lifting take a look at utilizing the ARMstrong Dex robotic, specializing in a 40 kg bicep curl movement. ARMstrong Dex is a human-sized, dual-arm hydraulic robotic presently beneath growth on the Korea Atomic Power Analysis Institute (KAERI) for disaster response functions. Designed to carry out duties flexibly like a human whereas delivering excessive energy output, ARMstrong Dex is able to dealing with complicated operations in hazardous environments.

[Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]

Micro-robots that may examine water pipes, diagnose cracks, and repair them autonomously—decreasing leaks and avoiding costly excavation work—have been developed by a crew of engineers led by the College of Sheffield.

[University of Sheffield]

We’re rising in measurement, scale, and influence! We’re excited to announce the opening of our serial manufacturing facility within the San Francisco Bay Space, the very first purpose-built robotaxi meeting facility within the United States. Extra space means extra innovation, manufacturing, and alternatives to scale our fleet.

[Zoox]

Watch multipick in motion as our pickle robotic quickly identifies, picks, and locations a number of bins in a single swing of an arm.

[Pickle]

And now, this.

[Aibo]

Cargill’s Amsterdam Multiseed facility enlists Spot and Orbit to examine equipment and carry out visible checks, enhanced by all-new AI options, as a part of their “Plant of the Future” program.