Video Friday is your weekly pick of the awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends on IEEE Spectrumrobotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming events robotics events over the next few months. please send us your events for inclusion.
HRI 2023: 13–16 March 2023, STOCKHOLM
Robotics Summit and Expo: 10–11 May 2023, BOSTON
ICRA 2023: 29 May–2 June 2023, LONDON
RoboCup 2023: 4–10 July 2023, BORDEAUX, FRANCE
RSS 2023: 10–14 July 2023, DAEGU, KOREA
IEEE RO-MAN 2023: 28–31 August 2023, BUSAN, KOREA
CLAWAR 2023: 2–4 October 2023, FLORIANOPOLIS, BRAZIL
Humanoids 2023: 12–14 December 2023, AUSTIN, TEXAS
Enjoy today’s videos!
Agilicious is a co-designed hardware and software framework tailored to autonomous, agile quadrotor flight, developed and used since 2016 in Robotics and Perception Group of the University of Zurich. Agilicious is completely open-source and open hardware and supports both model-based and neural-network-based controllers!
[ Agilicious ]
Flexiv’s adaptive robot massager combines force control, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to emulate the skill and dexterity of a human massage therapist.
[ Flexiv ]
Freely inspired by “The Wolf and the Lamb” by Jean de la Fontaine, Coperni’s fashion show in Paris. featuring Spot robots from Boston Dynamics that relate to people. Unlike the original fable written in the 17th century, which raises questions related to the balance of power between the human groups that make up society, Coperni reinterprets the story and moves it to the year of 2023 with a positive outlook on the future. The wolf figure is replaced by Spot robots, while the sheep are humans. The fashion show tells the story of their meeting, their attachment to each other and their marriage. The show reflects Coperni’s view that no one dominates or dominates, but that humanity and machine live in harmony.
[ Coperni ]
Meet the third-generation prototype Honda Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV), a new category of capable work vehicle that can operate autonomously in a variety of dynamic work environments. The Honda AWV has the potential to bring greater efficiency, improved worker productivity, and better environmental performance to the construction industry, and to other industries looking for an autonomous off-road solution.
[ Honda ]
Skydio’s partnership with WeRobotics provides microgrant scholarships to Flying Labs around the world, with Nepal Flying Labs selected as the recipient for their project to create a digital twin of Changu Narayan Temple, the oldest temple in the Kathmandu Valley, which was built in the 5th Century.
[ Skydio ]
This is probably the funnest walk I’ve ever seen a humanoid robot have.
[ GitHub ]
Interesting “autoloader” for Wing delivery drones.
[ Wing ]
In this video, we show how robots can learn from human experts to master complex task sequences in various manufacturing processes, such as surface finishing and composite layup. We show how robots can learn expert task sequencing rules for the composite layup task and perform execution on a new test component.
[ USC Viterbi ]
We present a sim-to-real learning-based approach for real-world humanoid locomotion. We do not use state estimation, dynamics models, trajectory optimization, reference trajectories, or pre-computed gait libraries. Our controller is trained in large-scale model-free reinforcement learning in a group of randomized simulation environments and deployed in the real world in a zero-shot manner. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a fully learning-based method for global full-scale humanoid locomotion.
[ Paper ]
Roboball? Roboball.
[ Texas A&M ]
This work addresses the problem of active collaborative localization of robot teams with unknown data association. Specifically, it involves positioning a small number of identical unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in desired positions so that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can, by unlabeled measurements of the UGVs, be uniquely determine its global pose. This work enables robust localization in GPS-denied environments that are thought to be challenging, thus paving the way for large-scale multi-robot navigation and mapping.
[ UPenn ]
This work presents a multi-segment vine robot that can navigate complex paths without interacting with its environment. This is achieved through a new steering method that selectively activates every single end bag, providing a high degree of freedom with minimal control input.
[ Paper ]
TBNET and DEEP Robotics deployed a Jueying X20 quadruped robot with two high-precision surveying and mapping equipment. It has completed on-site data collection in complex terrains of real scenes such as indoor and outdoor construction sites, groups of electric towers, railways, underground garages, and ancient buildings.
[ DeepRobotics ]
Here’s a quick look at RoMeLa’s novel robotic limb EEMMMa (Elastic Extending Mechanism for Mobility and Manipulation), a long-reach steel tentacle that can both extend and bend. It can be used to deploy grappling hooks for climbing, and change its shape to bend over obstacles. This could allow it to place cameras and take samples from hard-to-reach areas. The limb’s unique tape spring construction results in a versatile, lightweight, and compact system. This could enable future mobile robots to move easily and safely through highly unstructured terrain such as forests or cave systems.
[ RoMeLa ]
Micro Robots are a revolutionary new technology that could change how we interact with the world around us. For the first time, a collaborative research team of electrical and computer engineers, with support from NSF, installed electronic brains in solar-powered microbots the size of a human hair. One of the biggest challenges is their small size that requires external control, such as a computer or smartphone, which limits their range and makes bots difficult to manipulate remotely until now.
[ NSF ]
A team of scientists, engineers, and designers embark on an Arctic expedition to test space technology. The MIT Space Exploration Initiative’s expedition to Svalbard is not just a space analog mission, but an experience to learn how to help enable better access to remote regions from the far corners of planet Earth, to the Moon, and Mars.
[ MIT ]
The Perseverance rover, which will land on Mars in February 2021, has the most advanced autonomous driving capabilities ever flown on Mars. Having such an advanced capability helps the rover’s challenging mission to discover signs of life that may have existed on Mars in the distant past. This statement provides an overview of current research and development efforts in robotics autonomy at JPL, with an emphasis on improving the safety, efficiency, and performance of robotic mobility through applications of risk-aware decision-making and machine learning.
[ JPL ]
An interactive webinar discussing the potential and the path to general purpose robotic manipulation. This will be the first in a series, hosted by Northwestern’s Center for Robotics and Biosystems, dedicated to this great challenge of robotics.
[ Northwestern ]