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.
IEEE SSRR 2023: 13–15 November 2023, FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN
Humanoids 2023: 12–14 December 2023, AUSTIN, TEX.
Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Enjoy today’s videos!
Digit, our human-centric robot, can now self-right and stand back up after it falls. This is footage from our testing lab, where we intentionally disable the perception systems that would normally avoid/adjust to obstacles preventing Digit from falling. For the purposes of this test, we force Digit to fall in a controlled environment to demonstrate our new self-righting and recovering ability.
[ Agility ]
With our multipick functionality, Stretch is unlocking the next level of automated unloading. Stretch can now move multiple boxes with a single swing of the arm. In typical shipping containers filled with thousands of boxes, the robot is hitting significantly higher rates of productivity.
[ Boston Dynamics ]
The moral of this video is to always give your robots a gentle pat on the sensors when they do a good job at a challenging task.
[ ANYbotics ]
Since their mass production in the early 2000s, vacuum robots have emerged as highly successful commercial products in the field of home automation. At KIMLAB, we have implemented a mobile manipulator based on a vacuum robot and an add-on mechanism by employing our PAPRAS (Plug-And-Play Robotic Arm System).
Happy 100 Ikeadroneversary to Verity!
[ Verity ]
If you’re wondering what kind of black magic is making this work, the answer is the best kind of black magic: magnets.
[ Paper ] via [ Freeform Robotics ]
Honda is exploring how our all-electric prototype Honda Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV) could address the challenges of labor shortages, safety and security, and emissions reductions to bring new value to airfield operations. The Honda AWV is designed to boost workforce productivity and support repetitive tasks that allow companies to focus their workforce on value-added activities. First introduced as a concept at CES 2018, the Honda AWV is now advancing toward commercialization.
[ Honda ]
First prototype of a bike tire treated with Self-Healing polymer internally. The result is a puncture-proof inflated tire that does not need the addition of any liquid sealant. The tire is a normal bike tire with an inner tire.
[ BruBotics ]
The U.S. Navy is working on four-legged friends for sailors, and the ship’s cat is very upset.
[ USNRL ]
The SMART Innovative Training Network is a joint venture between academia and industry, providing scientific and personal development of young researchers in the multidisciplinary fields of soft robotics and smart materials. SMART will realize the technologically and scientifically ambitious breakthroughs to exploit smart, stimuli-responsive material systems for actuation, sensing, and self-healing capabilities for intelligent soft devices.
[ SMART ITN ]
Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Since 2007, he has written over 6,000 articles on robotics and technology. He has a degree in Martian geology and is excellent at playing bagpipes.
