technology 24 for you: Video Friday: Lunar Base

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.

Robotics Summit & 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, USA

Enjoy today’s videos!

GITAI conducted a demonstration of lunar base construction using two GITAI inchworm-type robotic arms and two GITAI Lunar Robotic Rovers in a simulated lunar environment and successfully completed all planned tasks. The GITAI robots have successfully passed various tests corresponding to Level 4 of NASA’s Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) in a simulated lunar environment in the desert.

[ GITAI ]

Thanks, Sho!

This is 30 minutes of Agility Robotics’ Digit being productive at ProMat. The fact that it gets boring and repetitive to watch reinforces how much this process needs robots, and is also remarkable because bipedal robots can now be seen as just another tool.

[ Agility Robotics ]

We are now one step closer to mimicking Baymax’ skin with softness and whole-body sensing, which may benefit social or task-based touch/interaction at large area. We constructed a robot arm with a soft skin and vision-based tactile sensing. We also showcase this method for our large-scale tactile sensor (TacLink) by demonstrating its use in two scenarios: namely whole-arm nonprehensile manipulation, and intuitive motion guidance using a custom-built tactile robot arm integrated with TacLink.

[ Paper ]

Thanks, Van!

Meet Fifi, a software engineering team lead at Boston Dynamics. Hear her perspective on how she got into engineering, why she wouldn’t trust Stretch with her pet cactus, and much more—as she answers questions from kids and other curious minds.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

Take a look at this 7 ingredient printed dessert and ask yourself if conventional cooking appliances such as ovens, stovetops, and microwaves may one day be replaced by cooking devices that incorporate three-dimensional (3D) printers, lasers, or other software-driven processes.

[ Paper ]

What if you just loaded the robots onto the truck?!

Mind. Blown.

[ Slip Robotics ]

Uh.

As weird as this looks, it’s designed to reduce the burden on caregivers by automating tooth brushing.

[ RobotStart ]

Relay is still getting important work done in hospitals.

[ Relay Robotics ]

Real cars are expensive, simulation is fake, but MIT’s MiniCity is just the right compromise for developing safer autonomous vehicles.

[ Paper ]

Robot-to-human mechanical tool handover is a common task in a human-robot collaborative assembly where humans are performing complex, high-value tasks and robots are performing supporting tasks. We explore an approach to ensure the safe handover of mechanical tools to humans. Our experimental results indicate that our system can safely and effectively handoff many different types of tools. We have tested the system’s ability to successfully handle contingencies that may occur during the handover process.

[ USC Viterbi ]

Autonomous vehicle (AV) uncertainty is at an all-time high. Michigan Engineering researchers aim to change that. A team of researchers used artificial intelligence to train virtual vehicles that can challenge AVs in a virtual or augmented reality testing environment. The virtual cars were only fed safety-critical training data, making them better equipped to challenge AVs with more of those rare events in a shorter amount of time.

[ Michigan ]

All of the sea lamprey detection problems you never knew you had are now solved.

[ Paper ]

OTTO Motors is thrilled to announce the official launch of our newest autonomous mobile robot (AMR)—OTTO 600. We have also released a major update that makes industry-leading strides in software development. With this, the industry’s most comprehensive AMR fleet is unveiled, enabling manufacturers to automate any material handling job up to 4,200 lb.

[ OTTO Motors ]

From falling boxes to discarded mattresses, we prepare the Waymo Driver to identify and navigate around all kinds of debris on public roads. See how we use debris tests at our closed-course facilities to prepare our Waymo Driver for any foreign objects and debris it may encounter on public roads.