Here is a robot inspired by the movements of a snail that can climb walls. It was made by researchers at the University of Bristol. They used a slicing suction approach to pull this off. This robot can carry 1kg of mass. It can slide vertically and upside down.
Robots are already capable of operating coffee machines. The Cafe Robot takes it to the next level by leveraging the power of LLMs. It can scoop, pour liquid and perform other tasks required to make coffee. As the researchers explain, this robot makes coffees and cakes by using AI based skills.
dialogue for making coffee, as well as the coordination of each action based on the dialogue, is facilitated by the Integral Task Planner
The below video shows it in action:
[HT: Jad Tarifi, Nima Asgharbeygi, Shuhei Takamatsu, Masataka Goto]
Robots have been used for surgeries for a long time. Sony has developed a new robot that offers assistance with microsurgeries. It is designed to work on veins and nerves. It uses a highly sensitive control device to capture the movements the surgeon’s hands and fingers and replicate them.
This robotic system has a compact system to store surgical instruments that its robot arm can exchange without human intervention. This prototype has 1.3-type 4K OLED Microdisplays.
[HT]
This is the ArrayBot: a distributed manipulation system on a 16 x 16 array of sliding pillars with tactile sensors that can manipulate and support objects on a table. Researchers used reinforcement learning algorithms to pull this off. As they explain:
“we train RL agents that can relocate diverse objects through tactile observations only… Surprisingly, we find that the discovered policy can not only generalize to unseen object shapes in the simulator but also transfer to the physical robot without any domain randomization.”
![[ICRA2024] ArrayBot: Reinforcement Learning for Generalizable Distributed Manipulation through Touch](https://www.roboticgizmos.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FvhhCsG38Nvw%2F0.jpg)
Such an approach can be used to relocate two melons in parallel, relocate a dragon fruit, and a lot more.
In the future, robots are going to do most things for us. Plenty of companies are experimenting with robots at restaurants. This video from Naver Labs shows a Starbucks on the second floor of 1784 which uses more than 100 service robots called Rookie delivering drinks to meeting rooms. This room also has a dual-arm robot.
This is the REX Evolution Robot Kit: it comes with everything you need to make 8 models. It not only introduces your kids to STEM concepts but helps them become better coders with Python. This robot has WiFi and Bluetooth control. It supports block based programming for beginners.
This is the GARMI: a caregiving assistant robot that can support seniors in performing a variety of tasks. It comes with ChatGPT integration. It can bring water and breakfast to beds, book medical appointments and help users get out of the bed and perform rehab exercises. The below video shows it in action:
This is the Yarbo 2024 Autonomous Yard Robot: a modular robot that can cut grass, clear snow, and blow leaves away. It can also patrol your property and tow things. The Core module is the main part of this system. It lets you attach up to two modules. The snow blower can handle 12 inches of snow. It has two cameras for accuracy.
This is the PONGBOT NOVA S: a portable table tennis robot that you can use to practice all kinds of shots. It lets you adjust ball spin, frequency, and speed. It comes with 264 drills for you to get started fast. It can shoot anywhere on a 3×3 grid on the table. The NOVA S is compatible with iOS and Android devices.
This is the Unitree G1: an agile AI humanoid robot that you can bring home for as low as $16k. It comes with force controlled dexterous hands to manipulate a variety of objects. It can get off the ground with agility. It has a max walking speed of 2m/s. As the below video shows, this robot can recover from being kicked and punched.
