2 hours ago
1
ARTICLE AD BOX
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.
ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNA
RSS 2026: 13–17 July 2026, SYDNEY
Summer School on Multi-Robot Systems: 29 July–4 August 2026, PRAGUE
Enjoy today’s videos!
New robot, you say...?
[ Agility ]
Gatlin Robotics is proud to unveil our first commercial, showcasing our robots in action for our debut Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) contract![ Gatlin Robotics ]
Thanks, Erika!
At Dexterity, we build robots designed for precision, adaptability, and real-world problem solving. But every now and then, we like to remind ourselves (and everyone else) that motion intelligence isn’t just about efficiency—it can be expressive, fluid, even a little playful.[ Dexterity ]
Harvard researchers built a swarm of simple ant-like robots (RAnts) that can collectively excavate and construct structures without central control. By tuning just two parameters—cooperation strength and material deposition rate—the same swarm can switch between building new structures and dismantling existing ones. Adaptive group behavior can emerge from the interaction between many simple agents and their environment, with potential applications in many fields.I really appreciate companies who give their robots the ability to entertain themselves.
[ Generalist ]
“Spark of Color.” Manvi Saxena, Yihao Geng, Jason Brown, Daniel Newman, Cameron Aubin. A tiny controlled explosion inflates the soft membrane of a microcombustion actuator, sending colorful, carefully arranged water droplets skyward. The actuator measures just 8 mm in diameter, while the high-speed sequence captures only 3 milliseconds of motion. The work challenges the assumption that soft actuators must be slow or gentle, showing instead how softness can also be fast, forceful, and explosive.With the physique of an ordinary person, running at a world champion’s speed!
I am questioning whether it knows how to stop.
[ Unitree Robotics ]
Aww
[ Boston Dynamics ]
In this episode of Innovator Story, the FotoBot team from The University of Hong Kong made an appearance and conducted on-site tests with their AI photography robot at Shenzhen Bay Talent Park. Relying on TRON 1, it easily handles complex terrains such as grasslands, slopes, and stairs, unlocking a brand-new “Robot + Photography” experience for the public.[ LimX Dynamics ]
The objective of this game is to cover up as much of the hole as possible, right?
[ Kinetic Intelligent Machine Lab ]
MagicLab Robotics just deployed a massive swarm of robot dogs and humanoids at the Jiangsu Super League opening ceremony. Beyond a stunning spectacle, this is live proof of Embodied AI at scale. Coordinating a cross-category fleet in a complex, open-air environment proves our multi-agent control systems are ready for real-world deployment.
[ MagicLab ]
A swarm of drones being launched out of the back of a Chinook would be terrifying except that from this angle, it looks like the drones are being puked out by an astonished frog.
[ Boeing ]
Welcome to Robot Talk, from IHMC Robotics!
[ IHMC Robotics ]
Third-year Michigan Engineering undergrad Yulei Fu sits down with Professor Jessy Grizzle to talk about what it’s actually like to major in Robotics at University of Michigan. What makes it different from CS or ME? Where do graduates end up? Are the courses brutal? And what makes the department feel like a community instead of a competition?This CMU RI Yata Memorial Lecture is by Boris Softman, on “Journeys from Research to Commercialization: Lessons from Anki, Waymo, and Bedrock Robotics.”
In this lecture, Boris will share an honest account of that journey and its lessons, including the energizing wins, the wrong turns and painful surprises, and the moments where an earlier experience turned out to matter more than expected. Closing with a deeper look at Bedrock, he will share why he believes autonomous construction is one of the most important problems robotics can tackle right now, driven by a unique convergence of maturing technology and critical industry need. For students at the beginning of their own paths, this is a talk about how a career in robotics and entrepreneurship might actually unfold, the many variables one navigates in the journey, and why the connections you cannot yet see may end up being the most valuable ones.
English (US) ·