Video Friday: Robot vs. Human Workout Challenge
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):
ICRA 2020 - May 31, 2020 - [Virtual Conference] * * * STARTS SUNDAY! REGISTER NOW! * * * RSS 2020 - July 12-16, 2020 - [Virtual Conference] CLAWAR 2020 - August 24-26, 2020 - Moscow, Russia ICUAS 2020 - September 1-4, 2020 - Athens, Greece ICRES 2020 - September 28-29, 2020 - Taipei, Taiwan ICSR 2020 - November 14-16, 2020 - Golden, ColoradoLet us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos.
Humans are WEAK
Can it reliably identify a cat, though?
[ Agility Robotics ]
These little hops are so adorable.
Latest Vision 60, v4 Prototype w/ IP68 Legs. Faster, more agile, improved stability, quieter operation, higher operating temp range, narrower profile and improved gaits including 2m/s run.
Tuning Control System for Last Mile Payload Delivery- Shifting 12lbs Ball, which is quite a complex problem. Improvements to the control system for managing package, tool and other small payload deliveries for enterprise, military and consumer markets. Target 40lbs payloads for future models.
[ Ghost Robotics ]
The best part of this video of YuMi making friendship bracelets is right at the end, where it manages to tie a knot.
[ Robotdalen ]
Asimov once wrote "...catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition." We set out to capture the creative minds of young people as they are passed on the innovations of today. With a spark of inspiration, we hope to illustrate our vision of safety unified with our revolutionary autonomous systems.
[ Torc ]
A newly-developed robot is being deployed into malls in Singapore to fight the new coronavirus outbreak, not with chemicals, but with UV light.
[ Reuters ]
New content is up to prepare for the SubTChallenge Virtual Cave Circuit, including new practice worlds and robot model capabilities.
[ SubT ]
Now is not the time for a human to be handling your sushi.
[ Harada Lab ]
For when you prefer your drinks with minimal human interaction.
[ PAL Robotics ]
The University of Pennsylvania RoboCup team was one of the first participants in the original Sony Aibo league (renamed the Standard Platform 4-legged league in 2004), and participated in all the international competitions between 1999-2006. The team finished among at least the quarterfinalists in every one of those eight years. After a short hiatus in 2007-2008, we have reformulated the team with a new group of undergraduates and graduate students from various departments at the Engineering School at the University of Pennsylvania to continue competing annually.
[ UPenn ]
Our latest robot STERYBOT sterilises rooms fully autonomously with highly effective UV-C germicidal light.
[ Metra Labs ]
During the GTC20 virtual keynote, NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang demonstrated the industry's first robotic AI development platform with simulation, navigation and manipulation. The first scene is a model of NVIDIA's Kaya robot pushing around rigid bodies and also soft-body beach balls; second, a model manipulator picks up a bin with a suction cup, and the behavior of the suction cup is demonstrated by dropping heavy items into the bin -- the viewer will notice the bin move in response to the impulses caused by the objects landing in it; third, the manipulator stacks bins, and the model manipulator is shown connected to the Isaac SDK application. Lastly, you will see a demonstration of a model logistics #robot, transporting bins that were stacked on the pallet.
[ NVIDIA ]
Here's what's been going on at EPFL's Reconfigurable Robotics Lab over the last year or so.
[ RRL ]
Performing large step-ups is a challenging task for a humanoid robot. It requires the robot to perform motions at the limit of its reachable workspace while straining to move its body upon the obstacle. This paper presents a non-linear trajectory optimization method for generating step-up motions. We adopt a simplified model of the centroidal dynamics to generate feasible Center of Mass trajectories aimed at reducing the torques required for the step-up motion. The activation and deactivation of contacts at both feet are considered explicitly. The output of the planner is a Center of Mass trajectory plus an optimal duration for each walking phase. These desired values are stabilized by a whole-body controller that determines a set of desired joint torques. We experimentally demonstrate that by using trajectory optimization techniques, the maximum torque required to the full-size humanoid robot Atlas can be reduced up to 20% when performing a step-up motion.
[ Paper ]
Until recently, living with robots was the stuff of sci-fi. Nowadays, it's a reality for many: robots can clean your floor, cook you a meal, tell you the news and even crack a joke. But are they worth your time and money? Dmitry Dereshev draws on research with people who have lived with companion robots over many years, asking: What makes these robots worth the effort? How do other people react to robot owners? And what makes living with a companion robot enjoyable? Using insights from his work, he considers why many social robot start-ups fail, and what it might take for them to succeed.
[ SIGCHI ]
This ride-along with Mobileye's autonomous vehicle in Jerusalem is notable because they've got a drone providing an aerial view of the whole thing.
I'm honestly not sure whether doing this with a drone in Israel is, uh, legal, though?
[ Mobileye ]
In this episode of the AI Podcast, Lex speaks with MIT's Kate Darling about all the really interesting bits of robotics.
[ AI Podcast ]
Benjamin Morrell from JPL, who's leading the CoSTAR perception subteam in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, gives a talk about (you guessed it) robot perception at JPL and the DARPA SubT Challenge.
[ SPARK Lab ]