Video Friday: UC Berkeley’s Little Humanoid

Video Friday is your weekly number of superior robotics movies, collected by your pals at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We additionally submit a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics occasions for the following few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

ICRA@40: 23–26 September 2024, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

IROS 2024: 14–18 October 2024, ABU DHABI, UAE

ICSR 2024: 23–26 October 2024, ODENSE, DENMARK

Cybathlon 2024: 25–27 October 2024, ZURICH

Take pleasure in at present’s movies!

We introduce Berkeley Humanoid, a dependable and low-cost mid-scale humanoid analysis platform for learning-based management. Our light-weight, in-house-built robotic is designed particularly for studying algorithms with low simulation complexity, anthropomorphic movement, and excessive reliability in opposition to falls. Able to omnidirectional locomotion and withstanding massive perturbations with a compact setup, our system goals for scalable, sim-to-real deployment of learning-based humanoid methods.

[ Berkeley Humanoid ]

This text presents Ray, a brand new kind of audio-animatronic robotic head. All of the mechanical construction of the robotic is in-built one step by 3-D printing… This easy, light-weight construction and the separatetendon-based actuation system beneath enable for easy, quick motions of the robotic. We additionally develop an audio-driven movement technology module that mechanically synthesizes pure and rhythmic motions of the top and mouth based mostly on the given audio.

[ Paper ]

CSAIL researchers introduce a novel strategy permitting robots to be skilled in simulations of scanned residence environments, paving the best way for custom-made family automation accessible to anybody.

[ MIT News ]

Okay, signal me up for this.

[ Deep Robotics ]

NEURA Robotics is among the many first becoming a member of the early entry NVIDIA Humanoid Robotic Developer Program.

This could possibly be nice, however there’s an terrible lot of soar cuts in that video.

[ Neura ] through [ NVIDIA ]

I like that Unitree’s tagline within the video description right here is “let’s have enjoyable collectively.”

Is that “please don’t do dumb stuff with our robots” on the finish of the video new…?

[ Unitree ]

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang offered a serious breakthrough on Challenge GR00T with WIRED’s Lauren Goode at SIGGRAPH 2024. In a two-minute demonstration video, NVIDIA defined a scientific strategy they found to scale up robotic information, addressing one of the vital difficult points in robotics.

[ NVIDIA ]

On this analysis, we investigated the progressive use of a manipulator as a tail in quadruped robots to enhance their bodily capabilities. Earlier research have primarily targeted on enhancing numerous skills by attaching robotic tails that operate solely as tails on quadruped robots. Whereas these tails enhance the efficiency of the robots, they arrive with a number of disadvantages, comparable to elevated total weight and better prices. To mitigate these limitations, we suggest the usage of a 6-DoF manipulator as a tail, permitting it to serve each as a tail and as a manipulator.

[ Paper ]

On this end-to-end demo, we showcase how MenteeBot transforms the procuring expertise for people, notably these utilizing wheelchairs. By way of discussions with a world retailer, MenteeBot has been designed to behave as the last word procuring companion, providing a seamless, pure expertise.

[ Menteebot ]

Nature Contemporary Farms, based mostly in Leamington, Ontario is one in every of North America’s largest greenhouse farms rising high-quality organics, berries, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. In 2022, Nature Contemporary partnered with 4 Growers, a FANUC Licensed System Integrator, to develop a robotic system outfitted with AI to reap tomatoes within the greenhouse surroundings.

[ FANUC ]

Opposite to what you will have been led to imagine by a number of earlier Video Fridays, WVUIRL’s open supply rover is sort of practical, more often than not.

[ WVUIRL ]

Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin firm, is creating Lunar Utility Navigation with Superior Distant Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Power Redistribution, often known as LUNARSABER. In July 2024, Honeybee Robotics captured LUNARSABER’s capabilities throughout an illustration of a scaled prototype.

[ Honeybee Robotics ]

Bunker Mini is a compact tracked cellular robotic particularly designed to deal with demanding off-road terrains.

[ AgileX ]

On this video we current outcomes of our lab from the most recent discipline deployments performed within the scope of the Digiforest EU challenge, in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland. Digiforest brings collectively numerous companions engaged on aerial and legged robots, autonomous harvesters, and forestry decision-makers. The aim of the challenge is to allow autonomous robotic navigation, exploration, and mapping, each beneath and above the cover, to create an information pipeline that may assist and improve foresters’ decision-making methods.

[ ARL ]