2023 was one of the best yr ever for robotics. I say this each yr, however yearly it’s true, as a result of the robotics subject appears to be at all times poised on the sting of fixing completely all the pieces. Is 2024 going to be even higher? Will it’s the yr the place humanoids, or AI, or one thing else makes our lives superb? Maybe! Who is aware of! But both manner, it’ll be thrilling, and we’ll be right here because it occurs.
As we stay up for 2024, right here’s a glance again at a few of our hottest tales of 2023. I hope you loved studying them as a lot as I loved writing them!
Roombas on the End of the World
My favourite story to report and write in 2023 was this story of the weird existence of the Roombas that dwell and work on the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. A single image that I noticed whereas casually looking by means of the weblog of a South Pole infrastructure engineer took me down a loopy rabbit gap of Antarctic hijinks, the place a small variety of people relied on some robotic vacuums to assist preserve themselves sane in probably the most remoted place on Earth.
This Robot Could Be the Key to Empowering People With Disabilities
This story about Henry and Jane Evans, Willow Garage, and Hello Robot fantastically tied collectively one thing like a decade and a half of my historical past as a robotics journalist. I received to know the parents at Willow early on in my profession, and noticed the PR2 doing a little superb work, together with with Henry and Jane. But the PR2 was by no means going to be a sensible robotic for anybody, and it took the expertise and fervour of Hello Robot to design the {hardware} and software program to make PR2’s guarantees into one thing real-world helpful.
What Flight 50 Means for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is presently wanting ahead to its seventieth flight, which is astonishing for a expertise demo that was solely actually anticipated to fly 5 occasions. Arguably, this little helicopter is likely one of the most excessive autonomous programs that people have ever constructed. I’ve written a bunch about Ginny over the previous couple of years and talked to a number of completely different members of her group. But Flight 50 was a particular milestone, and on this interview, Ingenuity group lead Teddy Tzanetos talks about why.
It’s Totally Fine for Humanoid Robots to Fall Down
We’re going to be seeing much more robots strolling round over the subsequent yr, and that additionally means we’re going to be seeing much more robots failing to stroll round in a technique or one other. Videos of robots falling are inclined to go loopy on social media, however the general public who see them gained’t have any concept concerning the underlying context. In this text, two of the businesses with probably the most expertise constructing humanoids (Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics) clarify why robots falling down is definitely not an enormous deal in any respect.
Watch This Giant Chopstick Robot Handle Boxes With Ease
It’s not usually {that a} robotic is ready to mix a very novel design with an instantly sensible industrial software, however Dextrous Robotics was in a position to do it with their large chopstick field manipulator, and our readers definitely appreciated it. Boxes are a compelling near-term software for robots, however the go-to manipulation approach that we see time and again is suction. Dextrous’ strategy is completely distinctive, and it looks as if a gimmick—till you see it in motion.
Superhuman Speed: How Autonomous Drones Beat the Best Human Racers
Humans can do some fairly unimaginable issues, and watching a human demonstrating some talent that they’re the precise finest on the earth at is fascinating—particularly in the event that they’re susceptible to shedding that high spot to a robotic. This race between world champion drone racers and autonomous drones from ETH Zurich passed off in 2022, however I needed to watch for the underlying analysis to be revealed earlier than I used to be allowed to inform the entire story.
How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot
It’s refreshing to put in writing about Disney’s robots, as a result of considerably uniquely, they’re designed for the first function of bringing people pleasure. Disney goes about this methodically, although, and we’re at all times excited to have the ability to share the analysis underlying all the pieces that they do. These are a few of my favourite tales to inform, the place there’s an excellent cool robotic that simply will get cooler when the folks behind it clarify the way it does what it does.
Stowing Is a “Beautiful Problem” That Amazon Is Solving With Robots
Robotics is stuffed with issues which might be laborious, and a type of issues is stowing—the method of packing gadgets into bins in a warehouse. Stowing is the alternative of choosing, which is one thing that warehouse robots are getting fairly good at, however stowing can be way more tough. “For me, it’s laborious, nevertheless it’s not too laborious,” Amazon senior supervisor of utilized sciences Aaron Parness instructed us for this text. “It’s on the reducing fringe of what’s possible for robots, and it’s loopy enjoyable to work on.”
Your Robotic Avatar Is Almost Ready
As a lot as we love robots, people are nonetheless a lot, a lot better at numerous stuff. One factor that people are notably unhealthy at, although, is being bodily current in distant locations. The Avatar XPrize competitors mixed human brains with robotic embodiments, and the outcomes have been truthfully a lot better than anticipated. With the suitable {hardware} and the suitable interface, the competitors confirmed that people and robots could make a incredible group.
All of the Humanoid Robots
And lastly, our high robotics protection space for 2023 was humanoid robots. Or, extra particularly, humanoid robots which might be (supposedly) poised to enter the labor pressure. The final time we had this a lot humanoid robotic protection was most likely in 2015 surrounding the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, and it’s not like there’s been a gradual enhance or something—humanoids simply went completely bonkers in 2023, with one thing like a dozen firms growing human-scale bipedal robots with near-term industrial aspirations.
