The other day, Akshet Patel shared on LinkedIn our Awesome WR List causing an explosion of GitHub stars (I was literally star-struck!). I’ll try to find some time to update that repository and apply some automatic formatting of entries. Stay tuned!
Sponsored
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Announcing the Actuate Summit: A one-day event for robotics developers
Tickets are now on sale for the Actuate Summit on September 18th in San Francisco. This one-day event will bring together hundreds of developers to learn from the industry's top leaders on insights and advancements in autonomous robotics development. Early bird pricing for the first 150 tickets, so buy yours today.
GameCube Robot
I came across this blog post from a decade ago where the author turns a GameCube console into a differential drive R/C robot. This version contains quite many machined parts, but the Version 2 can be built with just a laser cutter (and I’m sure in this day and age you could probably 3D print the chassis).
SpaceHopper - The robot that learned to move in weightlessness
“In the SpaceHopper project, students at ETH Zurich developed a robot capable of moving in low gravity environments through hopping motions. It is intended to be used in future space missions to explore small celestial bodies. The exploration of asteroids and moons could provide insights into the formation of the universe and they may contain valuable minerals that humanity could use in the future.The project began in 2021 as an ETH focus project for bachelor’s students. Now, it is being continued as a regular research project”.
Recoding Voyager 1—NASA’s interstellar explorer is finally making sense again
Every time I think about it, I’m amazed that the spacecraft that was launched in 1977 and that was meant to last five years is still kicking, and through acts of pure ingenuity (pun slightly intended), NASA engineers make sure both spacecraft can communicate with Earth and send back scientific data.
You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000
Why not clear the ice and snow from your driveway using a flamethrower attached to a robot dog? This customized Unitree Go2 by Throwflame is available for $9,420.
PaTS-Wheel: A Passively-Transformable Single-Part Wheel for Mobile Robot Navigation
This wheel that sits between a smooth wheel or whegs (wheel-legs) can transform and passively ‘deploy’ hooks that help it climb obstacles when needed. I’m impressed by the 3D-printed linkages in this mechanism! Unfortunately, I could not find a paper accessible to the general public, but you can find the link to an IEEE publication in the video’s description.
In the first Autonomous Racing League race, the struggle was real
“The first race of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) took place on the Yas Marina Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 track today, and I’m pleased to report that a race both began and ended. But the event was not without strife — far from it. During qualifying time trials, the driverless Dallara Super Formula racers outfitted with cameras and software seemed to struggle mightily to complete a full lap”.
Building a MINI Vegas Sphere
Carl Bugeja set off on creating a mini Vegas Sphere with some exciting results; even though the resolution is not great, it’s an excellent electronics project.
Publication of the Week - AI Index Report 2024
Stanford has released a new edition of their AI Index Report. The report has 502 pages, so it would probably take you more than one sitting to go over it, but the first 26 pages contain key takeaways from the report as a whole and each chapter. I recommend reading those first pages to get a high-level idea of the current state of things and then jumping into the specifics as needed. If you are reading this newsletter, you might be interested in sections 7 and 8 in chapter 4, which are related to robotics.
Business
HyLight Raises $4M for Hydrogen-Powered Airship Drones
“HyLight, an innovative provider of aerial inspection utilising hydrogen airship drones, has achieved a significant milestone with the completion of a fundraising round, securing €3.7 million ($4 million).”
Pipedream raises $13M to scale underground delivery robots
“Pipedream Labs Inc. this week said it has raised $13 million in funding to continue its mission of making “hyperlogistics” possible in this decade. The company added that it plans to use the funding to make “Instant Pickup” available to its customers and begin construction on its first large-scale and middle-mile network in a city”.
Announcements
Robots & Yakitori Meetup
Join us for a fun and casual meetup for robotics engineers, technicians, and developers attending ICRA being held at Torikizoku’s Yokohama Tsuruya Cho location, nestled within Richmond Hotel Yokohama Ekimae. Meet us there on Monday, May 13 @ 7:45 PM for food, drinks, and networking with one of the biggest selections of Yakitori you can find in Japan. This event is brought to you by UpStreem.
Events
- Robotics Summit & Expo: May 01 - May 02, 2024. Boston, United States of America
- Open Hardware Summit 2024: May 03 - May 04, 2024. Montreal, Canada
- Automate: May 06 - May 09, 2024. Chicago, United States of America
- Eurobot Open 2024: May 08 - May 11, 2024. La Roche-sur-Yon, France
- ICCRE 2024: May 10 - May 12, 2024. Osaka, Japan
- ICRA 2024: May 13 - May 17, 2024. Yokohama, Japan
- ISMR (Medical Robotics) 2024: Jun 03 - Jun 05, 2024. Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- ICUAS (UAVs) 2024: Jun 04 - Jun 07, 2024. Chania, Crete, Greece
- AIRA Challenge 2024: Jun 10 - Jun 14, 2024 (ddl: Jan 07, 2024). Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition 2024: Jun 10 - Jun 12, 2024. Houston, United States
For more robotic events, check out our event page.