Weekly Robotics #325

Issue 325

In today's town hall, I have three points to address, and then we can jump straight into some robotics content.

Today marks 7 years(!!) since I started the Weekly Robotics newsletter. To say it's been quite a journey is an understatement. Thinking back to when I started, it feels like robotics is an entirely different field. In the 7 years we've seen many projects come and go, some of them commercial, some open-source, but I guess that's how progress works. I'm so happy to be there to witness all of them! Now to the next 7 years of writing about robots!

Secondly, last week I missed an issue, breaking a very long streak (if we don't take a sabbatical into account, it's the first in the history of the newsletter!). In my defense, I had a very fun time with family, and I regret nothing.

Thirdly, next week I'm at Open Source Summit in Amsterdam. If you'd like to meet up and talk robots, let me know!

GMR: General Motion Retargeting

GMR: General Motion Retargeting cover

General Motion Retargetting is a library that allows for retargeting human motion from video onto humanoid robots using various data formats (including a MoCap system). I recommend checking out the videos included in the linked repo.

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Spatio-Temporal Motion Retargeting for Quadruped Robots

Spatio-Temporal Motion Retargeting for Quadruped Robots cover

Since we are discussing motion retargetting, let’s not forget our 4-legged friends.

This work presents a motion retargeting approach for legged robots, aimed at transferring the dynamic and agile movements to robots from source motions. In particular, we guide the imitation learning procedures by transferring motions from source to target, effectively bridging the morphological disparities while ensuring the physical feasibility of the target system.

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The Arduino Library

As of today, this library contains 8,121 entries. What makes me super happy about this project is how snappy the search function is. This project is an instant awesome Weekly Robotics addition.

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Towards Robots That Build

Towards Robots That Build cover

If you’d like a short catch-up on some rising start-ups involved in real-life building, then Chris Paxton has got you covered with this very good write-up.

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Can iRobot bounce back? Deep concerns overshadow $127M Q2

iRobot has seen a drop in revenue, raising concerns over financial challenges. As an owner of a 5-year-old Roomba i7, I hope the company pulls through and continues making solid products.

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Harvest Automation, Part 2 – Dancing with Roomba

Joe Jones, who is an iRobot veteran, released the second part of his Harvest Automation story, this time discussing how their pot-spacing robot ran into market realities and what it meant for the company.

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OpenArm

OpenArm cover

OpenArm is an open-source 7DOF humanoid arm designed for physical AI research and deployment in contact-rich environments. All hardware and software are completely open-source and ready for you to build, hack, and deploy!

According to the project documentation, the BOM of this setup with two robot arms is around $6,500, and each arm can handle payloads of up to 6kg.

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Report of the Marine Board of Investigation Into the Implosion of the Submersible TITAN

It’s been 2 years since the Titan submersible implosion, and the US Coast Guard just released a report from their investigation. I recommend reading at least the executive summary to understand the primary and contributing factors to the incident.

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Events

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