Weekly Robotics #333

Issue 333

While doing research for today's issue, I came across a 200-page PDF containing a teardown of Boston Dynamics' Spot. Since it likely contains sensitive information, I decided against linking it in the newsletter. It made me think that if you are shipping your robots globally, people will take them apart, or worse, reverse engineer your software. Even obfuscation might not deter determined hackers, especially in the age of LLMs.

In other news, I'm at ROSCon next week, if you'd like to grab some Weekly Robotics stickers, find me at the Foxglove booth (34)!

Energy Drone/Robotics & Industrial AI Forum: November 12, 2025 [Sponsored]

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Energy Drone/Robotics & Industrial AI Forum

Combining Sampling and Learning for Dynamic Whole-Body Manipulation

Combining Sampling and Learning for Dynamic Whole-Body Manipulation cover

Let’s stay on the topic of Spot quadrupeds - the researchers at the Robotics and AI Institute have shown some very impressive results for dynamic whole-body manipulation. In the research, you will find Spot moving (and even stacking) tires using its body and a manipulator. Very cool!

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iRobot Roomba History: How a Focus Group Changed It

Quite some time ago, I learned that the iRobot team had to add a vacuum to Roomba, but I never knew the actual reasoning. In this article, you will learn these lessons that I believe changed the history of robots.

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Making The Tiny Air65 Quadcopter Even Smaller

Making The Tiny Air65 Quadcopter Even Smaller cover

Wow, this is a proper FPV drone with a proper camera that weighs only 25 grams with the battery. The video featured on the linked page is a 30-minute build log that is very informative.

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Sense of touch for intuitive human robot interaction

Sense of touch for intuitive human robot interaction cover

Using Deep Learning and torque sensors, Researchers at DLR created a system that enables a robot to sense touch without requiring any “robot skins” or external infrastructure. The video shows a system so precise that you can slap a sticker on the robot and create virtual buttons. I’m blown away by how good this system appears. You can read the free preprint of the paper accompanying this work here.

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This Year in Humanoid Robot News 2025

This is a great talk by Chris Hubicki, who covers the current state of humanoid robots. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quick catch-up on the trends in these platforms.

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Jurassic park in China

Jurassic park in China cover

Roland sent this video showcasing absolutely adorable robot dinosaurs to our Weekly Robotics Matrix channel. This is probably the best job for these platforms right after stacking tires. Roland went into a rabbit hole for us, and even found the supplier of these robot shells. They are made to order and cost $2,100 without a robot included.

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Bought 10 T6-800 AMRs… now what?

This Reddit user found themselves in quite a predicament after buying 10 T6-800 AMRs that they bought for “dirt cheap” (probably an auction?). Now the user is looking for ideas what to do with them. Any ideas?

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