#439136 Video Friday: Aquatic Snakebotics

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):

ICRA 2021 – May 30-5, 2021 – [Online Event]

RoboCup 2021 – June 22-28, 2021 – [Online Event]

DARPA SubT Finals – September 21-23, 2021 – Louisville, KY, USA

WeRobot 2021 – September 23-25, 2021 – Coral Gables, FL, USA

ROSCon 20201 – October 21-23, 2021 – New Orleans, LA, USA

Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today’s videos.

Researchers from the Biorobotics Lab in the School of Computer Science’s Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University tested the hardened underwater modular robot snake (HUMRS) last month in the pool, diving the robot through underwater hoops, showing off its precise and smooth swimming, and demonstrating its ease of control.

The robot's modular design allows it to adapt to different tasks, whether squeezing through tight spaces under rubble, climbing up a tree or slithering around a corner underwater. For the underwater robot snake, the team used existing watertight modules that allow the robot to operate in bad conditions. They then added new modules containing the turbines and thrusters needed to maneuver the robot underwater.

[ CMU ]

Robots are learning how not to fall over after stepping on your foot and kicking you in the shin.

[ B-Human ]

Like boot prints on the Moon, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Now, new images—taken during the spacecraft's final fly-over on April 7, 2021—reveal the aftermath of the historic Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample acquisition event from Oct. 20, 2020.

[ NASA ]

In recognition of National Robotics Week, Conan O'Brien thanks one of the robots that works for him.

[ YouTube ]

The latest from Wandercraft's self-balancing Atalante exo.

[ Wandercraft ]

Stocking supermarket shelves is one of those things that's much more difficult than it looks for robots, involving in-hand manipulation, motion planning, vision, and tactile sensing. Easy for humans, but robots are getting better.

[ Article ]

Thanks Marco!

Draganfly​ drone spraying Varigard disinfectant at the Smoothie King stadium. Our drone sanitization spraying technology is up to 100% more efficient and effective than conventional manual spray sterilization processes.

[ Draganfly ]

Baubot is a mobile construction robot that can do pretty much everything, apparently.

I’m pretty skeptical of robots like these; especially ones that bill themselves as platforms that can be monetized by third-party developers. From what we've seen, the most successful robots instead focus on doing one thing very well.

[ Baubot ]

In this demo, a remote operator sends an unmanned ground vehicle on an autonomous inspection mission via Clearpath’s web-based Outdoor Navigation Software.

[ Clearpath ]

Aurora’s Odysseus aircraft is a high-altitude pseudo-satellite that can change how we use the sky. At a fraction of the cost of a satellite and powered by the sun, Odysseus offers vast new possibilities for those who need to stay connected and informed.

[ Aurora ]

This video from 1999 discusses the soccer robot research activities at Carnegie Mellon University. CMUnited, the team of robots developed by Manuela Veloso and her students, won the small-size competition in both 1997 and 1998.

[ CMU ]

Thanks Fan!

This video propose an overview of our participation to the DARPA subterranean challenge, with a focus on the urban edition taking place Feb. 18-27, 2020, at Satsop Business Park west of Olympia, Washington.

[ Norlab ]

In today’s most advanced warehouses, Magazino’s autonomous robot TORU works side by side with human colleagues. The robot is specialized in picking, transporting, and stowing objects like shoe boxes in e-commerce warehouses.

[ Magazino ]

A look at the Control Systems Lab at the National Technical University of Athens.

[ CSL ]

Thanks Fan!

Doug Weber of MechE and the Neuroscience Institute discusses his group’s research on harnessing the nervous system's ability to control not only our bodies, but the machines and prostheses that can enhance our bodies, especially for those with disabilities.

[ CMU ]

Mark Yim, Director of the GRASP Lab at UPenn, gives a talk on “Is Cost Effective Robotics Interesting?” Yes, yes it is.

Robotic technologies have shown the capability to do amazing things. But many of those things are too expensive to be useful in any real sense. Cost reduction has often been shunned by research engineers and scientists in academia as “just engineering.” For robotics to make a larger impact on society the cost problem must be addressed.

[ CMU ]

There are all kinds of “killer robots” debates going on, but if you want an informed, grounded, nuanced take on AI and the future of war-fighting, you want to be watching debates like these instead. Professor Rebecca Crootof speaks with Brigadier General Patrick Huston, Assistant Judge Advocate General for Military Law and Operations, at Duke Law School's 26th Annual National Security Law conference.

[ Lawfire ]

This week’s Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar is by Julie Adams from Oregon State, on “Human-Collective Teams: Algorithms, Transparency .”

Biological inspiration for artificial systems abounds. The science to support robotic collectives continues to emerge based on their biological inspirations, spatial swarms (e.g., fish and starlings) and colonies (e.g., honeybees and ants). Developing effective human-collective teams requires focusing on all aspects of the integrated system development. Many of these fundamental aspects have been developed independently, but our focus is an integrated development process to these complex research questions. This presentation will focus on three aspects: algorithms, transparency, and resilience for collectives.

[ UMD ]

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