robotics
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This MicroDuck Robot Based on an RK3566 Has No Arms but Picks Things Up Using AI and Reinforcement Learning Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics just launched a tiny robot that could change how people learn robotics at home. Called Microduck, this 25cm tall, 780 gram biped robot is built specifically for reinforcement learning and physical AI and it costs just $399. Unlike Reachy Mini, which was designed primarily around interaction and conversational AI, Microduck focuses on physical movement and… |
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He Gave His Open-Source Robot Pixel a Gemini-Powered Brain That Perceives Depth Without a 3D Sensor Naz Louis has upgraded his open-source robot Pixel, giving the walking desk robot a new AI system that can see, remember, and reason about its surroundings in real time. The new build runs on Gemini Robotics ER2, an embodied-reasoning model built by Google DeepMind for near real-time robotics applications. The model receives a continuous stream of camera and microphone input and has direct… |
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Genrobotics to Manufacture Sewer-Cleaning Robots and Wilboar Units in Tamil Nadu, ₹150 Cr Bet Kerala-based robotics firm Genrobotics has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a manufacturing facility for its robotics product line, with plans to invest ₹150 crore over the next five years. The MoU was inked at the Vettri Tamil Nadu Investment Conclave 2026, held in Chennai, where the state government signed agreements with 97 companies for a… |
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Students Built a Submarine to Map Ice Thickness Across Frozen Lakes and Somehow Made GPS Work Underwater A team of engineering students from ETH Zürich has developed POLARIS, an autonomous underwater robot designed to measure and map the thickness of ice from underneath frozen alpine lakes. The idea is to make ice surveys safer and faster, especially in places where people need to know whether the ice is strong enough for activities such as racing or other work on frozen lakes. Traditionally, ice… |
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A Drone That Tracks Its Leader Using Four Microphones and an ESP32, No GPS or Camera Needed Researchers at Duke University's General Robotics Lab have built a system that lets one drone follow another using nothing but the sound of its rotors. The project, called SonicFly, estimates a leader drone's bearing and distance from onboard audio alone, without GPS sharing, cameras, radio links, or any active signal exchange between the two aircraft. … |
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He Built a Robot Actuator From Scratch and Found That More Copper Windings Don't Mean More Torque A Sweden-based creator who posts under the name Food For Robots has hand-wound and machined a custom electric actuator from scratch for a bipedal walking robot project, and in the process documented a counterintuitive result about motor design: adding more turns of copper wire to a motor's stator does not increase torque output for a given amount of electrical power. … |
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DigiKey and Engineering Influencer Shawn Hymel to Host Webinar and Video Series on Reinforcement Learning with Balance Bots THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn., USA — DigiKey, the global distribution leader of electronic components and automation products, is hosting a webinar with Shawn Hymel: “Train a balance bot with reinforcement learning,” scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, at 10 a.m. CDT. The free 90-minute virtual event will be a hands-on robotics and AI workshop that will teach attendees how to get started in the… |
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Engineer Turns Mini Fridge Into a SLAM-Guided Tank Robot You'd Have to Chase for a Cold Drink Engineer Dorian Todd has built a self-driving mini fridge on tank treads that can autonomously chase or flee a person and reward them with a cold drink if caught. The project replaces the fridge's standard base with a tracked drivetrain powered by Repeat Robotics Ultra Mark II brushless gear motors designed for 12 lb combat robots. Todd 3D scanned both the metal tread assembly and the… |
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Quaddle Is an Open-Source Desk Robot That Can Move Omnidirectionally With Just 4 Servos Petoi, the team behind the open-source Bittle and Nybble quadruped kits, has opened early access for its next robot, Quaddle. The company describes it as a four-servo quadruped capable of walking, strafing sideways, and spinning in place, a claim that stands out mainly because of how few actuators it uses to pull it off.
Most legged robots that can… |
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US Slams the Door on Chinese Humanoid Robots Over National Security and Backdoor Risks The Federal Communications Commission added humanoid robots, quadruped robots, and networked power inverters to its Covered List on July 28, 2026, blocking new equipment authorizations for these device categories going forward. The move effectively halts new imports of foreign-made robots that mimic human or animal movement, along with grid-connected inverters used to link solar panels,… |
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Phantom Twist: The Spinning Drone That Hides in Plain Sight Northwestern University engineers have unveiled Phantom Twist, a groundbreaking low-visibility UAV that exploits human visual perception to hide in plain sight. The drone spins its entire body at up to 25 rotations per second using a single motor and counter-rotating propeller system. Unlike traditional quadcopters with stationary bodies, Phantom Twist has no fixed… |
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We Built an ESP32 Wall Climbing Beetle Robot We can see wall-climbing robots from hobby-level to serious problem-solving ones that are used for inspection, surveillance, cleaning, etc. When we generally talk about robots, a robot can be a firefighting robot, a human-following robot, a self-balancing robot or can be of any type that has some specific features or solves a specific kind of problem. If we talk… |
