Weekly Robotics #265
These days I’m being reminded how good of an idea it is to take a step back and have a break. It helps with getting a new perspective and many bursts of inspiration. I can’t wait to get back to the robotics world now. As usual, the publication of the week section is manned by Rodrigo.
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Xometry: Manufacturing on Demand [Sponsored]
Need custom parts for robotics & automation? Xometry is your one-stop shop for manufacturing on demand. Get instant online quotes on CNC machining, laser cutting, 3D printing, urethane casting, and more.
Turning a broken 2 ton robot into a CNC-machine | ABB IRB6400
Brian Brocken took a non-function, massive ABB robot manipulator, fixed it, and turned it into a CNC mill for styrofoam. I really enjoyed following Brian’s journey shown in this video.
100 SBCs, Python Flask, and two NUCs for MrBeast
I know you love to read about complex projects involving hardware and software, so here is a write-up on a fascinating architecture using 100 SBCs, supporting button presses, LEDs, and allowing producers to run a show. One thing is sure after reading this article: acrylic + carpets = bad time
open-space-toolkit
Open-space-toolkit is a collection of versatile software libraries for space engineering applications. The library is written in C++ and has Python binding, hence enabling this notebook that you can view online and try some of the demos.
CoTracker: It is Better to Track Together
Researchers at Meta and the University of Oxford created an optical flow tracker showing promising results. Does anyone have some cool robotic applications for this work?
Introducing CMake Debugger in VS Code
VS Code has a new CMake debugger that can be useful if you use this build system in your projects.
Ricochet Robots Solver
One of Kevin Cox’s favorite games is Ricochet Robots, where the player moves robots in one direction at a time to get to the exit. In the article, Kevin describes the complexity of the problem and various algorithms he set off to test to solve it.
Publication of the Week - Robot Parkour Learning (2023)
If you are a fan of The Office US, you probably are familiar with parkour. This paper presents a vision-based parkour policy skills. These skills vary from climbing over high obstacles to crawling under small objects. The method based on reinforcement learning seems to be very reactive and generalizable. The authors used a Unitree quadrupedal robot to test the system, and the results are astonishing. On their project page, there are tons of videos and code if you want to simulate or try on your robot.
Business
Mujin brings in $85M to boost robotics controller - The Robot Report
“Japan-based Mujin raised $85 million in Series C funding. The company hopes to use the fresh capital to enhance the accessibility of its MujinController to integrators and end users”.