Weekly Robotics #330

Issue 330

No intro today, let's get some interesting robotics news. We will start with two interesting open-source repositories. Enjoy!

Just1 - An Open-Source Autonomous Mecanum Wheel Robot

Just1 - An Open-Source Autonomous Mecanum Wheel Robot cover

Just1 is an open-source omnidirectional mobile robot with a BOM of around $250 that is powered by a Raspberry Pi 4b. The software utilizes ROS 2 and comes with SLAM and navigation setup. Big thanks to Nico for developing this, and sharing it with me. One could say this project was Just1 a small step for the author, one giant leap for open-source mobile robots (I’ll see myself out now).

Source

EasyNavigation/NavMap

EasyNavigation/NavMap cover

Say, you’ve built a mecanum wheel robot from the previous feature, now you could implement NavMap by Francisco Martín Rico. Here is an excerpt from the repo describing this project:

NavMap is an open-source C++ and ROS 2 library for representing navigable surfaces for mobile robot navigation and localization. Unlike classic grid-based maps, NavMap stores the environment as triangular meshes (NavCels), enabling efficient queries and multi-surface environments (e.g., multi-floor buildings).

Source

Why Today’s Humanoids Won’t Learn Dexterity

Rodney Brooks wrote a very interesting essay in which he argues that the approaches demonstrated by current humanoid companies won’t allow them to learn dexterity based on publicly disclosed information (i.e., training explicitly from videos and the current architectures). Whether you think we are in a bubble or not, I think it’s a good food for thought, so I highly recommend it.

Source

Making A Real WALL-E

Making A Real WALL-E cover

Jeremy Fielding created a cool video showing how he approached building a real-life WALL-E robot and documenting some things he learned along the way. I’m Looking forward to the next video in this series!

Source

BEHAVIOR-1K

BEHAVIOR-1K cover

BEHAVIOR-1K is the first simulation benchmark grounded in real human needs. Based on extensive surveys asking “what do you want robots to do for you?”, we present 1,000 household activities that people actually spend time on and want help with. The benchmark introduces long-horizon mobile manipulation challenges in realistic environments, providing a crucial tool to help bridge the gap between current research and real-world, human-centric applications.

To learn more about this project, check out the project repo.

Source

inside the world of ::vtol:: and his kinetic sculptures, robotics and code-driven installations

For a change of pace, let’s step into the world of Dmitry Morozov, who uses technology to create art. In this article, you will find an interview with this Ljubljana-based artist and details about some of his pieces. Interesting stuff!

Source

Vision-Language-Action Models and the Search for a Generalist Robot Policy

Here is an interesting article by Chris Paxton, who describes what’s out there for Vision-Language-Action Models. I appreciate Chris’s description of the limitations of this technology, as it can be helpful to many.

Source

Events

For more robotic events, check out our event page.

Want to promote your product or service in Weekly Robotics? Check out our advertising options.