<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/boston-dynamics-humanoid-robot-giving-two-thumbs-up-in-a-well-lit-industrial-setting.png?id=61730113&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p><span>Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at </span><em>IEEE Spectrum</em><span> robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please </span><a href="mailto:automaton@ieee.org?subject=Robotics%20event%20suggestion%20for%20Video%20Friday">send us your events</a><span> for inclusion.</span></p><h5><a href="https://worldrobotsummit.org/en/">World Robot Summit</a>: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN</h5><h5><a href="https://www.iros25.org/">IROS 2025</a>: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA</h5><p>Enjoy today’s videos!</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><div style="page-break-after: always"><span style="display:none"> </span></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="gs4roqndtbk">There are two things that I really appreciate about this video on <a data-linked-post="2652903997" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-spot-robot-arm" target="_blank">grippers from Boston Dynamics</a>. First, building a gripper while keeping in mind that the robot will inevitably fall onto it, because I’m seeing lots of very delicate-looking five-fingered hands on humanoids, and I’m very skeptical of their ruggedness. And second, understanding that not only is a five-fingered hand very likely unnecessary for the vast majority of tasks, but also robot hands don’t have to be constrained by a human hand’s range of motion.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="732ee2c774adcd4b3104032aca09daf2" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gS4rOqNDTBk?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://bostondynamics.com/blog/ask-a-roboticist-meet-karl/">Boston Dynamics</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="ilg3x8zri2i">Yes, okay, it’s a fancy-looking robot, but I’m still stuck on what useful, practical things can it reliably and cost-effectively and safely DO?</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"> <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d4148342441134aaf276d8d1a0725d8d" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eu5mYMavctM?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span> <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">- YouTube</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://youtu.be/Eu5mYMavctM" target="_blank">youtu.be</a></small></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.figure.ai/">Figure</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="52ach_fnquu"><em>Life on Earth has evolved in constant relation to gravity, yet we rarely consider how deeply it shapes living systems until we imagine a place without it. In MycoGravity, pink oyster mushrooms grow inside a custom-built bioreactor mounted on a KUKA robotic arm. Inspired by NASA’s random positioning machines, the robot’s programmed movement simulates altered gravity. Over time, sculptural mushrooms emerge, shaped by their environment without a stable gravitational direction.</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8dd27d04f64e68496595859c6e86f6bf" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/52acH_fnQUU?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://ars.electronica.art/panic/en/view/mycogravity-21938ddb450c816fbb66fbc1c6075a84/">MycoGravity</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="rgokumdirnu"><em>A new technological advancement gives robotic systems a natural sense of touch without extra skins or sensors. With advanced force sensing and deep learning, this robot can feel where you touch, recognize symbols, and even use virtual buttons—paving the way for more natural and flexible human-robot interaction.</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6ffd51a4f6badac6752dfd7cad51580e" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rgoKUmdIRnU?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/scirobotics.adn4008">Science Robotics</a> ]</p><p>Thanks, Maged!</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="ubdeyzapvpi">The creator of <a data-linked-post="2655205032" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/robot-video-2655205032" target="_blank">Mini Pupper</a> introduces <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdFnK2Lw7oQ" target="_blank">HeySanta</a>, which can be yours for under $60.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="54c520373fa197fde17ce97aeb852d17" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UBdeyZApVpI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p><span>[</span><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mdrobotkits/heysanta-generative-ai-powered-santa-claus" target="_blank"> Kickstarter campaign</a><span>]</span></p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="e0cizgktn4m">I think humanoid robotics companies are starting to realize that they’re going to need to differentiate themselves somehow.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="980cafe42b1ec901060e35338d8d6567" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e0cIZgkTn4M?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.deeprobotics.cn/en">DEEP Robotics</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="evcu8pk5xwc"><em>Drone swarm performances—synchronized, expressive aerial displays set to music—have emerged as a captivating application of modern robotics. Yet designing smooth, safe choreographies remains a complex task requiring expert knowledge. We present SwarmGPT, a language-based choreographer that leverages the reasoning power of large language models (LLMs) to streamline drone performance design.</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2826febe5fd3de62edb2ef527d6290ca" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EvCU8Pk5xwc?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://utiasdsl.github.io/swarm_GPT/">SwarmGPT</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="opr3mpybgo4"><em>Dr. Mark Draelos, assistant professor of robotics and ophthalmology, received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award for a project that seeks to improve how delicate microsurgeries are conducted by scaling up tissue to a size where surgeons could “walk across the retina” in virtual reality and operate on tissue as if “raking leaves.”</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4124ec201e543bacc74ffd26032a85b8" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OPR3Mpybgo4?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://robotics.umich.edu/news/2025/draelos-nih-award/">University of Michigan</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="iuh8fwxonwa"><em>The intricate mechanisms of the most sophisticated laboratory on Mars are revealed in Episode 4 of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin series, called “</em>Sample Processing.”</blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="123c2a395ce4c5ce32a8b3fe7c3d181d" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iuh8FWxoNwA?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/ExoMars_rover">European Space Agency</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="jcbhspk0yik">There’s currently a marketplace for used industrial robots, and it makes me wonder what’s next. Used humanoids, anyone?</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fbee8316e01aee8552850d9c3ba2c4d0" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jcbHSPk0YIk?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://my.kuka.com/s/category/used-robots/0ZG1i000000TOeiGAG?language=en_US">Kuka</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="m8ivrpkaszo"><em>On October 2, 2025, the 10th “Can We Build Baymax?” Workshop Part 10: What Can We Build Today? & BYOB (Bring Your Own Baymax) was held in Seoul, Korea. To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Baymax delivered a special message from his character designer, Jin Kim.</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f4d0c14ffe7f9bd7f47abf486a8f303b" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M8IVRPKaszo?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://baymax.org/">Baymax</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="btp4ljvx6eg">I am only sharing this to declare that iRobot has gone off the deep end with their product names: Meet the “Roomba® Max 705 Combo Robot + AutoWash™ Dock.”</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="87989bceb538a48eb2fc62e2d998381d" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Btp4ljVx6Eg?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.irobot.com/en_US/roomba-max-705-robots.html">iRobot</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><blockquote class="rm-anchors" id="veutck1xyzi"><em>Daniel Piedrahita, Navigation Team Lead, presents on his team’s recent work rebuilding Digit’s navigation stack, including a significant upgrade to footstep path planning.</em></blockquote><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1abf5358935eb93a5cba9afad6f5f1d7" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VeutCk1xYzI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://www.agilityrobotics.com/content/digits-next-steps">Agility Robotics</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div><p class="rm-anchors" id="dehcus0nwsi">A bunch of videos from <a data-linked-post="2669217747" href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/icra40-conference" target="_blank">ICRA@40</a> have just been posted, and here are a few of my favorites.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1fccf31c28ede118912bd57c27220761" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DEHcUs0nwSI?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"> <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f5c5aa8a25fd2520d67e3e7b6f6bf36" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EZiol10pvvY?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"> <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="90c6573aff1096acb8059a31b41aed09" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q5KvEge0km0?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>[ <a href="https://icra40.ieee.org/">ICRA@40</a> ]</p><div class="horizontal-rule"></div>

يستعرض فيديو الجمعة هذا الأسبوع أيدٍ غير إنسانية مصممة للروبوتات الإنسانية، مما يبرز أحدث التطورات في تكنولوجيا الروبوتات. هذه التطورات مهمة لأنها تعزز من وظائف ومرونة الروبوتات، مما يجعلها أكثر قدرة على أداء مهام معقدة في بيئات متنوعة. إن التطور المستمر في مجال الروبوتات لا يثير حماس عشاق التكنولوجيا فحسب، بل له أيضًا تداعيات كبيرة على الصناعات التي تتراوح من التصنيع إلى الرعاية الصحية.

El Video Friday de esta semana presenta innovadoras manos no humanoides diseñadas para robots humanoides, destacando los últimos avances en tecnología robótica. Estos desarrollos son cruciales ya que mejoran la funcionalidad y versatilidad de los robots, haciéndolos más capaces de realizar tareas complejas en diversos entornos. La evolución continua en robótica no solo emociona a los entusiastas de la tecnología, sino que también tiene importantes implicaciones para industrias que van desde la fabricación hasta la atención médica.

Cette semaine, Video Friday met en avant des mains non humanoïdes conçues pour des robots humanoïdes, soulignant les dernières avancées en technologie robotique. Ces développements sont cruciaux car ils améliorent la fonctionnalité et la polyvalence des robots, les rendant plus capables d'effectuer des tâches complexes dans divers environnements. L'évolution continue de la robotique excite non seulement les passionnés de technologie, mais a également des implications significatives pour des secteurs allant de la fabrication aux soins de santé.

This week's Video Friday showcases innovative non-humanoid hands designed for humanoid robots, highlighting the latest advancements in robotics technology. These developments are crucial as they enhance the functionality and versatility of robots, making them more capable of performing complex tasks in various environments. The ongoing evolution in robotics not only excites tech enthusiasts but also has significant implications for industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare.