Robotics News | TechCrunch

iRobot lays off another 105 employees

Aisha Malik — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 22:21:23 +0000

Roomba maker iRobot is laying off 105 employees — about 16% of the company’s workforce, per an SEC filing — saying the cuts are part of an “operational restructuring plan.” The move comes after iRobot slashed roughly 350 jobs — about 31% of its workforce — earlier this year. Those cuts were made after plans […]

Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI

Maxwell Zeff — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:30:47 +0000

The former head of Meta’s augmented reality glasses efforts announced on Monday she is joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware, according to a post on LinkedIn. OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that Caitlin Kalinowski will be joining the startup. Kalinowski is a hardware executive who began leading Meta’s AR glasses team in March 2022. […]

Built in four days, this $120 robot arm cleans a spill with help from GPT-4o

Brian Heater — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:36:32 +0000

Large language models have already proven transformative for robotics. While researchers and companies alike utilize the platforms to supercharge robotic learning, a pair of roboticists at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich challenged themselves by leveraging generative AI to put a cheap robot arm to work. Jannik Grothusen and Kaspar Janssen trained a pair of $120 […]

MIT debuts a large language model-inspired method for teaching robots new skills

Brian Heater — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

MIT this week showcased a new model for training robots. Rather than the standard set of focused data used to teach robots new tasks, the method goes big, mimicking the massive troves of information used to train large language models (LLMs). The researchers note that imitation learning — in which the agent learns by following […]

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid hot dogs for the camera

Brian Heater — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:55:04 +0000

Automation skeptics ask: Why humanoids? There are many benefits and drawbacks of the robotics form factor, but Boston Dynamics’ latest electric Atlas video showcases one of the most underdiscussed factors: costumes. “Why build a humanoid robot?” the company rhetorically posits. “Because the world is designed for humans, including all the best Halloween costumes.” A day […]

Boston Dynamics’ electric Atlas humanoid executes autonomous automotive parts picking

Brian Heater — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:43:23 +0000

Boston Dynamics’ new humanoid has been quietly improving by leaps and bounds behind the scenes. Announced in April, we caught some brief insight into the electric Atlas’ strength in August through a video of the robot doing pushups. The latest video, released Wednesday, showcases the robot doing work in a demo space, moving engine parts […]

MDC is building a surgical robot that operates inside an MRI

Brian Heater — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 22:13:23 +0000

MRIs are an indispensable tool for surgeons, though the technology certainly has its limitations. Take, for instance, surgeons using the machines to guide their procedures. The current process entails putting the patient into a machine to get an image, before pulling them out to advance a needle one centimeter at a time. It’s a time-consuming […]

2024 Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalists: MDC

Yashad Kulkarni — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:00:00 +0000

Revolutionizing surgery with a novel robotic system that provides physicians direct access inside MRI scanners. Subscribe for more on YouTube: https://tcrn.ch/youtube Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: http://tcrn.ch/instagram TikTok: https://tcrn.ch/tiktok X: tcrn.ch/x Threads: https://tcrn.ch/threads Facebook: https://tcrn.ch/facebook Bluesky: https://tcrn.ch/bluesky Mastodon: https://tcrn.ch/mstdn Read more: https://techcrunch.com/

This robot showcases ‘exceptional dexterity’ as it loads a dishwasher

Cody Corrall — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000

NeoDavid has changed a lot in the last 14 years. A new video of the humanoid robot from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics showcases its “exceptional dexterity.” NeoDavid’s finger joints can be controlled individually, which allows the robot to be seen loading and unloading a dishwasher as well […]

Airdog’s founders are back with a precision-strike drone meant for modern warfare

Mike Butcher — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 09:52:15 +0000

The war in Ukraine has shown that warfare changes by the day. It’s also clear that the tech used to make war today is costly: While larger countries can afford legions of tanks, helicopters, and precision-strike systems, smaller nations find themselves scrambling for cheaper ways to defend themselves. Origin, a new defense tech startup out of […]

DJI sues Department of Defense over listing as a Chinese military company

Anthony Ha — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 20:50:46 +0000

Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the U.S. Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative other than to seek relief […]

This $600 Buzz Lightyear toy is the most realistic yet

Yashad Kulkarni — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 20:32:57 +0000

Do you have $600 burning an asteroid-sized hole in your pocket? If so, the new Buzz Lightyear robot might be for you. A collaboration between Pixar and smart toy company Robosen, the new Buzz is fully loaded with more than 3,000 tiny parts, 75 microchips, and 23 servo motors. It also features what Robosen calls […]

Boston Dynamics teams with TRI to bring AI smarts to Atlas humanoid robot

Brian Heater — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:00:15 +0000

Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) Wednesday revealed plans to bring AI-based robotic intelligence to the electric Atlas humanoid robot. The collaboration will leverage the work that TRI has done around large behavior models (LBMs), which operate along similar lines as the more familiar large language models (LLMs) behind platforms like ChatGPT. Last September, […]

Tesla’s bot non-disclosure and why humanoid robots are taking off

Rebecca Bellan, Brian Heater — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:19:55 +0000

At Tesla’s robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose. On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch’s hardware editor Brian […]

Watch a robot dog run underwater

Brian Heater — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 20:31:31 +0000

MAB Robotics Tuesday showcased the latest trick from its Honey Badger robot. In a video, the quadruped is seen running along the bottom of a pool. Legs don’t generally make more sense than propellers or other more standard methods of underwater robot locomotion, but the video demonstrates a sense of robustness and dynamism not often […]

Tesla Optimus bots were controlled by humans during the ‘We, Robot’ event

Rebecca Bellan — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 21:47:54 +0000

During Tesla’s “We, Robot” event last week, which TechCrunch covered late into the night, sources on the ground sent me a handful of videos of the automaker’s Optimus humanoid robots walking around the party, dancing, mixing drinks, and talking to guests. Most, if not all, of those who attended the affair are Tesla investors and […]

Apple might release a $2,000 Vision headset next year

Anthony Ha — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 17:12:18 +0000

Apple’s Vision Pro hasn’t exactly reshaped the market, but the company isn’t giving up on headsets that combine the digital and real worlds. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple’s next big mixed reality release could come as early as next year, with the launch of a Vision headset costing around $2,000 […]

This three-person robotics startup is working with designer Yves Béhar to bring humanoids home

Brian Heater — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 12:30:00 +0000

It’s hard to know where to focus when speaking to Christoph Kohstall. The contents of his packed Palo Alto garage compete for attention. To his immediate right stands a tower of electrical components, dotted with flashing lights. To his left is a workbench and the tops of machining tools. A red industrial girder runs along […]

Amazon’s Tye Brady discusses the next generation of robotic warehouses

Brian Heater — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 13:33:00 +0000

For the last several years, the Delivering the Future event has showcased the latest technologies powering Amazon operations. Seattle’s 2023 event showcased updates to the company’s pharmacy offerings and drone deliveries. This year in Nashville, Amazon discussed AI updates to its shopping experiences and how the company is using computer vision to further trim package […]

Tesla’s We, Robot event shows off Optimus humanoid robot, with a catch

Cody Corrall — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Elon Musk is once again showing off Optimus: Tesla’s humanoid robot. Debuted in 2021 as a prototype called Tesla Bot, Tesla’s We, Robot event showcased a lot of improvements Musk claims to have been made to Optimus since then. Sources at the event sent TechCrunch videos of the robots mixing drinks, walking around the party, […]