The weekly selection Video Friday from IEEE Spectrum highlights several recent robotic demonstrations, including a navigation system developed at MIT and a humanoid robot capable of manipulating boxes with its hands and a kick. The article also recalls the dates of two major upcoming conferences.
- MIT a développé SANDO, un système qui aide les robots à éviter des obstacles mobiles.
- Workhorse apprend au Unitree G1 la manipulation corps entier à partir de démonstrations humaines.
- Un robot souple de NC State nage selon trois modes avec seulement deux entrées pneumatiques.
- Les conférences CoRL 2026 et Humanoids 2026 se tiendront en novembre et en décembre.
Navigation and manipulation
MIT researchers have developed SANDO, a system that helps robots move safely in unknown environments while avoiding moving obstacles. According to MIT News, it can quickly plan and adjust a collision‑free trajectory from onboard sensors and computation, safety being supported by mathematical guarantees.
The video by Hybrid Robotics showcases another project, devoted to whole‑body manipulation. The system, called Workhorse, learns from human demonstrations performed without a robot. On a real Unitree G1, it sorts boxes with its hands and a kick, catches a thrown box, then tips over and climbs a suitcase.
Prototypes and curiosities
The article also cites a flexible swimming robot developed by researchers at NC State University, inspired by feather stars. It can adopt three swimming modes: vertical like a jellyfish, directional like a fish, and 3D reorientation, using only two pneumatic inputs.
The LMTS laboratory at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne presents on its side a filamentary linear motor, described by the article as “rather nice”. Elsewhere, the company Devanthro sells plastic balls for $1,000 each, deliverable in time for Christmas. The article sees this as a reference to a recent staging by Figure, which it admits may have seemed ridiculous.
A KUKA video finally shows a car wash that models the vehicle before cleaning it with robotic arms. According to the article, recent reviews left on this site suggest that robots are not yet fully refined, even though the concept appears promising.
Agenda
The CoRL 2026 conference will take place from November 9 to 12, 2026 in Austin, Texas, while Humanoids 2026 will be held from December 6 to 9, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.
