NASA’s rover Perseverance has become the record holder for distance traveled on the surface of another planet by a vehicle. According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it had covered 28,10 miles (45,22 kilometres) on October 11, 2026, ahead of the rover Opportunity, whose previous total was 28,06 miles (45,16 kilometres).
- Perseverance bats le record de distance parcourue à la surface d’une autre planète.
- Le rover a atteint 45,22 km au 2 006e sol, dépassant Opportunity.
- Google DeepMind a fait lancer des sacs au humanoïde Apollo 2 grâce à une simulation tirée d’une vidéo.
- Le quadrupède Lynx M20S a accompagné des chercheurs dans une expédition en Chine.
Perseverance reached this milestone on the 2 006e sol, that is, the 2,006th Martian day of its mission. In five and a half years, it covered a distance that Opportunity had taken much longer to travel.
Space exploration and humanoid robotics
Before the European rover Rosalind Franklin can explore Mars, it must first depart its lander. The European Space Agency (ESA) replicates this first sortie on Earth, using a full‑scale rover model and terrain similar to that of the Red Planet. The test reproduces several anticipated challenges, including reduced gravity, a 20‑degree slope and uneven ground, as well as obstacles located beneath the exit ramps.
On the humanoid side, researchers at Google DeepMind conducted an internal test with Gemini 4 Argon. They asked the model to watch a video of a person playing cornhole, a game that involves tossing bags onto a board with holes. From that video, Gemini 4 built a simulation in MuJoCo, a physics engine, and calculated the body movements required for the Apptronik humanoid Apollo 2 to achieve seven consecutive throws in the real world. According to Google DeepMind, this “video‑to‑simulation‑to‑real” chain reduces to a few hours a modeling process that previously took weeks.
For its part, Boston Dynamics showcases its Atlas manufacturing workshop. The company fabricates certain parts on‑site and consolidates assembly and repairs under one roof, so that, it says, it can produce large‑scale walking robots.
Robots at work in the field
In the Ailao Mountains of China, the quadruped Lynx M20S from DEEP Robotics accompanied a team of researchers on a biodiversity expedition. The robot traversed rugged terrain, identified routes, carried scientific equipment and took part in capturing animals in areas that are difficult to reach on foot.
In Zurich, ETH’s Robotic Systems Lab unveiled WildOS, a system that enables autonomous robots to search at long range for an object described in natural language in unmapped outdoor environments. According to the authors, it proves more efficient and more robust than geometric or purely visual approaches in field experiments.
Finally, Disney Research describes Kamino, a GPU‑accelerated physics simulation software designed for mechanically kinematic loop systems, such as parallel manipulators or multi‑limb robots, without resorting to simplified approximations. The robotics calendar lists the CoRL 2026 conference, from November 9‑12, 2026 in Austin, followed by Humanoids 2026, from December 6‑9, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.
