Video Friday: Disney’s Robotic Olaf Makes His Debut
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.SOSV Robotics Matchup: 1–5 December 2025, ONLINEICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNAEnjoy today’s videos! Step behind…
Vision-Based Autonomous Robotic Arc Welding: State-of-the-Art Review and Perspectives
Robotic welding is an essential technology in industrial production. Various sensors are integrated into robotic welding systems to enhance welding efficiency and quality. Due to their advantages of non-contact measurement, high information capacity, and high accuracy, vision sensors play an increasingly important role in robotic autonomous welding. Therefore, the latest vision-based autonomous robotic arc welding…
Exploit Allows for Takeover of Fleets of Unitree Robots
A critical vulnerability in the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Wi-Fi configuration interface used by several different Unitree robots can result in a root-level takeover by an attacker, security researchers disclosed on 20 September. The exploit impacts Unitree’s Go2 and B2 quadrupeds and G1 and H1 humanoids. Because the vulnerability is wireless, and the resulting access…
Robot Navigates Tough Terrain With New 3D Mapping Technique
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.Four-legged robots are making great strides in their ability to safely traverse complex terrains. In a recent advance, researchers in Hong Kong have developed a novel mapping model for quadrupedal robots that allows them to autonomously crawl under and leap…
A Quality Prediction Approach for Compressor Blade Manufacturing With Various Geometric Dimensions
As the core component of aero engines, compressor blades in turbine engines have complex surface geometry requirements. With the rapid iteration of the turbine power system, the compressor blades used are constantly updated. An accurate prediction model that can quickly adapt to new blade production on manufacturing processes is urgently needed. However, most of the…
Hierarchical Defense Decision-Making for MSV-Guided USVs Under Complex Obstacle Constraints
Given the unique cognitive advantages of humans in complex maritime missions, this study proposes an intelligent collaborative decision-making framework for a hybrid system consisting of one crewed surface vehicle and multiple uncrewed surface vehicles (MSV-USV). We introduce a regularized polygonal obstacle modeling method based on geometric feature simplification to reduce computational complexity. A distributed task…
Adaptive Excavation Automation in Complex Soil Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
This paper presents an advanced excavation automation framework that improves trajectory efficiency and improves operational stability in diverse and complex soil conditions. The framework integrates the fundamental equation of earthmoving (FEE) with the proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm to enable adaptive trajectory planning during excavation. Using these estimates, the PPO algorithm iteratively optimizes excavation strategies…
A Unilateral Active Knee Exoskeleton to Assist Individuals With Hemiparesis—A Pilot Study
Most individuals who experience a stroke exhibit several sensorimotor impairments that limit their independence in everyday activities. Hemiparetic gait is frequently characterized by reduced knee flexion in swing due to knee stiffness or muscle weakness and knee hyperextension or knee buckling in the stance phase. Recently, unilateral-powered orthoses have been designed to overcome the limitations…
Predictive Body Awareness in Soft Robots: A Bayesian Variational Autoencoder Fusing Multimodal Sensory Data
Predicting the causal flow by fusing multimodal perception is fundamental for constructing the bodily awareness of soft robots. However, forming such a predictive model while fusing the multimodal sensory data of soft robots remains challenging and less explored. In this study, we leverage the free energy principle within a Bayesian probabilistic deep learning framework to…
GaussR-SLAM: Gaussian Robust SLAM in Data Loss and Interference Environments
Recent advancements in 3DGS-based explicit mapping have significantly improved SLAM performance, achieving more realistic environment reconstruction and faster processing. However, issues such as data loss caused by unstable data transmission, textureless and repetitive-texture often occur in real-world scenarios. These sensor degradation problems lead to tracking drift caused by incorrect feature or pixel matching, as well…