12 most memorable robotics moments of 2021

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The robotics business had its fair proportion of ups and downs and memorable moments in 2021. Here’s a look again at our picks for the 12 most memorable robotics moments of the yr.

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12. Elon Musk introduces Tesla Bot

Go forward, bash me for together with this one on the record. It made the reduce due to how embarrassing the revealing was, not as a result of I imagine Tesla Bot will ever see the sunshine of day or ever decide up my groceries.

As a substitute of getting something remotely resembling a prototype at Tesla’s AI Day, Elon Musk had a human wearing a Tesla Bot costume carry out a weird dance on stage. Lame? Sure. Memorable? Little doubt.

11. Indy Autonomous Problem

Autonomous racecars zooming across the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at practically 140 MPH? Rely me in. TUM Autonomous Motorsport from the Technische Universität München received the Indy Autonomous Problem (IAC) and mentioned it on The Robotic Report Podcast. It recorded the quickest 2-lap common velocity of 135.944 MPH.

The entire automobiles shared the very same chassis, engine and physique design. The automobiles all shared the identical autonomous driving expertise, together with LiDAR, RADAR, imaginative and prescient cameras, IMS and GPS sensor package deal. On the coronary heart of the autos had been prime of the road Cisco routers (for routing the entire alerts on-board) and an ADLINK Applied sciences AVA edge AI autonomous racing laptop. The automobiles all shared an identical software program stack constructed on prime of the Robotic Working System (ROS). Essentially the most tough downside was designing the racing algorithms that allowed the sensor fusion and enter processing to be carried out in real-time whereas the automobile was transferring at excessive speeds.

The IAC is working a contest at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. This time the occasion will function head-to-head autonomous racecar competitors, that includes 9 groups comprised of 19 universities from 8 nations.

10. Toyota’s basketball-playing robotic

It’s actually no Steph Curry, however Toyota’s basketball-playing robotic, CUE, stole the highlight on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The 6-foot-10-inch tall robotic sank a sequence of three-pointers and a half-court shot throughout halftime of the Males’s Preliminary Spherical Group B sport between the U.S. and France on July 25. CUE makes use of sensors on its torso to calculate the space to the ring and the angle of the basket, earlier than utilizing its motorized arms and knees to shoot.

Afterward in the course of the Olympics, CUE truly grew to become much less correct and began lacking pictures. However Toyota took the robotic again to its lab and added to its repertoire. CUE can now dribble a basketball, as you possibly can see within the video beneath. Its handles aren’t fairly on par with Luka Doncic simply but, however spectacular nonetheless.

9. Cruise’s first robotaxi journey in SF

It’s been a very long time coming for Cruise, the San Francisco-based developer of autonomous driving expertise. It’s been engaged on autonomous autos because it was based in 2013 and purchased by GM in 2016. On November 3, 2021, Cruise launched two movies displaying its first totally driverless robotaxi journey round San Francisco. And the passenger was none apart from Cruise co-founder, CTO and president Kyle Vogt.

The movies present each Vogt having fun with the journey within the backseat and the info captured by the automobile’s sensor stack. It’s an awesome visualization of the hectic driving atmosphere autonomous autos need to navigate in SF, even when driving at 11:30 PM. Cruise acquired a allow to supply robotaxi rides to public passengers in California. The allow permits Cruise to function its robotaxis between 10 PM and 6 AM, presumably when there’s much less visitors within the metropolis.

8. First demo of MassRobotics Interoperability Commonplace

When you assume there was plenty of interoperability speak in 2021, simply await 2022! Editor Mike Oitzman captured the primary public demo of MassRobotics’ interoperability commonplace. The demo was organized by FedEx and happened on the FedEx DART Lab, the place FedEx evaluates new logistics automation options.

The businesses concerned within the demonstration had been Vecna Robotics, Waypoint Robotics and WiBotic. What’s sensible in regards to the demo is it hides complexities concerned and erodes the place of proprietary data taken by many autonomous cell robotic distributors. You possibly can learn extra in regards to the demo right here.

7. Atlas performs parkour

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas is essentially the most superior humanoid on the planet. That’s by no means actually been an argument, however it’s indeniable after a video launched in August 2021 that confirmed two Atlas robots nailing a parkour routine. You possibly can watch the video above. It’s unbelievable.

The robots run, bounce, and carry out simultaneous, double backflips. All these maneuvers already appear ho-hum for Atlas, which speaks to the unimaginable expertise of the individuals behind the scenes. Maybe essentially the most spectacular second begins across the 0:35 mark. One of many Atlas robots performs a one-handed vault over the steadiness beam after which hops onto a raised platform. It seems to catch its steadiness because it lands on the platform.

Boston Dynamics additionally wrote a narrative detailing the way it makes Atlas run, flip and vault.

6. Intel RealSense fiasco

Will Intel proceed or discontinue its line of RealSense stereo depth cameras? It’s a query we nonetheless don’t actually have the reply to. The confusion was created in August 2021 when Intel introduced, and then backtracked on, that it was winding down its RealSense enterprise.

In September, Intel introduced the top of life for the RealSense LiDAR, monitoring and facial authentication merchandise. At the moment, it reiterated that it’s going to “proceed to promote the stereo merchandise to present distribution prospects.” The Robotic Report shall be holding an in depth eye on this story in 2022.

5. Amazon underwhelms with Astro shopper robotic

After years of rumors and leaks that Amazon was growing a shopper house robotic, we lastly laid eyes on Astro in September 2021. And, boy, was it disappointing. After practically 4 years of improvement, nevermind the amount of cash and manpower spent, Amazon constructed us an Echo Present on wheels.

Amazon stated Astro can be utilized for quite a lot of issues, together with house monitoring, videoconferencing with household and mates, entertaining kids, and the entire similar options we’ve come to know and love from Alexa units.

Astro evokes reminiscences of Anki, Blue Frog Robotics, Jibo, and Mayfield Robotics and different failed shopper robots of years previous. At $1,449 a pop and with restricted availability, Astro will probably undergo the identical destiny.

4. Waymo robotaxi confused by visitors cones

This actually wasn’t the primary time a robotaxi was confused by on a regular basis highway obstacles. And it received’t be the final both. Nevertheless it’s a great have a look at how far autonomous driving expertise nonetheless has to go earlier than it’ll be deployed at scale.

You possibly can watch the complete video from Joel Johnson above, however the attention-grabbing half begins across the 11-minute mark. The Waymo robotaxi must make a proper flip onto a multi-lane major highway, however the far proper lane was closed off by orange building cones. And, boy, did they confuse the car.

After the planning system can’t determine the best way to deal with the scenario, it requires roadside help. A human was presupposed to arrive in mere minutes to get the automobile unstuck. Nevertheless, earlier than the help arrived, the Waymo robotaxi pulled out into the highway, solely to cease once more, this time blocking visitors.

The robotaxi obtained caught two extra instances earlier than the roadside help worker might truly get into the car.

Johnson got here onto The Robotic Report Podcast to debate the incident, in addition to his many different optimistic experiences using in Waymo robotaxis. You possibly can hearken to that episode right here.

3. Boston Dynamics unveils Stretch robotic for unloading vans

Boston Dynamics is greatest recognized for its legged robots Atlas and Spot. However Boston Dynamics stunned everybody early in 2021 by unveiling Stretch, a robotic that’s the subsequent era of the Deal with robotic launched in 2017.

Stretch doesn’t have legs, however it does have an omni-directional cell base with 4 independently managed wheels, a customized 7-DoF industrial robotic arm that may carry as much as 50 kilos, a customized suction gripper and rather more.

Stretch is scheduled to go on sale in restricted trend in 2022. It is going to initially concentrate on truck unloading and later add palletizing to its repertoire. If Stretch can deal with the excessive degree of package deal variety it’ll encounter, it might develop into Boston Dynamics’ most profitable industrial robotic as unloading vans is main bottleneck within the provide chain enterprise.

Kevin Blankespoor, VP of product engineering at Boston Dynamics, talked about Stretch on The Robotic Report Podcast. He took us inside the event of the robotic, describing the evolution of the product design, the various system integration challenges, plans to enhance the Decide imaginative and prescient system going ahead, similarities between Atlas, Spot and Stretch, and rather more. You possibly can hearken to that episode right here.

2. Ingenuity Helicopter completes first flight on Mars

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter accomplished its preliminary flight on Mars earlier on April 19, 2021. This marked the first-ever powered, managed flight on one other planet. The $80 million, solar-powered helicopter first grew to become airborne at 3:34 AM EDT and climbed to its prescribed most altitude of 10 toes. It hovered within the air for 30 seconds earlier than descending again to the floor of Mars. It was within the air for a complete of 39.1 seconds. You possibly can re-watch the flight above.

1. Perseverance Rover lands on Mars

This needs to be the highest second of 2021, proper? NASA’s Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 at round 3:55 PM ET. Launched on the finish of July 2020, Perseverance traveled 292.5 million miles from Earth to Mars. You possibly can re-watch NASA’s stay stream of the touchdown within the video above. The touchdown occurs at in regards to the 1:40:40 mark.

The rover has been exploring Mars for microfossils within the rocks and soil. In September, the rover cored its first rock pattern. NASA is now engaged on a system to carry these rock samples again to Earth. This mission is anticipated to take a decade of labor. An unimaginable engineering feat by all concerned that’s already altering the way forward for house exploration.