Robot

While Tesla’s Optimus bot can now hand out drinks, Agility Robotics’ Digit has been available to actually buy since 2020. It’s been deployed in environments like Amazon warehouses and Agility’s own RoboFab, where it's used to move, load, and unload boxes.

Check out our video highlighting the most important parts.

One called Elon the “Technoking.”

It’s wearing a cowboy hat, for some reason.

I’m not sure if this counts as Hollywood magic yet, but this is how Tesla’s promoting its robotaxi unveiling event. Elon Musk had announced an August date for the event, but then it was pushed back until October 10th.

The invitations say that remarks will begin at 7PM PT, if you’d like to clear some time in your schedule.

The 3i S10 Ultra is claimed to be the first robotic mop and vacuum that never needs to be refilled or connected to a water source. It instead cleans and recycles its wastewater, while also extracting all the clean water it needs from the air.

Full pricing is expected to be $1,899, but the robovac can be preordered through Kickstarter at a discount.

At IFA this week, Roborock and SharkNinja showed off robot vacuums that can lift themselves up to get over high room transitions, but Dreame went “a step” further.

It demoed its new ProLeap system, which uses retractable legs to navigate very low steps, as this video from The Ambient shows.

The tech is still in development but the company says it should arrive on its product line soon.

Disney Imagineering debuted its bipedal BD-X droids at its theme parks last year which can remain balanced even while autonomously walking over uneven terrain.

Their creators have been working to improve the droids’ movements and capabilities and are now teaching them to balance on terrain that’s dynamically changing beneath their feet using Disney’s equally innovative HoloTile treadmill floors.

The Narwal Freo Z Ultra ($1,499.99) uses two cameras to constantly scan while cleaning and adapt to what it spots.

Dual AI chips mean it can identify objects and decide how to clean — get close to chair leg but give pet poop a wide berth, retract its brush when it sees a cable, and activate mop-only when there’s a wet mess ahead.

Everything from the speed of the recording to the tasks being performed (such as carrying boxes or sorting objects) may be misrepresenting what these bipedal bots are actually capable of right now.

The MIT Technology Review has put together a quick guide to help viewers be more aware and critical of what’s happening behind the scenes.

We haven’t seen much of Boston Dynamics’ new all-electric version of Atlas since its debut back in April. But today the company shared another brief look at the highly articulated humanoid doing a quick round of pushups.

Boston Dynamics originally described the new Atlas as being able to “move in ways that exceed human capabilities.” Doing seven pushups already exceeds this human’s capabilities.

Mineral, which Alphabet shut down last month, says it has sold some of its technology to John Deere to support the company’s See & Spray product, according to a memo posted last week. The startup also confirms that the berry company Driscoll will use Mineral’s tech to “better forecast yields, optimize quality inspections, and reduce food waste.”

The new Aibo Kinako Edition is the first to feature a two-tone finish on its face and will include two new eye color options.

It will be officially available starting tomorrow in Japan, but Sony has also announced a ¥55,000 (about $374) price increase for its already pricey robot dog, citing the rising costs of raw materials.

AES has given its Atlas solar robot some AWS smarts and redubbed it “Maximo.” It helped complete an Amazon-backed solar farm in Louisiana and is now moving on to Bellefield, California, home of the largest solar-plus-storage project in the US. According to Amazon, it can “reduce solar installation timelines and costs by as much 50 percent:”

Besides automating heavy lifting, Maximo can also perform in nearly any weather or lighting condition, which is especially useful for the Bellefield project, which is located in a sandy desert area known for extreme heat. Once Maximo arrives there later this year, the robot will work alongside crews to lift hundreds of heavy solar panels into place.

What he means by that exactly is anyone’s guess. Will they be helping to build vehicles? Is Optimus being ditched as it wasn’t name-dropped? We might find out next year, though Musk has previously admitted these timelines are mostly guesswork.

It's not like Tesla has stuck to its Robotaxi reveal dates yet.

IHMC showcased improvements to its Nadia robot that lower the latency of its VR-controlled inputs enough to play table tennis against a human.

The ultimate design goal for Nadia — named after famed gymnast Nadia Comăneci — is to achieve a human range-of-motion, having demonstrated its boxing capabilities last year in a Real Steel-like fashion.