Welcome, sci-fi realists…

For this week’s intro, we invite you to imagine a seagull on a beach somewhere hunting for food. Now, we invite you to picture a robotic version of that bird. 

That’s where we’re headed with a new development from MIT, where a team of researchers built a robot bird with no legs but powerful enough wings to swim underwater. 🤯

For those of you who, like us, lack bird expertise, this news taught us that puffins can both fly and swim, which served as the inspiration for this bot.  

Rest assured, just like the robot elephants we mentioned last week, these winged bots serve a practical purpose too: oceanography. According to University of Portland biologist Glenna Clifton, they can monitor coastal environments by “tracking algae blooms, observing marine life, or studying shoreline changes.” 

Anyway, here's what you need to know about robotics right now:

A seemingly endless march of humanoid makers are making headlines, not always for the best reasons. This is a fascinating exception to that. 1X’s NEO humanoid is not a new model that can backflip or master taekwondo. This NEO model comes with new hands that show promise with their human-like dexterity and precision. 

Regular readers of this newsletter might recall humanoids that know what objects to pick and place in boxes or on conveyor belts. Not all of these models even have fingers. Some have “hands” that look like those toy-grabbing claw machines you find at arcades. The new Neo hands are on an entirely different level. 

1X’s proprietary tech relies on high-res tactile sensors embedded in the palm and fingertips to appropriately handle objects like a human. This isn’t wishful thinking either, as NEO has already performed an impressive list of actions in demonstrations. We’re talking about: assembling LEGOs, installing light bulbs, or zipping jackets. 

Even more impressively, 1X manufactures all the needed components in-house like motors, sensors, tendons, polymer skins to cover them, and other electronics. 

What this likely means for the future: 1X is targeting audiences more broadly with NEO, meaning they prepared NEO and its human-like hands for both industrial use cases and regular home use. Still, because of how precise and dextrous these hands have proven to be, a test subject like NEO will fare very well in meticulous tasks at factories, like assembling circuits. This is indicative of a future trend, since robotics companies obviously want their models to have broader capabilities than just gripping objects like a claw machine. 

Our FYI read: 1X is setting the bar for what other humanoid makers will want their models to perform. This is a race, after all.

UC San Diego researchers tell Good Morning America that “Surgie,” their surgeon humanoid, is unlike the typical martial arts humanoid because it actually helps society. They are correct as this video below proves. Previous surgical robotics are stationary and take up a lot of space, whereas Surgie is only 5 ft tall and would take up less space than a human would in an operating room.

They also mention that Surgie can work in non-traditional or remote locations where patients might not have easy access to a qualified surgeon, so it’s less about replacing actual expertise and instead adding more where there is none. Another plus is humanoids won’t get squeamish when getting the job done. 

Now, what isn’t working so well right now? 

A real problem with robotaxis has the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stepping in to issue a clear warning to robotaxi makers like Tesla. Apparently, robotaxis were delaying or blocking first responders and emergency vehicles from reaching patients due to not recognizing emergencies without humans to tell them. Blocking access to patients is most definitely unacceptable, so the NHTSA is demanding changes be made.

Looking on the bright side, though, NHTSA has opted not to erase them from society forever – far from it. Instead, NHSTA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said he gets the real potential for robotaxis when “done right.” The catch? The administration is giving those companies just a month to get it right. No one can blame them since public safety is such a high priority. Only time will tell if these robotaxis learn to make way for firetrucks and ambulances once recalibrated. 

P.S. If you haven’t already… follow us on Youtube!