Robotics Special: The robots make it rain (literally)

The season of open-source robotics is in full swing. Just days after Hugging Face dropped a DIY programmable robotic arm, researchers at UC Berkeley have upped the ante, unveiling a new humanoid robot you can build without burning a hole in your wallet. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists are using drones to make it pour (literally), and a humanoid robot goes haywire and attacks human workers.

P.S. The Robotics Special is designed to help you stay on the cutting edge of the latest breakthroughs and products in the industry. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

Bot on a Budget: Engineers at UC Berkeley have made a significant leap towards making robotics more accessible to researchers and casual hobbyists. They’ve unveiled an open-source humanoid robot you can build for less than $5,000 — a dramatic price drop in a market where commercial alternatives can cost upwards of $100,000. The robot can be 3D-printed using standard desktop printers and can walk, hop, and be remotely controlled. You can find the code and training resources here.

Rain Wrangler: Robots are literally making it rain. Chinese researchers have successfully induced 18.5M gallons of rainfall — enough to fill 30 Olympic swimming pools — using a fleet of drones. The robots pumped 2.2 pounds of silver iodide powder into the atmosphere as smoke, leading to a 4% increase in rainfall in Xinjiang, China. This could potentially transform drought management strategies, though scientists are still evaluating the long-term scalability of these intervantions.

Feel Factor: Amazon has unveiled Vulcan, a warehouse robot with a sense of touch that helps it tackle tasks robots usually struggle with. It uses sensors along its joints to get a "feel" of the contours of items on shelves, with machine learning algorithms interpreting these signals to guide the robot’s movements. While Amazon aims to automate up to 75% of fulfillment operations, the company emphasizes that humans will still play a critical role, particularly for tasks Vulcan can’t handle. Catch the robot in action here.

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

Robo Rally: MIT engineers have developed a ping pong-playing, high-speed robot that returns shots with an impressive 88% accuracy rate. Using multiple high-speed cameras and predictive algorithms to analyze incoming balls, the robot executes loops, drives, and chops at speeds approaching 42 mph. You can watch it in action here.

Wok Wizard: Chinese cooking robots are seemingly making themselves useful in the kitchen, learning cooking techniques thought to be "unteachable even to junior chefs". If true, this leap in culinary automation could potentially globalize authentic Chinese cuisine, slashing the need for human chefs. Watch it in action here.

Baby Backup: Researchers have created BabyBot, a robotic infant equipped with a sensorized mouth, soft robotic tongue, and neural circuitry. It’s designed to safely simulate and study infant feeding behaviors and developmental disorders without subjecting actual infants to invasive testing procedures.

Nuclear Ninja: In a world-first, scientists have built a nuclear-resistant spy robot to protect America's most sensitive missile silos. The surveillance tool can safely enter high-security environments to offer 360-degree situational awareness while human operators remain at a safe distance.

ROBO REEL

Watch: Humanoid robot goes berserk and attacks workers at Chinese testing facility

"Sarah Connor warned us about this," said one X user.

This Terminator reference popped up in the comments of a viral video, which showed a Unitree H1 humanoid robot going haywire and attacking engineers at a testing facility in China. The clip has since racked up thousands of views across social media platforms. Reportedly caused by a coding error, the incident has sounded the alarm over whether robots are truly ready for public spaces.

ROBOT OF THE WEEK

A robot that caught our eye this week

Raghav Gupta’s latest product started with a personal dilemma: In 2017, he was trying to figure out how to enjoy the home-cooked meals he grew up with — without spending hours in the kitchen or shelling out for a private chef. He decided to turn to robotics and founded Posha.

A countertop robot that's essentially a "coffee machine for food”, Posha enables users to select recipes, add pre-measured ingredients, while the device handles the actual cooking. Gupta claims the robot slashes kitchen time by about 70%, turning an hour of meal prep into a 10-20 minute affair.

You can check it out here.

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Acquisitions, investments, funding, and more

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

• Tesla's bid to trademark "Robotaxi" ahead of the company's anticipated June launch has hit a significant roadblock. The US Patent and Trademark Office has refused Tesla's application, declaring it "merely descriptive" and "generic.” This isn’t a final denial — Tesla still has a chance to potentially overcome the objection.

• Uber is doubling down on its autonomous vehicle (AV) strategy with a $100M cash injection in Chinese AV company WeRide to expand their robotaxi partnership to 15 additional cities outside of China and the US.

• Chang Robotics has unveiled its ambitious 2025 strategic roadmap, including the launch of a $50M venture fund focused on seed-stage investments in disruptive technologies and plans to continue US expansion despite economic uncertainty.

• Toyota and Waymo have announced plans to explore a strategic partnership that could accelerate autonomous vehicle development beyond just robotaxis to personally owned vehicles.

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team