Robotics Special: A robot you can eat

We’ve seen robots that can throw flawless kung-fu kicks, assist in delicate surgery, and even run a marathon. But scientists still managed to surprise us this week with a twist we never saw coming: the world’s first (and perhaps only) edible robot. Meanwhile, a tiny screw may be throwing a wrench in America's plan to lead the robotics revolution.

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

Democratized Droids: The age of open source robotics is here. Hugging Face, a leader in open source AI, has acquired French startup Pollen Robotics and its humanoid robot Reachy 2, aiming to "democratize" robotics through an open source approach. While companies like Tesla and Figure build proprietary humanoids, Hugging Face will not only start selling Reachy 2 this week, but also allow developers to modify and customize its code.

Hand Houdini: Our social media feeds were flooded this week with videos of a woman controlling a prosthetic hand, completely detached from her body. UK startup Open Bionics has unveiled what it claims is the world's most advanced bionic arm — twice as fast and strong as leading competitors while being the lightest and first fully waterproof prosthetic hand on the market. It’s able to function while detached from the user, using wireless EMG electrodes that read muscle signals to control movement.

A Piece of Cake: Swiss researchers have created RoboCake — a robot you can eat. The dessert features two animated teddy bears made from gelatin and syrup that move using internal pneumatic systems, and contains what researchers claim are the world's first edible, rechargeable batteries. Novelty aside, edible robots can potentially deliver nutrients to patients who have trouble swallowing or provide digestible sensors that monitor food freshness. Check it out here.

Screw Saga: An article by Fast Company claims China is well-positioned to dominate the humanoid robotics industry by controlling the supply chain for planetary roller screws (PRS) — critical components used in advanced robotics. It claims that PRS is already being used in models like Tesla's Optimus and robots from Figure AI. However, Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock refutes this, asserting that "the majority of all humanoid players" are not implementing PRS technology.  

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

Heavy Metal: American rock band OK Go dropped another groundbreaking music video for their track "Love," featuring an elaborate dance routine with 30 industrial robots. According to lead singer Damian Kulash, the robots enabled creative expression impossible for humans alone. Watch the behind-the-scenes here.

Quick-Cut: A 67-year-old prostate cancer patient has become one of the first to undergo robotic surgery and return home the same day at Bath's Royal United Hospital. First deployed at the hospital in 2023, the robotic system has since helped hundreds of patients experience quicker recovery times and significantly less painful surgeries.

Berry Business: Japan's agricultural sector has found a solution to address labor shortages in strawberry harvesting with an autonomous robot. The system uses lidar sensors (similar to those in self-driving cars) to create detailed 3D maps of strawberry fields, enabling precise navigation around delicate plants.

Panel Partner: Cosmic Robotics has built a robot assistant to install heavy solar panels in remote, harsh environments. The company aims to tackle severe labor shortages in the solar industry, where installer numbers fall short of demand as America rapidly builds solar farms in challenging desert environments.

Hazard Hound: Boston Dynamics’ robo-dog Spot was sent in to reactivate a long-idle crane at the Dounreay nuclear site — accessing a radioactive zone too dangerous for humans. Attached with a custom gripper, the robot flipped a switch that had been accumulating mothballs for about two years.

FROM THE FRONTIER

MIT engineers build a hopping microbot to traverse the toughest terrains

Traditional micro-robots face a huge mobility challenge. Crawlers typically find themselves getting stuck on uneven, rugged terrain, while flying microrobots have ridiculously high energy needs — a major bottleneck for operational range. The design trade-off is a classic engineer’s nightmare: ground-based robots have the endurance but lack mobility, while aerial robots are impressively mobile but cannot endure longer work hours.

MIT researchers set out to create a robot that has the best of both worlds. Tired of watching ground robots faceplant at the first sign of an obstacle and flying microbots burn through battery power mid-mission, they sought an effective middle ground.

Turns out Mother Nature had the answer all along. The scientists studied insects like fleas and grasshoppers, which use a hop-and-bounce strategy that conserves energy while enabling impressive mobility.

The result: An insect-sized hopping robot smaller than a human thumb and lighter than a paperclip. It can leap about 4 times its height while navigating challenging surfaces, including ice, wet glass, and uneven soil. It can even perform aerial acrobatic flips, landing on drones without damage to either device. You can watch it carry out impressive feats here.

The breakthrough has far-reaching implications for micro-robotics: 

• The new robot consumes 60% less energy than comparable flying robots

• Its lightweight design makes it surprisingly resilient to impacts and collisions

• The control system is incredibly versatile, adapting to different terrains in real-time

ROBO REEL

Watch: 1X’s NIO gives the first-ever TED talk delivered by a robot

Humanoid robotics is on the cusp of real-world practical use. 

A month ago, Norwegian startup 1X unveiled plans to start early tests of its humanoid robot, Neo Gamma, in “a few hundred to a few thousand” homes by the end of this year.

Watch as NEO shows off its ability to vacuum, water plants, and keep you company, while 1X CEO Bernt Børnich tells the story of its development.

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Acquisitions, investments, funding, and more

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

• South Korean startup RLWRLD has picked up $14.8M in seed funding to develop a foundational AI model specifically for robotics.

• Uber and Waymo are preparing to launch their "Waymo on Uber" robotaxi service in Atlanta this summer, expanding their commercial partnership.

• Startup Xaba secured $6M in seed extension funding to develop its "synthetic brains" for industrial robots that require zero manual coding.

• Kodiak Robotics, a developer of AI-powered autonomous trucking technology, is going public through a SPAC merger with Ares Acquisition Corporation II.

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team