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In control theory, reactive methods have been widely celebrated owing to their success in providing robust, provably convergent solutions to control problems. Even though such methods have long been formulated for motion planning, optimality has largely been left untreated through reactive means, with the community focusing on discrete/graph-based solutions. Although the latter exhibit certain advantages (completeness, complicated state-spaces), the recent rise in Reinforcement Learning (RL), provides novel ways to address the limitations of reactive methods. The goal of this paper is to treat the reactive optimal motion planning problem through an RL framework. A policy iteration RL scheme is formulated in a consistent manner with the control-theoretic results, thus utilizing the advantages of each approach in a complementary way; RL is employed to construct the optimal input without necessitating the solution of a hard, non-linear partial differential equation. Conversely, safety, convergence and policy improvement are guaranteed through control theoretic arguments. The proposed method is validated in simulated synthetic workspaces, and compared against reactive methods as well as a PRM and an RRT⋆ approach. The proposed method outperforms or closely matches the latter methods, indicating the near global optimality of the former, while providing a solution for planning from anywhere within the workspace to the goal position.



As IEEE Spectrum editors, we pride ourselves on spotting promising technologies and following them from the research phase through development and ultimately deployment. In every January issue, we focus on the technologies that are now poised to achieve significant milestones in the new year.

This issue was curated by Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore, our in-house expert on semiconductors. So it’s no surprise that he included a story on Intel’s plan to roll out two momentous chip technologies in the next few months.

For “Intel Hopes to Leapfrog Its Competitors,” Moore directed our editorial intern, Gwendolyn Rak, to report on the risk the chip giant is taking by introducing two technologies at once. We began tracking the first technology, nanosheet transistors, in 2017. By the time we gave all the details in a 2019 feature article, it was clear that this device was destined to be the successor to the FinFET. Moore first spotted the second technology, back-side power delivery, at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in 2019. Less than two years later, Intel publicly committed to incorporating the tech in 2024.

Speaking of commitment, the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has played an enormous part in bankrolling some of the fundamental advances that appear in these pages. Many of our readers will be familiar with the robots that Senior Editor Evan Ackerman covered during DARPA’s humanoid challenge almost 10 years ago. Those robots were essentially research projects, but as Ackerman reports in “Year of the Humanoid,” a few companies will start up pilot projects in 2024 to see if this generation of humanoids is ready to roll up its metaphorical sleeves and get down to business.

More recently, fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) has burst onto the scene. Moore, who’s been covering the Cambrian explosion in chip architectures for AI and other alternative computing modalities since the mid-teens, notes that, like the robotics challenge, DARPA was the initial driver.

“You’d expect the three companies DARPA funded to come up with a chip, though there was no guarantee they’d commercialize it,” says Moore, who wrote “Chips to Compute With Encrypted Data Are Coming.” “But what you wouldn’t expect is three more startups, independently of DARPA, to come out with their own FHE chips at the same time.”

Senior Editor Tekla S. Perry’s story about phosphorescent OLEDs, “A Behind-the-Screens Change for OLED,” is actually a deep cut for us. One of the first feature articles Moore edited at Spectrum way back in 2000 was Stephen Forrest’s article on organic electronics. His lab developed the first phosphorescent OLED materials, which are hugely more efficient than the fluorescent ones. Forrest was a founder of Universal Display Corp., which has now, after more than two decades, finally commercialized the last of its trio of phosphorescent colors—blue.

Then there’s our cover story about deepfakes and their potential impact on dozens of national elections later this year. We’ve been tracking the rise of deepfakes since mid-2018, when we ran a story about AI researchers betting on whether or not a deepfake video about a political candidate would receive more than 2 million views during the U.S. midterm elections that year. As Senior Editor Eliza Strickland reports in “This Election Year, Look for Content Credentials,” several companies and industry groups are working hard to ensure that deepfakes don’t take down democracy.

Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year, and enjoy this year’s technology forecast. It’s been years in the making.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue.



As IEEE Spectrum editors, we pride ourselves on spotting promising technologies and following them from the research phase through development and ultimately deployment. In every January issue, we focus on the technologies that are now poised to achieve significant milestones in the new year.

This issue was curated by Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore, our in-house expert on semiconductors. So it’s no surprise that he included a story on Intel’s plan to roll out two momentous chip technologies in the next few months.

For “Intel Hopes to Leapfrog Its Competitors,” Moore directed our editorial intern, Gwendolyn Rak, to report on the risk the chip giant is taking by introducing two technologies at once. We began tracking the first technology, nanosheet transistors, in 2017. By the time we gave all the details in a 2019 feature article, it was clear that this device was destined to be the successor to the FinFET. Moore first spotted the second technology, back-side power delivery, at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in 2019. Less than two years later, Intel publicly committed to incorporating the tech in 2024.

Speaking of commitment, the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has played an enormous part in bankrolling some of the fundamental advances that appear in these pages. Many of our readers will be familiar with the robots that Senior Editor Evan Ackerman covered during DARPA’s humanoid challenge almost 10 years ago. Those robots were essentially research projects, but as Ackerman reports in “Year of the Humanoid,” a few companies will start up pilot projects in 2024 to see if this generation of humanoids is ready to roll up its metaphorical sleeves and get down to business.

More recently, fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) has burst onto the scene. Moore, who’s been covering the Cambrian explosion in chip architectures for AI and other alternative computing modalities since the mid-teens, notes that, like the robotics challenge, DARPA was the initial driver.

“You’d expect the three companies DARPA funded to come up with a chip, though there was no guarantee they’d commercialize it,” says Moore, who wrote “Chips to Compute With Encrypted Data Are Coming.” “But what you wouldn’t expect is three more startups, independently of DARPA, to come out with their own FHE chips at the same time.”

Senior Editor Tekla S. Perry’s story about phosphorescent OLEDs, “A Behind-the-Screens Change for OLED,” is actually a deep cut for us. One of the first feature articles Moore edited at Spectrum way back in 2000 was Stephen Forrest’s article on organic electronics. His lab developed the first phosphorescent OLED materials, which are hugely more efficient than the fluorescent ones. Forrest was a founder of Universal Display Corp., which has now, after more than two decades, finally commercialized the last of its trio of phosphorescent colors—blue.

Then there’s our cover story about deepfakes and their potential impact on dozens of national elections later this year. We’ve been tracking the rise of deepfakes since mid-2018, when we ran a story about AI researchers betting on whether or not a deepfake video about a political candidate would receive more than 2 million views during the U.S. midterm elections that year. As Senior Editor Eliza Strickland reports in “This Election Year, Look for Content Credentials,” several companies and industry groups are working hard to ensure that deepfakes don’t take down democracy.

Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year, and enjoy this year’s technology forecast. It’s been years in the making.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue.



This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to 20 kilometers. Its “deeper, hotter, and faster” strategy will start with old oil-and-gas drilling structures and extend them by blasting radiation from a gyrotron to vaporize the hard rock beneath. At these depths, Earth reaches 500 °C. Accessing this superhot geothermal energy could be a key part of achieving net zero emission goals by 2050, according to Quaise executives.


“Batteries Included” Induction Ovens

Now we’re cooking with gas—but soon, we may be cooking with induction. A growing number of consumers are switching to induction-based stoves and ovens to address environmental concerns and health risks associated with gas ranges. But while these new appliances are more energy efficient, most models require modified electrical outlets and cost hundreds of dollars to install. That’s why startups like Channing Street Copper and Impulse Labs are working to make induction ovens easier to install by adding built-in batteries that supplement regular wall-socket power. Channing Street Copper plans to roll out its battery-boosted Charlie appliance in early 2024.


Triage Tech to the Rescue

In the second half of 2024, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will begin the first round of its Triage Challenge, a competition to develop sensors and algorithms to support triage efforts during mass-casualty incidents. According to a DARPA video presentation from last February, the agency is seeking new ways to help medics at two stages of treatment: During primary triage, those most in need of care will be identified with sensors from afar. Then, when the patients are stable, medics can decide the best treatment regimens based on data gleaned from noninvasive sensors. The three rounds will continue through 2026, with prizes totaling US $7 million.


Killer Drones Deployed From the Skies

A new class of missile-firing drones will take to the skies in 2024. Like a three-layer aerial nesting doll, the missile-stuffed drone is itself released from the belly of a bomber while in flight. The uncrewed aircraft was developed by energy and defense company General Atomics as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LongShot program and will be flight-tested this year to prove its feasibility in air-based combat. Its goal is to extend the range and effectiveness of both air-to-air missiles and the current class of fighter jets while new aircraft are introduced.


Visible’s Anti-Activity Tracker

Long COVID and chronic fatigue often go unseen by others. But it’s important that people with these invisible illnesses understand how different activities affect their symptoms so they can properly pace their days. That’s why one man with long COVID, Harry Leeming, decided to create Visible, an app that helps users monitor activity and avoid overexertion. This year, according to Leeming, Visible will launch a premium version of the app that uses a specialized heart-rate monitor. While most wearables are meant for workouts, Leeming says, these armband monitors are optimized for lower heart rates to help people with both long COVID and fatigue. The app will also collect data from consenting users to help research these conditions.


Amazon Launches New Internet Service—Literally

Amazon expects to begin providing Internet service from space with Project Kuiper by the end of 2024. The US $10 billion project aims to expand reliable broadband internet access to rural areas around the globe by launching a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites into low Earth orbit. While the project will take years to complete in full, Amazon is set to start beta testing with customers later this year. If successful, Kuiper could be integrated into the suite of Amazon Web Services. SpaceX’s Starlink, meanwhile, has been active since 2019 and already has 5,000 satellites in orbit.


Solar-Powered Test Drive

The next car you buy might be powered by the sun. Long awaited by potential customers and crowdfunders, solar electric vehicles (SEVs) made by the startup Aptera Motors are set to hit the road in 2024, the company says. Like the cooler cousin of an SUV, these three-wheeled SEVs feature a sleek, aerodynamic design to cut down on drag. The latest version of the vehicle combines plug-in capability with solar panels that cover its roof, allowing for a 1,600-kilometer range on a single charge and up to 65 km a day from solar power. Aptera says it aims to begin early production in 2024, with the first 2,000 vehicles set to be delivered to investors.


Zero Trust, Two-Thirds Confidence

“Trust but verify” is now a proverb of the past in cybersecurity policy in the United States. By the end of the 2024 fiscal year, in September, all U.S. government agencies will be required to switch to a Zero Trust security architecture. All users must validate their identity and devices—even when they’re already connected to government networks and VPNs. This is achieved with methods like multifactor authentication and other access controls. About two-thirds of security professionals employed by federal agencies are confident that their department will hit the cybersecurity deadline, according to a 2023 report.


First Light for Vera Rubin

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home to the largest digital camera ever constructed, is expected to open its eye to the sky for the first time in late 2024. The observatory features an 8.4-meter wide-field telescope that will scan the Southern Hemisphere’s skies over the course of a decade-long project. Equipped with a 3,200-megapixel camera, the telescope will photograph an area the size of 40 full moons every night from its perch atop a Chilean mountain. That means it can capture the entire visible sky every three to four nights. When operational, the Rubin Observatory will help astronomers inventory the solar system, map the Milky Way, and shed light on dark matter and dark energy.


Hailing Air Taxis at the Olympics

At this year’s summer Olympic Games in Paris, attendees may be able to take an electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicle, or eVTOL, to get around the city. Volocopter, in Bruchsal, Germany, hopes to make an air taxi service available to sports enthusiasts and tourists during the competition. Though the company is still awaiting certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Volocopter plans to offer three routes between various parts of the city, as well as two round-trip routes for tourists. Volocopter’s air taxis could make Paris the first European city to offer eVTOL services.


Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Boom Technology is developing an airliner, called Overture, that flies faster than the speed of sound. The U.S. company says it’s set to finish construction of its North Carolina “superfactory” in 2024. Each year Boom plans to manufacture as many as 33 of the aircraft, which the company claims will be the world’s fastest airliner. Overture is designed to be capable of flying twice as fast as today’s commercial planes, and Boom says it expects the plane to be powered by sustainable aviation fuel, made without petroleum. The company says it already has orders in place from commercial airlines and is aiming for first flight by 2027.



This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to 20 kilometers. Its “deeper, hotter, and faster” strategy will start with old oil-and-gas drilling structures and extend them by blasting radiation from a gyrotron to vaporize the hard rock beneath. At these depths, Earth reaches 500 °C. Accessing this superhot geothermal energy could be a key part of achieving net zero emission goals by 2050, according to Quaise executives.


“Batteries Included” Induction Ovens

Now we’re cooking with gas—but soon, we may be cooking with induction. A growing number of consumers are switching to induction-based stoves and ovens to address environmental concerns and health risks associated with gas ranges. But while these new appliances are more energy efficient, most models require modified electrical outlets and cost hundreds of dollars to install. That’s why startups like Channing Street Copper and Impulse Labs are working to make induction ovens easier to install by adding built-in batteries that supplement regular wall-socket power. Channing Street Copper plans to roll out its battery-boosted Charlie appliance in early 2024.


Triage Tech to the Rescue

In the second half of 2024, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will begin the first round of its Triage Challenge, a competition to develop sensors and algorithms to support triage efforts during mass-casualty incidents. According to a DARPA video presentation from last February, the agency is seeking new ways to help medics at two stages of treatment: During primary triage, those most in need of care will be identified with sensors from afar. Then, when the patients are stable, medics can decide the best treatment regimens based on data gleaned from noninvasive sensors. The three rounds will continue through 2026, with prizes totaling US $7 million.


Killer Drones Deployed From the Skies

A new class of missile-firing drones will take to the skies in 2024. Like a three-layer aerial nesting doll, the missile-stuffed drone is itself released from the belly of a bomber while in flight. The uncrewed aircraft was developed by energy and defense company General Atomics as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LongShot program and will be flight-tested this year to prove its feasibility in air-based combat. Its goal is to extend the range and effectiveness of both air-to-air missiles and the current class of fighter jets while new aircraft are introduced.


Visible’s Anti-Activity Tracker

Long COVID and chronic fatigue often go unseen by others. But it’s important that people with these invisible illnesses understand how different activities affect their symptoms so they can properly pace their days. That’s why one man with long COVID, Harry Leeming, decided to create Visible, an app that helps users monitor activity and avoid overexertion. This year, according to Leeming, Visible will launch a premium version of the app that uses a specialized heart-rate monitor. While most wearables are meant for workouts, Leeming says, these armband monitors are optimized for lower heart rates to help people with both long COVID and fatigue. The app will also collect data from consenting users to help research these conditions.


Amazon Launches New Internet Service—Literally

Amazon expects to begin providing Internet service from space with Project Kuiper by the end of 2024. The US $10 billion project aims to expand reliable broadband internet access to rural areas around the globe by launching a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites into low Earth orbit. While the project will take years to complete in full, Amazon is set to start beta testing with customers later this year. If successful, Kuiper could be integrated into the suite of Amazon Web Services. SpaceX’s Starlink, meanwhile, has been active since 2019 and already has 5,000 satellites in orbit.


Solar-Powered Test Drive

The next car you buy might be powered by the sun. Long awaited by potential customers and crowdfunders, solar electric vehicles (SEVs) made by the startup Aptera Motors are set to hit the road in 2024, the company says. Like the cooler cousin of an SUV, these three-wheeled SEVs feature a sleek, aerodynamic design to cut down on drag. The latest version of the vehicle combines plug-in capability with solar panels that cover its roof, allowing for a 1,600-kilometer range on a single charge and up to 65 km a day from solar power. Aptera says it aims to begin early production in 2024, with the first 2,000 vehicles set to be delivered to investors.


Zero Trust, Two-Thirds Confidence

“Trust but verify” is now a proverb of the past in cybersecurity policy in the United States. By the end of the 2024 fiscal year, in September, all U.S. government agencies will be required to switch to a Zero Trust security architecture. All users must validate their identity and devices—even when they’re already connected to government networks and VPNs. This is achieved with methods like multifactor authentication and other access controls. About two-thirds of security professionals employed by federal agencies are confident that their department will hit the cybersecurity deadline, according to a 2023 report.


First Light for Vera Rubin

Vera C. Rubin Observatory, home to the largest digital camera ever constructed, is expected to open its eye to the sky for the first time in late 2024. The observatory features an 8.4-meter wide-field telescope that will scan the Southern Hemisphere’s skies over the course of a decade-long project. Equipped with a 3,200-megapixel camera, the telescope will photograph an area the size of 40 full moons every night from its perch atop a Chilean mountain. That means it can capture the entire visible sky every three to four nights. When operational, the Rubin Observatory will help astronomers inventory the solar system, map the Milky Way, and shed light on dark matter and dark energy.


Hailing Air Taxis at the Olympics

At this year’s summer Olympic Games in Paris, attendees may be able to take an electric vertical-take-off-and-landing vehicle, or eVTOL, to get around the city. Volocopter, in Bruchsal, Germany, hopes to make an air taxi service available to sports enthusiasts and tourists during the competition. Though the company is still awaiting certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Volocopter plans to offer three routes between various parts of the city, as well as two round-trip routes for tourists. Volocopter’s air taxis could make Paris the first European city to offer eVTOL services.


Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Boom Technology is developing an airliner, called Overture, that flies faster than the speed of sound. The U.S. company says it’s set to finish construction of its North Carolina “superfactory” in 2024. Each year Boom plans to manufacture as many as 33 of the aircraft, which the company claims will be the world’s fastest airliner. Overture is designed to be capable of flying twice as fast as today’s commercial planes, and Boom says it expects the plane to be powered by sustainable aviation fuel, made without petroleum. The company says it already has orders in place from commercial airlines and is aiming for first flight by 2027.



Ten years ago, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trial event near Miami, I watched the most advanced humanoid robots ever built struggle their way through a scenario inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A team of experienced engineers controlled each robot, and overhead safety tethers kept them from falling over. The robots had to demonstrate mobility, sensing, and manipulation—which, with painful slowness, they did.

These robots were clearly research projects, but DARPA has a history of catalyzing technology with a long-term view. The DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges for autonomous vehicles, in 2005 and 2007, formed the foundation for today’s autonomous taxis. So, after DRC ended in 2015 with several of the robots successfully completing the entire final scenario, the obvious question was: When would humanoid robots make the transition from research project to a commercial product?

This article is part of our special report Top Tech 2024.

The answer seems to be 2024, when a handful of well-funded companies will be deploying their robots in commercial pilot projects to figure out whether humanoids are really ready to get to work.

One of the robots that made an appearance at the DRC Finals in 2015 was called ATRIAS, developed by Jonathan Hurst at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory. In 2015, Hurst cofounded Agility Robotics to turn ATRIAS into a human-centric, multipurpose, and practical robot called Digit. Approximately the same size as a human, Digit stands 1.75 meters tall (about 5 feet, 8 inches), weighs 65 kilograms (about 140 pounds), and can lift 16 kg (about 35 pounds). Agility is now preparing to produce a commercial version of Digit at massive scale, and the company sees its first opportunity in the logistics industry, where it will start doing some of the jobs where humans are essentially acting like robots already.

Are humanoid robots useful?

“We spent a long time working with potential customers to find a use case where our technology can provide real value, while also being scalable and profitable,” Hurst says. “For us, right now, that use case is moving e-commerce totes.” Totes are standardized containers that warehouses use to store and transport items. As items enter or leave the warehouse, empty totes need to be continuously moved from place to place. It’s a vital job, and even in highly automated warehouses, much of that job is done by humans.

Agility says that in the United States, there are currently several million people working at tote-handling tasks, and logistics companies are having trouble keeping positions filled, because in some markets there are simply not enough workers available. Furthermore, the work tends to be dull, repetitive, and stressful on the body. “The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs,” says Hurst, and Agility argues that these people would be much better off doing work that’s more suited to their strengths. “What we’re going to have is a shifting of the human workforce into a more supervisory role,” explains Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “We’re trying to build something that works with people,” Hurst adds. “We want humans for their judgment, creativity, and decision-making, using our robots as tools to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.”

For Digit to be an effective warehouse tool, it has to be capable, reliable, safe, and financially sustainable for both Agility and its customers. Agility is confident that all of this is possible, citing Digit’s potential relative to the cost and performance of human workers. “What we’re encouraging people to think about,” says Shelton, “is how much they could be saving per hour by being able to allocate their human capital elsewhere in the building.” Shelton estimates that a typical large logistics company spends at least US $30 per employee-hour for labor, including benefits and overhead. The employee, of course, receives much less than that.

Agility is not yet ready to provide pricing information for Digit, but we’re told that it will cost less than $250,000 per unit. Even at that price, if Digit is able to achieve Agility’s goal of minimum 20,000 working hours (five years of two shifts of work per day), that brings the hourly rate of the robot to $12.50. A service contract would likely add a few dollars per hour to that. “You compare that against human labor doing the same task,” Shelton says, “and as long as it’s apples to apples in terms of the rate that the robot is working versus the rate that the human is working, you can decide whether it makes more sense to have the person or the robot.”

Agility’s robot won’t be able to match the general capability of a human, but that’s not the company’s goal. “Digit won’t be doing everything that a person can do,” says Hurst. “It’ll just be doing that one process-automated task,” like moving empty totes. In these tasks, Digit is able to keep up with (and in fact slightly exceed) the speed of the average human worker, when you consider that the robot doesn’t have to accommodate the needs of a frail human body.

Amazon’s experiments with warehouse robots

The first company to put Digit to the test is Amazon. In 2022, Amazon invested in Agility as part of its Industrial Innovation Fund, and late last year Amazon started testing Digit at its robotics research and development site near Seattle, Wash. Digit will not be lonely at Amazon—the company currently has more than 750,000 robots deployed across its warehouses, including legacy systems that operate in closed-off areas as well as more modern robots that have the necessary autonomy to work more collaboratively with people. These newer robots include autonomous mobile robotic bases like Proteus, which can move carts around warehouses, as well as stationary robot arms like Sparrow and Cardinal, which can handle inventory or customer orders in structured environments. But a robot with legs will be something new.

“What’s interesting about Digit is because of its bipedal nature, it can fit in spaces a little bit differently,” says Emily Vetterick, director of engineering at Amazon Global Robotics, who is overseeing Digit’s testing. “We’re excited to be at this point with Digit where we can start testing it, because we’re going to learn where the technology makes sense.”

Where two legs make sense has been an ongoing question in robotics for decades. Obviously, in a world designed primarily for humans, a robot with a humanoid form factor would be ideal. But balancing dynamically on two legs is still difficult for robots, especially when those robots are carrying heavy objects and are expected to work at a human pace for tens of thousands of hours. When is it worthwhile to use a bipedal robot instead of something simpler?

“The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs.”—Jonathan Hurst, Agility Robotics

“The use case for Digit that I’m really excited about is empty tote recycling,” Vetterick says. “We already automate this task in a lot of our warehouses with a conveyor, a very traditional automation solution, and we wouldn’t want a robot in a place where a conveyor works. But a conveyor has a specific footprint, and it’s conducive to certain types of spaces. When we start to get away from those spaces, that’s where robots start to have a functional need to exist.”

The need for a robot doesn’t always translate into the need for a robot with legs, however, and a company like Amazon has the resources to build its warehouses to support whatever form of robotics or automation it needs. Its newer warehouses are indeed built that way, with flat floors, wide aisles, and other environmental considerations that are particularly friendly to robots with wheels.

“The building types that we’re thinking about [for Digit] aren’t our new-generation buildings. They’re older-generation buildings, where we can’t put in traditional automation solutions because there just isn’t the space for them,” says Vetterick. She describes the organized chaos of some of these older buildings as including narrower aisles with roof supports in the middle of them, and areas where pallets, cardboard, electrical cord covers, and ergonomics mats create uneven floors. “Our buildings are easy for people to navigate,” Vetterick continues. “But even small obstructions become barriers that a wheeled robot might struggle with, and where a walking robot might not.” Fundamentally, that’s the advantage bipedal robots offer relative to other form factors: They can quickly and easily fit into spaces and workflows designed for humans. Or at least, that’s the goal.

Vetterick emphasizes that the Seattle R&D site deployment is only a very small initial test of Digit’s capabilities. Having the robot move totes from a shelf to a conveyor across a flat, empty floor is not reflective of the use case that Amazon ultimately would like to explore. Amazon is not even sure that Digit will turn out to be the best tool for this particular job, and for a company so focused on efficiency, only the best solution to a specific problem will find a permanent home as part of its workflow. “Amazon isn’t interested in a general-purpose robot,” Vetterick explains. “We are always focused on what problem we’re trying to solve. I wouldn’t want to suggest that Digit is the only way to solve this type of problem. It’s one potential way that we’re interested in experimenting with.”

The idea of a general-purpose humanoid robot that can assist people with whatever tasks they may need is certainly appealing, but as Amazon makes clear, the first step for companies like Agility is to find enough value performing a single task (or perhaps a few different tasks) to achieve sustainable growth. Agility believes that Digit will be able to scale its business by solving Amazon’s empty tote-recycling problem, and the company is confident enough that it’s preparing to open a factory in Salem, Ore. At peak production the plant will eventually be capable of manufacturing 10,000 Digit robots per year.

A menagerie of humanoids

Agility is not alone in its goal to commercially deploy bipedal robots in 2024. At least seven other companies are also working toward this goal, with hundreds of millions of dollars of funding backing them. 1X, Apptronik, Figure, Sanctuary, Tesla, and Unitree all have commercial humanoid robot prototypes.

Despite an influx of money and talent into commercial humanoid robot development over the past two years, there have been no recent fundamental technological breakthroughs that will substantially aid these robots’ development. Sensors and computers are capable enough, but actuators remain complex and expensive, and batteries struggle to power bipedal robots for the length of a work shift.

There are other challenges as well, including creating a robot that’s manufacturable with a resilient supply chain and developing the service infrastructure to support a commercial deployment at scale. The biggest challenge by far is software. It’s not enough to simply build a robot that can do a job—that robot has to do the job with the kind of safety, reliability, and efficiency that will make it desirable as more than an experiment.

There’s no question that Agility Robotics and the other companies developing commercial humanoids have impressive technology, a compelling narrative, and an enormous amount of potential. Whether that potential will translate into humanoid robots in the workplace now rests with companies like Amazon, who seem cautiously optimistic. It would be a fundamental shift in how repetitive labor is done. And now, all the robots have to do is deliver.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue as “Year of the Humanoid.”



Ten years ago, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trial event near Miami, I watched the most advanced humanoid robots ever built struggle their way through a scenario inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A team of experienced engineers controlled each robot, and overhead safety tethers kept them from falling over. The robots had to demonstrate mobility, sensing, and manipulation—which, with painful slowness, they did.

These robots were clearly research projects, but DARPA has a history of catalyzing technology with a long-term view. The DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges for autonomous vehicles, in 2005 and 2007, formed the foundation for today’s autonomous taxis. So, after DRC ended in 2015 with several of the robots successfully completing the entire final scenario, the obvious question was: When would humanoid robots make the transition from research project to a commercial product?

This article is part of our special report Top Tech 2024.

The answer seems to be 2024, when a handful of well-funded companies will be deploying their robots in commercial pilot projects to figure out whether humanoids are really ready to get to work.

One of the robots that made an appearance at the DRC Finals in 2015 was called ATRIAS, developed by Jonathan Hurst at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory. In 2015, Hurst cofounded Agility Robotics to turn ATRIAS into a human-centric, multipurpose, and practical robot called Digit. Approximately the same size as a human, Digit stands 1.75 meters tall (about 5 feet, 8 inches), weighs 65 kilograms (about 140 pounds), and can lift 16 kg (about 35 pounds). Agility is now preparing to produce a commercial version of Digit at massive scale, and the company sees its first opportunity in the logistics industry, where it will start doing some of the jobs where humans are essentially acting like robots already.

Are humanoid robots useful?

“We spent a long time working with potential customers to find a use case where our technology can provide real value, while also being scalable and profitable,” Hurst says. “For us, right now, that use case is moving e-commerce totes.” Totes are standardized containers that warehouses use to store and transport items. As items enter or leave the warehouse, empty totes need to be continuously moved from place to place. It’s a vital job, and even in highly automated warehouses, much of that job is done by humans.

Agility says that in the United States, there are currently several million people working at tote-handling tasks, and logistics companies are having trouble keeping positions filled, because in some markets there are simply not enough workers available. Furthermore, the work tends to be dull, repetitive, and stressful on the body. “The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs,” says Hurst, and Agility argues that these people would be much better off doing work that’s more suited to their strengths. “What we’re going to have is a shifting of the human workforce into a more supervisory role,” explains Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ CEO. “We’re trying to build something that works with people,” Hurst adds. “We want humans for their judgment, creativity, and decision-making, using our robots as tools to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.”

For Digit to be an effective warehouse tool, it has to be capable, reliable, safe, and financially sustainable for both Agility and its customers. Agility is confident that all of this is possible, citing Digit’s potential relative to the cost and performance of human workers. “What we’re encouraging people to think about,” says Shelton, “is how much they could be saving per hour by being able to allocate their human capital elsewhere in the building.” Shelton estimates that a typical large logistics company spends at least US $30 per employee-hour for labor, including benefits and overhead. The employee, of course, receives much less than that.

Agility is not yet ready to provide pricing information for Digit, but we’re told that it will cost less than $250,000 per unit. Even at that price, if Digit is able to achieve Agility’s goal of minimum 20,000 working hours (five years of two shifts of work per day), that brings the hourly rate of the robot to $12.50. A service contract would likely add a few dollars per hour to that. “You compare that against human labor doing the same task,” Shelton says, “and as long as it’s apples to apples in terms of the rate that the robot is working versus the rate that the human is working, you can decide whether it makes more sense to have the person or the robot.”

Agility’s robot won’t be able to match the general capability of a human, but that’s not the company’s goal. “Digit won’t be doing everything that a person can do,” says Hurst. “It’ll just be doing that one process-automated task,” like moving empty totes. In these tasks, Digit is able to keep up with (and in fact slightly exceed) the speed of the average human worker, when you consider that the robot doesn’t have to accommodate the needs of a frail human body.

Amazon’s experiments with warehouse robots

The first company to put Digit to the test is Amazon. In 2022, Amazon invested in Agility as part of its Industrial Innovation Fund, and late last year Amazon started testing Digit at its robotics research and development site near Seattle, Wash. Digit will not be lonely at Amazon—the company currently has more than 750,000 robots deployed across its warehouses, including legacy systems that operate in closed-off areas as well as more modern robots that have the necessary autonomy to work more collaboratively with people. These newer robots include autonomous mobile robotic bases like Proteus, which can move carts around warehouses, as well as stationary robot arms like Sparrow and Cardinal, which can handle inventory or customer orders in structured environments. But a robot with legs will be something new.

“What’s interesting about Digit is because of its bipedal nature, it can fit in spaces a little bit differently,” says Emily Vetterick, director of engineering at Amazon Global Robotics, who is overseeing Digit’s testing. “We’re excited to be at this point with Digit where we can start testing it, because we’re going to learn where the technology makes sense.”

Where two legs make sense has been an ongoing question in robotics for decades. Obviously, in a world designed primarily for humans, a robot with a humanoid form factor would be ideal. But balancing dynamically on two legs is still difficult for robots, especially when those robots are carrying heavy objects and are expected to work at a human pace for tens of thousands of hours. When is it worthwhile to use a bipedal robot instead of something simpler?

“The people doing these jobs are basically doing robotic jobs.”—Jonathan Hurst, Agility Robotics

“The use case for Digit that I’m really excited about is empty tote recycling,” Vetterick says. “We already automate this task in a lot of our warehouses with a conveyor, a very traditional automation solution, and we wouldn’t want a robot in a place where a conveyor works. But a conveyor has a specific footprint, and it’s conducive to certain types of spaces. When we start to get away from those spaces, that’s where robots start to have a functional need to exist.”

The need for a robot doesn’t always translate into the need for a robot with legs, however, and a company like Amazon has the resources to build its warehouses to support whatever form of robotics or automation it needs. Its newer warehouses are indeed built that way, with flat floors, wide aisles, and other environmental considerations that are particularly friendly to robots with wheels.

“The building types that we’re thinking about [for Digit] aren’t our new-generation buildings. They’re older-generation buildings, where we can’t put in traditional automation solutions because there just isn’t the space for them,” says Vetterick. She describes the organized chaos of some of these older buildings as including narrower aisles with roof supports in the middle of them, and areas where pallets, cardboard, electrical cord covers, and ergonomics mats create uneven floors. “Our buildings are easy for people to navigate,” Vetterick continues. “But even small obstructions become barriers that a wheeled robot might struggle with, and where a walking robot might not.” Fundamentally, that’s the advantage bipedal robots offer relative to other form factors: They can quickly and easily fit into spaces and workflows designed for humans. Or at least, that’s the goal.

Vetterick emphasizes that the Seattle R&D site deployment is only a very small initial test of Digit’s capabilities. Having the robot move totes from a shelf to a conveyor across a flat, empty floor is not reflective of the use case that Amazon ultimately would like to explore. Amazon is not even sure that Digit will turn out to be the best tool for this particular job, and for a company so focused on efficiency, only the best solution to a specific problem will find a permanent home as part of its workflow. “Amazon isn’t interested in a general-purpose robot,” Vetterick explains. “We are always focused on what problem we’re trying to solve. I wouldn’t want to suggest that Digit is the only way to solve this type of problem. It’s one potential way that we’re interested in experimenting with.”

The idea of a general-purpose humanoid robot that can assist people with whatever tasks they may need is certainly appealing, but as Amazon makes clear, the first step for companies like Agility is to find enough value performing a single task (or perhaps a few different tasks) to achieve sustainable growth. Agility believes that Digit will be able to scale its business by solving Amazon’s empty tote-recycling problem, and the company is confident enough that it’s preparing to open a factory in Salem, Ore. At peak production the plant will eventually be capable of manufacturing 10,000 Digit robots per year.

A menagerie of humanoids

Agility is not alone in its goal to commercially deploy bipedal robots in 2024. At least seven other companies are also working toward this goal, with hundreds of millions of dollars of funding backing them. 1X, Apptronik, Figure, Sanctuary, Tesla, and Unitree all have commercial humanoid robot prototypes.

Despite an influx of money and talent into commercial humanoid robot development over the past two years, there have been no recent fundamental technological breakthroughs that will substantially aid these robots’ development. Sensors and computers are capable enough, but actuators remain complex and expensive, and batteries struggle to power bipedal robots for the length of a work shift.

There are other challenges as well, including creating a robot that’s manufacturable with a resilient supply chain and developing the service infrastructure to support a commercial deployment at scale. The biggest challenge by far is software. It’s not enough to simply build a robot that can do a job—that robot has to do the job with the kind of safety, reliability, and efficiency that will make it desirable as more than an experiment.

There’s no question that Agility Robotics and the other companies developing commercial humanoids have impressive technology, a compelling narrative, and an enormous amount of potential. Whether that potential will translate into humanoid robots in the workplace now rests with companies like Amazon, who seem cautiously optimistic. It would be a fundamental shift in how repetitive labor is done. And now, all the robots have to do is deliver.

This article appears in the January 2024 print issue as “Year of the Humanoid.”



Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

Wishing you and your loved ones merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year from everyone at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich!

[ ASL ]

Merry Christmas and sustainable 2024 from VUB-imec Brubotics & Fysc!

[ BruBotics ]

Thanks, Bram!

Embark on MOMO (Mobile Object Manipulation Operator)’s thrilling quest to ignite joy and excitement! Watch as MOMO skillfully places the tree topper, ensuring that every KIMLAB member’s holiday season is filled with happiness and brightness. Happy Holidays!

[ KIMLAB ]

Merry Christmas from AgileX Robotics and our little wheeled bipedal robot, T-Rex! As we step into 2024, may the joy of the season accompany you throughout the year. Here’s to a festive holiday filled with warmth, laughter, and innovative adventures!

[ AgileX Robotics ]

To celebrate this amazing year, we’d like to share a special holiday video showcasing our most requested demo! We hope it brings you a smile as bright as the lights of the season.

[ Flexiv ]

The Robotnik team is still working to make even smarter, more autonomous and more efficient mobile robotics solutions available to you in 2024. Merry Christmas!

[ Robotnik ]

Season’s Greetings from ABB Robotics!

[ ABB ]

If you were at ICRA you got a sneak peak at this, but here’s a lovely Spot tango from the AI Institute.

[ The Institute ]

CL-1 is one of the few humanoid robots around the world that achieves dynamic stair climbing based on real-time terrain perception, mainly thanks to LimX Dynamics’ advanced motion control and AI algorithms, along with proprietary high-performing actuators and hardware system.

[ LimX Dynamics ]

We wrote about Parallel Systems a couple years ago, and here’s a brief update.

[ Parallel Systems ]

After 1,000 Martian days of exploration, NASA’s Perseverance rover is studying rocks that show several eras in the history of a river delta billions of years old. Scientists are investigating this region of Mars, known as Jezero Crater, to see if they can find evidence of ancient life recorded in the rocks. Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley provides a guided tour of a richly detailed panorama of the rover’s location in November 2023, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument.

[ NASA ]

It’s been many, many years since we’ve seen a new steampunk robot from I-Wei Huang, but it was worth the wait!

[ CrabFu ]

Ok apparently this is a loop of Digit standing in front of a fireplace for 10 hours, rather than a very impressive demonstration of battery life.

[ Agility ]



Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

Wishing you and your loved ones merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year from everyone at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zürich!

[ ASL ]

Merry Christmas and sustainable 2024 from VUB-imec Brubotics & Fysc!

[ BruBotics ]

Thanks, Bram!

Embark on MOMO (Mobile Object Manipulation Operator)’s thrilling quest to ignite joy and excitement! Watch as MOMO skillfully places the tree topper, ensuring that every KIMLAB member’s holiday season is filled with happiness and brightness. Happy Holidays!

[ KIMLAB ]

Merry Christmas from AgileX Robotics and our little wheeled bipedal robot, T-Rex! As we step into 2024, may the joy of the season accompany you throughout the year. Here’s to a festive holiday filled with warmth, laughter, and innovative adventures!

[ AgileX Robotics ]

To celebrate this amazing year, we’d like to share a special holiday video showcasing our most requested demo! We hope it brings you a smile as bright as the lights of the season.

[ Flexiv ]

The Robotnik team is still working to make even smarter, more autonomous and more efficient mobile robotics solutions available to you in 2024. Merry Christmas!

[ Robotnik ]

Season’s Greetings from ABB Robotics!

[ ABB ]

If you were at ICRA you got a sneak peak at this, but here’s a lovely Spot tango from the AI Institute.

[ The Institute ]

CL-1 is one of the few humanoid robots around the world that achieves dynamic stair climbing based on real-time terrain perception, mainly thanks to LimX Dynamics’ advanced motion control and AI algorithms, along with proprietary high-performing actuators and hardware system.

[ LimX Dynamics ]

We wrote about Parallel Systems a couple years ago, and here’s a brief update.

[ Parallel Systems ]

After 1,000 Martian days of exploration, NASA’s Perseverance rover is studying rocks that show several eras in the history of a river delta billions of years old. Scientists are investigating this region of Mars, known as Jezero Crater, to see if they can find evidence of ancient life recorded in the rocks. Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley provides a guided tour of a richly detailed panorama of the rover’s location in November 2023, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument.

[ NASA ]

It’s been many, many years since we’ve seen a new steampunk robot from I-Wei Huang, but it was worth the wait!

[ CrabFu ]

Ok apparently this is a loop of Digit standing in front of a fireplace for 10 hours, rather than a very impressive demonstration of battery life.

[ Agility ]



2023 was the best year ever for robotics. I say this every year, but every year it’s true, because the robotics field seems to be always poised on the edge of changing absolutely everything. Is 2024 going to be even better? Will it be the year where humanoids, or AI, or something else makes our lives amazing? Maybe! Who knows! But either way, it’ll be exciting, and we’ll be here as it happens.

As we look forward to 2024, here’s a look back at some of our most popular stories of 2023. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Roombas at the End of the World

My favorite story to report and write in 2023 was this tale of the bizarre existence of the Roombas that live and work at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. A single picture that I spotted while casually browsing through the blog of a South Pole infrastructure engineer took me down a crazy rabbit hole of Antarctic hijinks, where a small number of humans relied on some robot vacuums to help keep themselves sane in the most isolated place on Earth.


This Robot Could Be the Key to Empowering People With Disabilities

This story about Henry and Jane Evans, Willow Garage, and Hello Robot beautifully tied together something like a decade and a half of my history as a robotics journalist. I got to know the folks at Willow early on in my career, and saw the PR2 doing some amazing work, including with Henry and Jane. But the PR2 was never going to be a practical robot for anyone, and it took the talent and passion of Hello Robot to design the hardware and software to make PR2’s promises into something real-world useful.


What Flight 50 Means for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is currently looking forward to its 70th flight, which is astonishing for a technology demo that was only really expected to fly five times. Arguably, this little helicopter is one of the most extreme autonomous systems that humans have ever built. I’ve written a bunch about Ginny over the last few years and talked to several different members of her team. But Flight 50 was a special milestone, and in this interview, Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos talks about why.


It’s Totally Fine for Humanoid Robots to Fall Down

We’re going to be seeing a lot more robots walking around over the next year, and that also means we’re going to be seeing a lot more robots failing to walk around in one way or another. Videos of robots falling tend to go crazy on social media, but most of the people who see them won’t have any idea about the underlying context. In this article, two of the companies with the most experience building humanoids (Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics) explain why robots falling down is actually not a big deal at all.


Watch This Giant Chopstick Robot Handle Boxes With Ease

It’s not often that a robot is able to combine a truly novel design with an immediately practical commercial application, but Dextrous Robotics was able to do it with their giant chopstick box manipulator, and our readers certainly appreciated it. Boxes are a compelling near-term application for robots, but the go-to manipulation technique that we see over and over again is suction. Dextrous’ approach is totally unique, and it seems like a gimmick—until you see it in action.


Superhuman Speed: How Autonomous Drones Beat the Best Human Racers

Humans can do some pretty incredible things, and watching a human demonstrating some skill that they are the actual best in the world at is fascinating—especially if they’re at risk of losing that top spot to a robot. This race between world champion drone racers and autonomous drones from ETH Zurich took place in 2022, but I had to wait for the underlying research to be published before I was allowed to tell the whole story.


How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot

It’s refreshing to write about Disney’s robots, because somewhat uniquely, they’re designed for the primary purpose of bringing humans joy. Disney goes about this methodically, though, and we’re always excited to be able to share the research underlying everything that they do. These are some of my favorite stories to tell, where there’s a super cool robot that just gets cooler when the people behind it explain how it does what it does.


Stowing Is a “Beautiful Problem” That Amazon Is Solving With Robots

Robotics is full of problems that are hard, and one of those problems is stowing—the process of packing items into bins in a warehouse. Stowing is the opposite of picking, which is something that warehouse robots are getting pretty good at, but stowing is also much more difficult. “For me, it’s hard, but it’s not too hard,” Amazon senior manager of applied sciences Aaron Parness told us for this article. “It’s on the cutting edge of what’s feasible for robots, and it’s crazy fun to work on.”


Your Robotic Avatar Is Almost Ready

As much as we love robots, humans are still much, much better at a lot of stuff. One thing that humans are particularly bad at, though, is being physically present in far away places. The Avatar XPrize competition combined human brains with robot embodiments, and the results were honestly much better than expected. With the right hardware and the right interface, the competition showed that humans and robots can make a fantastic team.


All of the Humanoid Robots

And finally, our top robotics coverage area for 2023 was humanoid robots. Or, more specifically, humanoid robots that are (supposedly) poised to enter the labor force. The last time we had this much humanoid robot coverage was probably in 2015 surrounding the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, and it’s not like there’s been a gradual increase or anything—humanoids just went absolutely bonkers in 2023, with something like a dozen companies developing human-scale bipedal robots with near-term commercial aspirations.



2023 was the best year ever for robotics. I say this every year, but every year it’s true, because the robotics field seems to be always poised on the edge of changing absolutely everything. Is 2024 going to be even better? Will it be the year where humanoids, or AI, or something else makes our lives amazing? Maybe! Who knows! But either way, it’ll be exciting, and we’ll be here as it happens.

As we look forward to 2024, here’s a look back at some of our most popular stories of 2023. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Roombas at the End of the World

My favorite story to report and write in 2023 was this tale of the bizarre existence of the Roombas that live and work at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. A single picture that I spotted while casually browsing through the blog of a South Pole infrastructure engineer took me down a crazy rabbit hole of Antarctic hijinks, where a small number of humans relied on some robot vacuums to help keep themselves sane in the most isolated place on Earth.


This Robot Could Be the Key to Empowering People With Disabilities

This story about Henry and Jane Evans, Willow Garage, and Hello Robot beautifully tied together something like a decade and a half of my history as a robotics journalist. I got to know the folks at Willow early on in my career, and saw the PR2 doing some amazing work, including with Henry and Jane. But the PR2 was never going to be a practical robot for anyone, and it took the talent and passion of Hello Robot to design the hardware and software to make PR2’s promises into something real-world useful.


What Flight 50 Means for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is currently looking forward to its 70th flight, which is astonishing for a technology demo that was only really expected to fly five times. Arguably, this little helicopter is one of the most extreme autonomous systems that humans have ever built. I’ve written a bunch about Ginny over the last few years and talked to several different members of her team. But Flight 50 was a special milestone, and in this interview, Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos talks about why.


It’s Totally Fine for Humanoid Robots to Fall Down

We’re going to be seeing a lot more robots walking around over the next year, and that also means we’re going to be seeing a lot more robots failing to walk around in one way or another. Videos of robots falling tend to go crazy on social media, but most of the people who see them won’t have any idea about the underlying context. In this article, two of the companies with the most experience building humanoids (Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics) explain why robots falling down is actually not a big deal at all.


Watch This Giant Chopstick Robot Handle Boxes With Ease

It’s not often that a robot is able to combine a truly novel design with an immediately practical commercial application, but Dextrous Robotics was able to do it with their giant chopstick box manipulator, and our readers certainly appreciated it. Boxes are a compelling near-term application for robots, but the go-to manipulation technique that we see over and over again is suction. Dextrous’ approach is totally unique, and it seems like a gimmick—until you see it in action.


Superhuman Speed: How Autonomous Drones Beat the Best Human Racers

Humans can do some pretty incredible things, and watching a human demonstrating some skill that they are the actual best in the world at is fascinating—especially if they’re at risk of losing that top spot to a robot. This race between world champion drone racers and autonomous drones from ETH Zurich took place in 2022, but I had to wait for the underlying research to be published before I was allowed to tell the whole story.


How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot

It’s refreshing to write about Disney’s robots, because somewhat uniquely, they’re designed for the primary purpose of bringing humans joy. Disney goes about this methodically, though, and we’re always excited to be able to share the research underlying everything that they do. These are some of my favorite stories to tell, where there’s a super cool robot that just gets cooler when the people behind it explain how it does what it does.


Stowing Is a “Beautiful Problem” That Amazon Is Solving With Robots

Robotics is full of problems that are hard, and one of those problems is stowing—the process of packing items into bins in a warehouse. Stowing is the opposite of picking, which is something that warehouse robots are getting pretty good at, but stowing is also much more difficult. “For me, it’s hard, but it’s not too hard,” Amazon senior manager of applied sciences Aaron Parness told us for this article. “It’s on the cutting edge of what’s feasible for robots, and it’s crazy fun to work on.”


Your Robotic Avatar Is Almost Ready

As much as we love robots, humans are still much, much better at a lot of stuff. One thing that humans are particularly bad at, though, is being physically present in far away places. The Avatar XPrize competition combined human brains with robot embodiments, and the results were honestly much better than expected. With the right hardware and the right interface, the competition showed that humans and robots can make a fantastic team.


All of the Humanoid Robots

And finally, our top robotics coverage area for 2023 was humanoid robots. Or, more specifically, humanoid robots that are (supposedly) poised to enter the labor force. The last time we had this much humanoid robot coverage was probably in 2015 surrounding the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, and it’s not like there’s been a gradual increase or anything—humanoids just went absolutely bonkers in 2023, with something like a dozen companies developing human-scale bipedal robots with near-term commercial aspirations.



Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

“Sport ist Mord,” as Germans would say. Santa was very ambitious to get fit for Christmas. Unfortunately, he had a minor accident while hiking on Karlsruhe’s Mount Klotz, so Christmas might be cancelled this year. Will our team of robotic reindeer, medics, and physiotherapists find a solution for Santa? We hope all will get their Christmas presents on time! The FZI wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[ FZI ]

Thanks, Arne!

This holiday season, Santa’s on a mission! Join the festive fun as our beloved Santa teams up with his trusty robot sidekick to spread cheer and put a stop to any researchers who might be up to no good with innocent robots from the Robotic Systems Lab. Let’s find out if there are still some kind-hearted researchers out there!

[ RSL ]

Why do the baubles disappear from the Christmas tree in the University? And what role do our Naos play in this? Let yourselves be surprised and get into the spirit of a Merry Christmas! Humanoids Bonn wishes everyone a beautiful Christmastime!

[ Humanoids Bonn ]

Happy Holidays from the PAL Robotics team. The beginning of 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of our company, and we are excited for all the things to come.

[ PAL Robotics ]

Thanks, Rugile!

As we bid farewell to this year and welcome the prospects of 2024, United Robtics Group is delighted to share our season’s greetings with you through this special video. In this time of festivity and hope, we extend our warmest wishes for a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year to everyone around the world.

[ United Robotics Group ]

Thanks, Nicolas!

Even devices from the laboratories of electrical engineers, roboticists and computer scientists can be turned into musical instruments. In their Christmas video, researchers from CTU’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering demonstrate this in an unconventional experiment by “tuning” their technology to the Christmas tune in the English carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

[ CTU ]

Thanks, Jiri!

Season’s greetings from euRobotics!

[ euRobotics ]

In this video, we give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how our KUKA Austria team works hard to bring you the ultimate mulled cider experience. From conception to implementation, the LBR iisy Cobot, which combines the precision of a robot with the passion of a human team, provides support. A process that not only delights the taste buds, but also redefines the boundaries of robotics.

[ Kuka ]

Santa Claus is getting ready to come to town, with a little bit of help from his friends at Flexiv! He made a list, checked it twice, and fingers crossed, you’ve been nice!

[ Flexiv ]

Happy Holidays from Yaskawa!

[ Yaskawa ]

We have created an AI robot named CyberRunner whose task is to learn how to play the popular and widely accessible labyrinth marble game. The labyrinth is a game of physical skill whose goal is to steer a marble from a given start point to the end point. In doing so, the player must prevent the ball from falling into any of the holes that are present on the labyrinth board. CyberRunner applies recent advances in model-based reinforcement learning to the physical world and exploits its ability to make informed decisions about potentially successful behaviors by planning real-world decisions and actions into the future. The learning on the real-world labyrinth is conducted in 6.06 hours, comprising 1.2 million time steps at a control rate of 55 samples per second. The AI robot outperforms the previously fastest recorded time, achieved by an extremely skilled human player, by over 6 percent.

In case you’re wondering (like I was), shortcutting across the maze to skip parts of the track is, in fact, cheating. The system (like most humans) did discover shortcuts and had to be explicitly directed not to take them.

[ CyberRunner ]

Thanks, Markus!

Grain Weevil, one of the more interesting single-purpose robots I’ve ever seen, had a busy 2023.

[ Grain Weevil ]

Working in a greenhouse is both strenuous and time-consuming. The picking robot from ETH spin-off Floating Robotics takes on particularly repetitive tasks, thereby alleviating the strain on human pickers. It is currently undergoing testing at Beerstecher AG in Hinwil.

[ ETHZ ]

The compilation showcases final project demos from the master course ‘Introduction to Soft Robotics,’ offered by SDU Soft Robotics during Autumn 2023 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense Campus. This year’s project theme focused on soft locomotion. Each team was tasked with designing a soft robot capable of navigating a path comprising flat and inclined surfaces, obstacles, and rough terrains.

[ SDU ]

In 2023, we were honored to have numerous clients place their trust in us, deploying our quadruped robot in a variety of settings. We take pride in our commitment to alleviate our clients’ challenges, a mission that has been at the heart of DEEPRobotics since the beginning. We’ve selected a few symbolic cases to share with you, and we hope you find them as fascinating as we do. Enjoy!

[ Deep Robotics ]

Check out precision layout through the “eyes” of the Dusty FieldPrinter. More than just lines on the ground, the FieldPrinter seamlessly syncs the digital model to the jobsite floor with unparalleled accuracy and detail.

[ Dusty Robotics ]

Why do data centers of the future need to be state-of-the-art, and why do we need to apply so many technologies to them? There are engineers tackling this very question with robotics, autonomous driving, and AI technologies. In this video, they explain the reason behind developing the robots and autonomous shuttles of the data center GAK Sejong.

[ Naver Labs ]

Failure is just a necessary stepping stone towards success. Follow Team RoMeLa’s journey with our humanoid robot ARTEMIS! Humanoid Locomotion Competition, IEEE Humanoids Conference 2023.

[ RoMeLa ]

A fascinating history of the KR FAMULUS, the world’s first industrial robot with an electric motor, which went into service in Augsburg half a century ago! Starting with the vision of creating robots that would make work and life easier for people, the foundations were laid for today’s robot revolution. Richard Schwarz, one of the KUKA pioneers, gives a first-hand account of how, driven by passion and the German engineering spirit, they developed the KR Famulus, shaping the technology shift from cumbersome hydraulic robots to innovative, clean electric motor robots.

[ Kuka ]



Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024, ZURICH, SWITZERLANDEurobot Open 2024: 8–11 May 2024, LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, FRANCEICRA 2024: 13–17 May 2024, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

Enjoy today’s videos!

“Sport ist Mord,” as Germans would say. Santa was very ambitious to get fit for Christmas. Unfortunately, he had a minor accident while hiking on Karlsruhe’s Mount Klotz, so Christmas might be cancelled this year. Will our team of robotic reindeer, medics, and physiotherapists find a solution for Santa? We hope all will get their Christmas presents on time! The FZI wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[ FZI ]

Thanks, Arne!

This holiday season, Santa’s on a mission! Join the festive fun as our beloved Santa teams up with his trusty robot sidekick to spread cheer and put a stop to any researchers who might be up to no good with innocent robots from the Robotic Systems Lab. Let’s find out if there are still some kind-hearted researchers out there!

[ RSL ]

Why do the baubles disappear from the Christmas tree in the University? And what role do our Naos play in this? Let yourselves be surprised and get into the spirit of a Merry Christmas! Humanoids Bonn wishes everyone a beautiful Christmastime!

[ Humanoids Bonn ]

Happy Holidays from the PAL Robotics team. The beginning of 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of our company, and we are excited for all the things to come.

[ PAL Robotics ]

Thanks, Rugile!

As we bid farewell to this year and welcome the prospects of 2024, United Robtics Group is delighted to share our season’s greetings with you through this special video. In this time of festivity and hope, we extend our warmest wishes for a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year to everyone around the world.

[ United Robotics Group ]

Thanks, Nicolas!

Even devices from the laboratories of electrical engineers, roboticists and computer scientists can be turned into musical instruments. In their Christmas video, researchers from CTU’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering demonstrate this in an unconventional experiment by “tuning” their technology to the Christmas tune in the English carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

[ CTU ]

Thanks, Jiri!

Season’s greetings from euRobotics!

[ euRobotics ]

In this video, we give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how our KUKA Austria team works hard to bring you the ultimate mulled cider experience. From conception to implementation, the LBR iisy Cobot, which combines the precision of a robot with the passion of a human team, provides support. A process that not only delights the taste buds, but also redefines the boundaries of robotics.

[ Kuka ]

Santa Claus is getting ready to come to town, with a little bit of help from his friends at Flexiv! He made a list, checked it twice, and fingers crossed, you’ve been nice!

[ Flexiv ]

Happy Holidays from Yaskawa!

[ Yaskawa ]

We have created an AI robot named CyberRunner whose task is to learn how to play the popular and widely accessible labyrinth marble game. The labyrinth is a game of physical skill whose goal is to steer a marble from a given start point to the end point. In doing so, the player must prevent the ball from falling into any of the holes that are present on the labyrinth board. CyberRunner applies recent advances in model-based reinforcement learning to the physical world and exploits its ability to make informed decisions about potentially successful behaviors by planning real-world decisions and actions into the future. The learning on the real-world labyrinth is conducted in 6.06 hours, comprising 1.2 million time steps at a control rate of 55 samples per second. The AI robot outperforms the previously fastest recorded time, achieved by an extremely skilled human player, by over 6 percent.

In case you’re wondering (like I was), shortcutting across the maze to skip parts of the track is, in fact, cheating. The system (like most humans) did discover shortcuts and had to be explicitly directed not to take them.

[ CyberRunner ]

Thanks, Markus!

Grain Weevil, one of the more interesting single-purpose robots I’ve ever seen, had a busy 2023.

[ Grain Weevil ]

Working in a greenhouse is both strenuous and time-consuming. The picking robot from ETH spin-off Floating Robotics takes on particularly repetitive tasks, thereby alleviating the strain on human pickers. It is currently undergoing testing at Beerstecher AG in Hinwil.

[ ETHZ ]

The compilation showcases final project demos from the master course ‘Introduction to Soft Robotics,’ offered by SDU Soft Robotics during Autumn 2023 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense Campus. This year’s project theme focused on soft locomotion. Each team was tasked with designing a soft robot capable of navigating a path comprising flat and inclined surfaces, obstacles, and rough terrains.

[ SDU ]

In 2023, we were honored to have numerous clients place their trust in us, deploying our quadruped robot in a variety of settings. We take pride in our commitment to alleviate our clients’ challenges, a mission that has been at the heart of DEEPRobotics since the beginning. We’ve selected a few symbolic cases to share with you, and we hope you find them as fascinating as we do. Enjoy!

[ Deep Robotics ]

Check out precision layout through the “eyes” of the Dusty FieldPrinter. More than just lines on the ground, the FieldPrinter seamlessly syncs the digital model to the jobsite floor with unparalleled accuracy and detail.

[ Dusty Robotics ]

Why do data centers of the future need to be state-of-the-art, and why do we need to apply so many technologies to them? There are engineers tackling this very question with robotics, autonomous driving, and AI technologies. In this video, they explain the reason behind developing the robots and autonomous shuttles of the data center GAK Sejong.

[ Naver Labs ]

Failure is just a necessary stepping stone towards success. Follow Team RoMeLa’s journey with our humanoid robot ARTEMIS! Humanoid Locomotion Competition, IEEE Humanoids Conference 2023.

[ RoMeLa ]

A fascinating history of the KR FAMULUS, the world’s first industrial robot with an electric motor, which went into service in Augsburg half a century ago! Starting with the vision of creating robots that would make work and life easier for people, the foundations were laid for today’s robot revolution. Richard Schwarz, one of the KUKA pioneers, gives a first-hand account of how, driven by passion and the German engineering spirit, they developed the KR Famulus, shaping the technology shift from cumbersome hydraulic robots to innovative, clean electric motor robots.

[ Kuka ]

In a fire outbreak, firefighters are expected to rapidly extinguish fires to stop the spread of damage and prevent secondary disasters. We proposed the concept of a dragon firefighter (DFF), which is a flying-hose-type firefighting robot. We developed a 3.6 m long DFF equipped with two nozzle units and achieved stable flight. However, the system was not yet completed because the root of the robot, which should have been operated remotely, was operated manually. In addition, the system’s reliability was insufficient to successfully repeat the demonstration several times. The development of a robot demonstration system is crucial for the practical application of such a firefighting robot. In this study, we developed a demonstration system for a remotely controllable 4 m flying firehose robot for demonstration at the World Robot Summit 2020 (WRS 2020) opening ceremony in Fukushima as a milestone. This paper focuses on the following issues: 1): installation of the remotely controllable mobile base, 2): redesign of the water channels (the sizes of nozzle outlets) to get enough thrusts to fly with a fire engine, 3): development of nozzle units with a larger movable range (1.5 times larger than the conventional nozzle) in addition to waterproofing technique to improve system reliability, and 4): redesign of a passive damping mechanism to ensure better stability. Thus, a firefighting demonstration was successfully conducted at the opening ceremony of the World Robot Summit 2020 in Fukushima, Japan, and we discuss the lessons learned through the demonstration. We found that the developed DFF system incorporating a mobile base could achieve remote fire extinguishing.

The current paper proposes a hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) method to decompose a complex task into simpler sub-tasks and leverage those to improve the training of an autonomous agent in a simulated environment. For practical reasons (i.e., illustrating purposes, easy implementation, user-friendly interface, and useful functionalities), we employ two Python frameworks called TextWorld and MiniGrid. MiniGrid functions as a 2D simulated representation of the real environment, while TextWorld functions as a high-level abstraction of this simulated environment. Training on this abstraction disentangles manipulation from navigation actions and allows us to design a dense reward function instead of a sparse reward function for the lower-level environment, which, as we show, improves the performance of training. Formal methods are utilized throughout the paper to establish that our algorithm is not prevented from deriving solutions.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) localization methods have emerged as a cost-effective and accurate solution for GNSS-denied environments. There is a significant amount of previous research in terms of resilience of UWB ranging, with non-line-of-sight and multipath detection methods. However, little attention has been paid to resilience against disturbances in relative localization systems involving multiple nodes. This paper presents an approach to detecting range anomalies in UWB ranging measurements from the perspective of multi-robot cooperative localization. We introduce an approach to exploiting redundancy for relative localization in multi-robot systems, where the position of each node is calculated using different subsets of available data. This enables us to effectively identify nodes that present ranging anomalies and eliminate their effect within the cooperative localization scheme. We analyze anomalies created by timing errors in the ranging process, e.g., owing to malfunctioning hardware. However, our method is generic and can be extended to other types of ranging anomalies. Our approach results in a more resilient cooperative localization framework with a negligible impact in terms of the computational workload.

In this paper we present a novel design approach for shaping a teleoperator’s expectations and behaviors when teleoperating a robot. Just as how people may drive a car differently based on their expectations of it (e.g., the brakes may be poor), we assert that teleoperators may likewise operate a robot differently based on expectations of robot capability and robustness. We present 3 novel interaction designs that proactively shape teleoperator perceptions, and the results from formal studies that demonstrate that these techniques do indeed shape operator perceptions, and in some cases, measures of driving behavior such as changes in collisions. Our methods shape operator perceptions of a robot’s speed, weight, or overall safety, designed to encourage them to drive more safely. This approach shows promise as an avenue for improving teleoperator effectiveness without requiring changes to a robot, novel sensors, algorithms, or other functionality.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted long-term care (LTC) residents and exacerbated residents’ risks of social isolation and loneliness. The unmet emotional needs of residents in LTC have driven researchers and decision-makers to consider novel technologies to improve care and quality of life for residents. Ageist stereotypes have contributed to the underuse of technologies by the older population. Telepresence robots have been found to be easy to use and do not require older adults to learn how to operate the robot but are remotely controlled by family members. The study aimed to understand the perspectives of multidisciplinary university students, including healthcare students, on using telepresence robots in LTC homes. The study would contribute to the future planning, implementation, and design of robotics in LTC.

Methods: Between December 2021 and March 2022, our team conducted interviews with 15 multidisciplinary students. We employed a qualitative descriptive (QD) approach with semi-structured interview methods. Our study aimed to understand the perspectives of university students (under the age of 40) on using telepresence robots in LTC homes. Participants were invited to spend 15 min remotely driving a telepresence robot prior to the interview. A diverse team of young researchers and older adults (patient and family partners) conducted reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: Six themes were identified: Robots as supplementary interaction; privacy, confidentiality, and physical harm; increased mental well-being and opportunities for interactions; intergenerational perspectives add values; staffing capacity; environmental and cultural factors influence acceptance.

Conclusion: We identified a diverse range of perspectives regarding risk and privacy among participants regarding the implementation of telepresence robots in long-term care. Participants shared the importance of the voice of the resident and their own for creating more equitable decision-making and advocating for including this type of technology within LTC. Our study would contribute to the future planning, implementation, and design of robotics in LTC.

As the market for commercial children’s social robots grows, manufacturers’ claims around the functionality and outcomes of their products have the potential to impact consumer purchasing decisions. In this work, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the content and scientific support for claims about social robots for children made on manufacturers’ websites. A sample of 21 robot websites was obtained using location-independent keyword searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing from April to July 2021. All claims made on manufacturers’ websites about robot functionality and outcomes (n = 653 statements) were subjected to content analysis, and the quality of evidence for these claims was evaluated using a validated quality evaluation tool. Social robot manufacturers made clear claims about the impact of their products in the areas of interaction, education, emotion, and adaptivity. Claims tended to focus on the child rather than the parent or other users. Robots were primarily described in the context of interactive, educational, and emotional uses, rather than being for health, safety, or security. The quality of the information used to support these claims was highly variable and at times potentially misleading. Many websites used language implying that robots had interior thoughts and experiences; for example, that they would love the child. This study provides insight into the content and quality of parent-facing manufacturer claims regarding commercial social robots for children.

Magnetic microrobots are ideal for medical applications owing to their deep tissue penetration, precise control, and flexible movement. After decades of development, various magnetic microrobots have been used to achieve medical functions such as targeted delivery, cell manipulation, and minimally invasive surgery. This review introduces the research status and latest progress in the design and control systems of magnetic medical microrobots from a system integration perspective and summarizes the advantages and limitations of the research to provide a reference for developers. Finally, the future development direction of magnetic medical microrobot design and control systems are discussed.

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