EP.60 A HUMAN ALIKE ROBOT WITH ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES
A important acquisition of humanoid company, a new gripper to pick delicate items & much more...
Open-source AI company acquires a humanoid maker 🔥
Hugging Face, the company known for its vast open-source AI model repository, has made its first move into hardware by acquiring Pollen Robotics, a French startup behind the humanoid robot Reachy 2. The acquisition includes around 20 employees and co-founders Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet joining Hugging Face. Financial details were not disclosed.
Pollen’s Reachy 2 robot, priced at $70,000, is designed for academic research and embodied AI testing, with installations at institutions like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. Built with open-source principles, Reachy 2 allows users to modify both its software and physical design. Hugging Face previously collaborated on its open-source components.
This move is part of Hugging Face’s broader push into robotics. In the past year, the company launched the LeRobot code library, introduced an affordable robot arm with The Robot Studio, and became Nvidia’s preferred host for its GR00T N1 robotics AI model. The company emphasizes open-source robotics for safety, transparency, and broader innovation.
Looking ahead, Hugging Face aims to reduce the cost of humanoid robots and eventually open-source the full hardware designs, allowing users to manufacture parts themselves.
Refurbished ABB robots help a motorcycle maker 🏍️
At a motorcycle manufacturing plant in Berlin, ABB IRB 5400 robots have played a crucial role in delivering the flawless finishes that define the brand’s high-quality standards. These robots handle critical processes such as painting body panels, powder coating, and welding. Originally commissioned in 2003 and later replaced with refurbished units between 2014 and 2016, they have since operated almost continuously in a demanding three-shift schedule.
After more than eight years of service, the company faced the need to replace the robots once again. Instead of opting for brand-new models that would require updated programming and extended commissioning time, they chose to install identical reconditioned robots. This decision helped avoid unnecessary production downtime while aligning with the manufacturer’s sustainability goals.
Supported by ABB’s annual service contracts, which include the replacement of worn parts and thorough maintenance checks, the reconditioned robots continue to deliver reliable, high-performance operation. This approach ensures long-term efficiency, cost savings, and adherence to the company’s environmental standards—proving that sustainable manufacturing doesn’t have to come at the expense of productivity.
🦾 Feature sponsorship with ABB Robotics
An ingenious gripper for delicate item picking 🍊
Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a novel robotic gripper called GRIP-tape, which uses steel measuring tape for fingers. The material’s unique combination of rigidity and flexibility allows the gripper to gently and precisely grasp fragile items, such as fruit, without damaging them.
Each of GRIP-tape's fingers is formed from two lengths of tape layered together and bent at the tip. Motorized reels at each end spool the tape in and out, enabling the fingers to extend, retract, and manipulate objects in multiple directions. The entire gripper can also tilt and roll on its robotic wrist, offering further dexterity.
Designed for use in delicate applications like agriculture, the system shows promise for picking fruits and vegetables safely. The research highlights a creative approach to robotic design, favoring simple, non-traditional materials that balance softness and strength.
Meme of the week 🤖
A jumping robot to the rescue! 🪂
MIT engineers have developed a tiny, insect-sized robot capable of jumping over tall obstacles and traversing slanted or rough terrain with minimal energy use. Smaller than a human thumb and lighter than a paper clip, the robot uses a spring-loaded leg for jumping and four flapping-wing modules for lift and orientation control.
Designed for tasks in confined or hazardous environments—such as disaster zones—this robot offers a promising alternative to aerial robots, consuming 60 percent less energy while carrying up to ten times more payload. It can leap up to 20 centimeters high and move laterally at 30 centimeters per second, performing on surfaces like ice, grass, and wet glass.
The key to its efficiency lies in an elastic leg that converts vertical motion into kinetic energy, paired with flapping wings that correct orientation mid-air. The robot’s flapping mechanisms use durable soft actuators, and its onboard control system adjusts movement in real time, enabling seamless hops even onto dynamic or tilting surfaces.
In testing, the robot demonstrated the ability to perform flips, land on hovering drones, and maintain performance across different environments. Future plans include outfitting it with onboard sensors and batteries to enable autonomous use in real-world scenarios like search and rescue or structural monitoring.
A service wheeled humanoid for hotels 🏨
Clone Robotics has revealed a new video of Protoclone, a ghostly humanoid robot designed to replicate the full complexity of the human body. Unlike traditional humanoids, Protoclone is built with synthetic equivalents of bones, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, aiming for anatomical realism in both structure and movement.
Developed by the Polish startup Clone Robotics, Protoclone features over 1,000 artificial Myofiber muscles and 500 sensors, enabling more than 200 degrees of freedom. These muscles are engineered to contract and generate force similarly to mammalian muscle tissue, offering both power and speed. The robot's frame includes all 206 human bones, paired with artificial ligaments and tendons for lifelike articulation.
Currently powered pneumatically, future versions will switch to hydraulics to enhance performance. Clone’s goal is to achieve human-like agility and biomechanics by avoiding rigid mechanical actuators and instead using soft, water-powered muscle systems.
