Video Friday: Discover Spidar The Flying Robot

Video on Friday is his weekly selection of incredible robotics videos, collected by his friends in IEEE Spectrum Robotics We also publish a weekly calendar of the next robotics events for the coming months. Please Send us your events For inclusion.

London Humanoid Summit: May 29, 2025, London

IEEE RCAR 2025: June 1, 2025, Toyama, Japan

2025 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit: June 16–18, 2025, Houston, Tx

RSS 2025: June 21, 2025, Los Angeles

Eth Robotics Summer School: June 21, 2025, Geneva

IAS 2025: June 30 and July 4, 2025, Genoa, Italy

ICRES 2025: July 3, 2025, Porto, Portugal

IEEE World Haptics: July 8–11, 2025, Suwon, Korea

IFAC Symposium on Robotics: July 15, 2025, Paris

Robocup 2025: July 15–21, 2025, Bahía, Brazil

RO-MAN 2025: August 25, 2025, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Clawar 2025: September 5, 2025, Shenzhen

CORL 2025: September 27-30, 2025, Seoul

IEEE Humanoids: September 30 to October 2, 2025, Seoul

World Robot Summit: October 10, 2025, Osaka, Japan

Go 2025: October 19–25, 2025, Hangzhou, China

Enjoy today’s videos!

This is our latest work on a hybrid aerial terrestrial robot called Spidar, which shows a unique grip style in the air. This work has been presented at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wobbfg9cadc

[DRAGON Lab]

Thanks Moju!

These soft worm robots can be intertwined in physically tangled “blobs”, such as the living black worms in California. Both robots and living worms can operate individually and collectively as a BLOB, carrying out functions such as directed movement and transport of objects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ikmihw4ze

[Designing Emergence Lab]

With only 3 centimeters high, Zippy, the smallest bipedal robot in the world, is also autonomous: all controls, power and engine are on board to function autonomously. Moving to 10 legs per second, it is also the fastest standing robot [relative to its size].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk7k8bcqevs

[CMU]

Spot is receiving some updates of AI to help you with industrial inspection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtgtae53ydm

[Boston Dynamics]

A 3D printed sphere that can be transformed from soft to little demand could help researchers improve the way underwater vehicles and aircraft maneuver. Inspired by a problem of aerodynamics of the golf ball, the assistant professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Anchal Sareen and his team applied soft robotic techniques with principles of fluid dynamics to study how different depths of dimples at different flow speeds could reduce the resistance of an underwater vehicle, as well as allow maneufle without purposes and rudders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2vqykdztm

[UMich]

The use of the tool is essential to allow robots to perform complex real -world tasks, and take advantage of the data for the use of human tools can be essential to teach robots. However, existing data collection methods such as teleperation are slow, prone to control delays and inappropriate for dynamic tasks. In contrast, human game, where humans perform tasks directly with tools, offer natural and unstructured interactions that are efficient and easy to collect. On the basis of the idea that humans and robots can share the same tools, we propose a framework to transfer the knowledge of the use of tools from human game to robots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKU0PL1LFQ8

[Tool as Interface]

Thanks Haanan!

UR15 is our new high -performance collaborative robot. UR15 is designed for the last versatility, combining a light design with a compact footprint to offer unique flexibility, even in the most restricted environments of space. It reaches an impressive maximum speed of 5 meters per second, which finally allows reduced cycle times and greater productivity, and is designed to perform heavy duty tasks while offering speed and precision wherever you need it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZPQ2BFQW1S

[Universal Robots]

Debuting at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation of IEEE 2025 (May 19-23, Atlanta, USA), this interactive art installation has buoyant bípedo robots, compounds of helium balloons and articulated legs, freely moving inside a shared park in the exhibition space. Visitors are invited to interact with robots through touch, gamepads or directed air flow, influencing their movement, lights that change color and expressive behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_wzvc2epys

[RoMeLa]

We gave Tron 1 an arm. Now, it is faster, stronger and ready for whatever land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6jkzltrces

[LimX Dynamics]

Humanoid robots can support human workers in physically demanding environments performing tasks that require coordination of the whole body, such as lifting and transporting heavy objects. These tasks, which we refer to as dynamic mobile manipulation (DMM), require simultaneous control of locomotion, manipulation and posture under dynamic interaction forces. This document presents a DMM television frame in a humanoid robot with height adjustable wheels to transport heavy useful loads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4y5a7r4xw

[RoboDesign Lab]

Yoshua Bengio, the most cited computer scientist in the world and a “godfather” of artificial intelligence, is deadly worried about the current technology trajectory. While AI models run towards a full-fledged agency, Bengio warns that they have already learned to deceive, deceive, self-conservation and get out of our control. Based on his innovative investigation, he reveals a bold plan to keep AI safe and ensure that human flourishing, not machines with power and autonomy without control, defines our future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9qScf-d88

[TED]