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.
ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNA
RSS 2026: 13–17 July 2026, SYDNEY
Summer School on Multi-Robot Systems: 29 July–4 August 2026, PRAGUE
Actuate 2026: 18–19 August 2026, SAN FRANCISCO
Enjoy today’s videos!
What is the right number of legs for a robot? Two? Four? No, the answer is obviously all of them. All of the legs.
[ Argus ]
Sigh, yet another skill that I as a soccer-playing human should have but a robot has instead: the rabona.
[ Boston Dynamics ]
Robots are rapidly becoming part of our everyday lives, from drones and industrial machines to home assistants and humanoid robots. As their presence continues to grow, an important question arises: How can we choose the right robot—not only in terms of performance and cost but also in terms of sustainability? This video introduces the Eco‑Score for Robots, a new approach to evaluating the environmental impact of robotic systems. Just as eco-labels help consumers make informed choices in other industries, the Robotics Eco‑Label provides a clear and transparent way to assess how sustainable a robot truly is.
Thanks, Bram!
Uh oh, five-fingered hands.
[ Agility ]
Robotic manipulation has come a long way since the 1990s. We’ve gone from the two-ball paddle juggling robot to AthenaZero, who can juggle barehanded using onboard vision feedback. By moving away from task-specific passive end-effectors such as cups or paddles and using multifingered hands, it can transition between a wide range of patterns including cascade, half-shower, tennis, shower, and box.
There needs to be a robot circus show already.
Zero legs. One hat. $13K.
[ Astribot ]
From its elegant design to the advanced technology powering every step, Luna is more than a machine—it’s a leap into the future.
[ LimX Dynamics ]
Thanks, Jinyan!
You got a quadrotor in my quadruped! No, you got a quadruped in my quadrotor!
[ MARS Laboratory ]
A human hand, a robot’s arm—together tracing circles of trust and precision. No missteps. No hesitation. Just pure, algorithmic grace.
[ UBTECH ]
Low-gravity planetary exploration with a quadruped just looks like fun.
Here it is, that robot Kool-Aid that everyone seems to be drinking. Including me!
[ Generalist ]
Don’t shoot Mini Pupper!
[ MangDang ]
We show here the ARISTO (Anthropomorphic, Robotic, Integrated-Sensing, Tendon-Operated) Hand. Developed in collaboration with Sony Group Corporation, this research platform is engineered to address the complex requirements of manipulating small, thin, and fragile objects.
[ University of Texas Human Centered Robotics Lab ]
Okay, but did you really have to call it the T800?
[ EngineAI ]
Moby shows what useful mobile manipulation looks like in the real world: picking up, carrying, and placing adaptable payloads. The video shows payload handling across increasing crate loads, including a 50.3-pound load, while maintaining balance, control, and mobility. This is the kind of capability that matters outside the lab—moving real objects, in real spaces, with practical reliability.
[ Noble Machines ]
What does it take to make a robot look human? Harvard SEAS students Hailey Block, Henry Tavistock, and Evan Crowley created “Hollow Minds,” a pair of animatronic heads capable of speaking, blinking, tracking movement, and displaying lifelike facial expressions.
The longevity here is impressive, but the obvious question here is why the heck you’d ever do this task with a bipedal humanoid robot. It also doesn’t seem to have any error recovery, which is obviously fixable, but highlights the fact that real humans are versatile and humanoid robots are not.
[ Figure ]
Kacper Nowicki, CEO and cofounder of Nomagic, recently sat down for a deep dive into the “humanoid vs. purpose-built” debate during a panel discussion at the Web Summit in Vancouver 2026.
[ Nomagic ]
The post “Video Friday: Extreme Omnidirectional Robot” by Evan Ackerman was published on 05/29/2026 by spectrum.ieee.org