Video Friday: The Metabolism of Robots

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

RO-MAN 2025: 25–29 August 2025, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS

CLAWAR 2025: 5–7 September 2025, SHENZHEN, CHINA

ACTUATE 2025: 23–24 September 2025, SAN FRANCISCO

CoRL 2025: 27–30 September 2025, SEOUL

IEEE Humanoids: 30 September–2 October 2025, SEOUL

World Robot Summit: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN

IROS 2025: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA

Enjoy today’s videos!

Columbia University researchers introduce a process that allows machines to “grow” physically by integrating parts from their surroundings or from other robots, demonstrating a step toward self-sustaining robot ecologies.

[Robot Metabolism] via [Columbia]

We challenged ourselves to see just how far we could push Digit’s ability to stabilize itself in response to a disturbance. Utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology and robust physical intelligence, Digit can adapt to substantial disruptions, all without the use of visual perception.

[Agility Robotics]

We are presenting the Figure 03 (F.03) battery—a significant advancement in our core humanoid robot technology roadmap.

The effort that was put into safety for this battery is impressive. But I would note two things: The battery life is “5 hours of run time at peak performance” without saying what “peak performance” actually means, and 2-kilowatt fast charge still means over an hour to fully charge.

[Figure]

Well this is a nifty idea.

[UBTECH]

PAPRLE is a plug-and-play robotic limb environment for flexible configuration and control of robotic limbs across applications. With PAPRLE, users can use diverse configurations of leader-follower pair for teleoperation. In the video, we show several teleoperation examples supported by PAPRLE.

[PAPRLE]

Thanks, Joohyung!

Always nice to see a robot with a carefully thought-out commercial use case in which it can just do robot stuff like a robot.

[Cohesive Robotics]

Thanks, David!

We are interested in deploying autonomous legged robots in diverse environments, such as industrial facilities and forests. As part of the DigiForest project, we are working on new systems to autonomously build forest inventories with legged platforms, which we have deployed in the UK, Finland, and Switzerland.

[Oxford]

Thanks, Matias!

In this research we introduce a self-healing, biocompatible strain sensor using Galinstan and a Diels-Alder polymer, capable of restoring both mechanical and sensing functions after repeated damage. This highly stretchable and conductive sensor demonstrates strong performance metrics—including 80% mechanical healing efficiency and 105% gauge factor recovery—making it suitable for smart wearable applications.

[Paper]

Thanks, Bram!

The “Amazing Hand” from Pollen Robotics costs less than $250.

[Pollen]

Welcome to our Unboxing Day! After months of waiting, our humanoid robot has finally arrived at Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart.

I used to take stretching classes from a woman who could do this backwards in 5.43 seconds.

[Fraunhofer]

At the Changchun stop of the VOYAGEX Music Festival on July 12, PNDbotics’ full-sized humanoid robot Adam took the stage as a keytar player with the famous Chinese musician Hu Yutong’s band.

[PNDbotics]

Material movement is the invisible infrastructure of hospitals, airports, cities–everyday life. We build robots that support the people doing this essential, often overlooked work. Watch our CEO Brad Porter reflect on what inspired Cobot.

[Cobot]

Yes please.

[ Pollen ]

I think I could get to the point of being okay with this living in my bathroom.

[Paper]

Thanks to its social perception, high expressiveness, and out-of-the-box integration, TIAGo Head offers the ultimate human-robot interaction experience.

[PAL Robotics]

Sneak peek: Our No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) Defiant unmanned surface vessel is designed to operate for up to a year at sea without human intervention. In-water testing is preparing it for an extended at-sea demonstration of reliability and endurance.

Excellent name for any ship.

[DARPA]

At the 22nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR2025), high school student and robotics researcher Ethan Hong was honored as a Special Invited Speaker for the conference banquet and “Robots With Us” panel. In this heartfelt and inspiring talk, Ethan shares the story behind Food Angel—a food delivery robot he designed and built to support people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Motivated by the growing crises of homelessness and food insecurity, Ethan asked a simple but profound question: “Why not use robots to help the unhoused?”