Tele-operation

Less than two years since it was founded, San Francisco-based startup Weave Robotics is accepting pre-orders for its first home robot, which promises to do one thing well: fold your laundry. But it might still need remote human help.

After about a decade in the works, 1X is nearly ready with its Neo humanoid, which is designed to help you with housework and other tasks around the home. It'll ship in 2026, and you can pre-order one in the US right away.

1X has just dropped a video of its new at-home robot helper, the Neo Gamma. It can clean, serve, and act as a voice companion. Never has a humanoid robot looked so huggable. Or in such need of a hug.

Researchers have developed a reinforcement learning-based framework that allows a full-sized humanoid robot to be teleoperated by a human in real-time using only an RGB camera. Which begs the question: Will manual labor soon be performed remotely?

A number of companies are now running remote-control rental car services, in which "teledrivers" guide an empty car out to you by remote control, and then you drive it around yourself. It's a weird halfway step towards fully autonomous robotaxis.

Eugene-based electric mobility company Arcimoto has teamed up with Silicon Valley autonomous driving startup Faction Technology to transform its three-wheeled electric Fun Utility Vehicle into a "driverless" pod for last-mile deliveries.

As folks start to emerge from pandemic lockdown, many are on the lookout for public transport alternatives. A scheme launched in Georgia aims to make it easier to ride an electric scooter by having it roll itself along to a user's pickup point.

Telerobotic systems already allow surgeons in one location to control robotic surgical tools in another, so they can perform operations at a distance. A new proximity-sensing system, however, could make such procedures safer and more precise.

​If you were trying to remotely operate a robotic hand, it would certainly makes things easier if you could feel what it was touching. Such a system was demonstrated this week at the Amazon re:MARS Tech Showcase, utilizing technology from three separate companies.

CAMDASS uses augmented reality to provide astronauts with instant medical know-how.

By pairing a Kinect sensor, a Wiimote, a treadmill and a Nao robot together, Taylor Veltrop has cobbled together a teleoperation system that allows him to groom his cat remotely.

U.S. Army engineers have provided unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) with the long distance tele-operation capabilities of a UAS to allow them to be controlled from anywhere in the world and keep soldiers even further out of harm's way.