TOPIC ROBOTICS
Robotics explainers
THE SHORT ANSWER
How robots move, grip and get built: humanoids, industrial arms, legged machines, and the hands that still limit what they can do. The discoveries trace the field back to the word “robot” itself and to Shakey, the research robot whose path-finding method is still in use.
Guides
How a Robot Hand Grasps: Touch, Data and Simulation
How robot hands learn to grasp: demonstrations, simulation and touch sensing, with the numbers from the papers and what Boston Dynamics says about Atlas.
ROBOTICS / EXPLAINERFrom BigDog to Atlas: Hydraulic to Electric
From the 2008 BigDog paper to a production electric Atlas in 2026: what Boston Dynamics and its sources say, the specifications and what is still unknown.
ROBOTICS / EXPLAINERIndustrial Robots by the Numbers
How many industrial robots exist, where they work, who has the most, and why density tells a different story than totals. IFR figures for 2025.
ROBOTICS / EXPLAINERHow Humanoid Robots Actually Work
Motors, sensors, balance and hands: what a humanoid robot is made of, what it does reliably today and why spec sheets flatter the machine.
Discoveries and curiosities
Shakey, the Robot That Gave Us A*
The wobbly 1960s robot that reasoned about rooms and blocks, and left behind the A* and STRIPS algorithms still used in planning.
ROBOTICS / DISCOVERYIngenuity: The Mars Helicopter
Planned for five flights, it made 72. How a helicopter with a mobile-phone processor flew in air 1% as dense as Earth's, and what ended its mission.
ROBOTICS / DISCOVERYWhere the Word 'Robot' Comes From
A brother's suggestion, a Czech word for forced labour and a 1920 play about artificial workers who were not made of metal at all.