Video Friday: Happy Robot Holidays

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. Please send us your events for inclusion.ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNAEnjoy today’s videos! Happy Holidays from FZI Living Lab![ FZI ]Thanks, Georg!Happy Holidays from Norlab!I should get a poutine...[ Norlab ]Happy Holidays from Fraunhofer IOSB![ Fraunhofer ]Thanks, Janko!Happy Holidays from HEBI Robotics![ HEBI Robotics ]Thanks, Trevor!Happy Holidays from the Learning Systems and Robotics Lab![ Learning Systems and Robotics Lab ]Happy Holidays from Toyota Research Institute![ Toyota Research Institute ]Happy Holidays from Clearpath Robotics![ Clearpath Robotics ]Happy AI Holidays from Robotnik![ Robotnik ]Happy AI Holidays from ABB Robotics![ ABB Robotics ]With its unique modular configuration, TRON 2 lets you freely configure Dual-arm, Bipedal, or Wheeled setups to fit your mission.[ LimX Dynamics ]Thanks, Jinyan!I love this robot but can someone please explain why what happens at 2:00 makes me physically uncomfortable?[ Paper ]Thanks, Ayato!This robot, REWW-ARM, is a remote wire-driven mobile robot that separates and excludes electronics from the mobile part, so that the mobile robot can operate in harsh environments. A novel transmission mechanism enables efficient and long-distance electronics-free power transmission, closed-loop control which estimates the distal state from wire. It demonstrated locomotion and manipulation on land and underwater.[ JSK Lab ]Thanks, Takahiro!DEEP Robotics has deployed China’s first robot dog patrol team for forest fire protection in the West Lake area. Powered by embodied AI, these quadruped robots support early detection, patrol, and risk monitoring—using technology to protect nature and strengthen emergency response.[ DEEP Robotics ]In this video we show how we trained our robot to fold a towel from start to finish. Folding a towel might seem simple, but for a robot it means solving perception, planning, and dexterous manipulation all at once, especially when dealing with soft, deformable fabric. We walk through how the system sees the towel, identifies key features, and executes each fold autonomously. [ Kinisi Robotics ]This may be the first humanoid app store, but it’s far from the first app store for robots. Problem is, for an app store to gain traction, there needs to be a platform out there that people will buy for its core functionality first.[ Unitree ]You can tell that this isn’t U.S. government funded research because it involves a robot fetching drinks.[ Flexiv ]This video shows the Perseverance Mars Rover’s point of view during a record-breaking drive that occurred June 19, 2025, the 1,540th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Perseverance rover was traveling northbound and covered 1,350.7 feet (411.7 meters) on that sol, over the course of about 4 hours and 24 minutes. This distance eclipsed its previous record of distance traveled in a single sol: 1,140.7 feet (347.7 meters), which was achieved on April 3, 2023 (Sol 753). [ NASA ]Automation is what’s helped keep lock maker Wilson Bohannan based in America for more than 150 years while all of its competitors relocated overseas. Using two high-speed and high-precision FANUC M-10 series robots, Acme developed a simple but highly sophisticated system that uses innovative end-of-arm tooling to accommodate 18 different styles of padlocks. As a result of Acme’s new system using FANUC robots, Wilson Bohannan production rocketed from 1,500-1,800 locks finished per eight-hour shift to more than 5,000.[ Fanuc ]In this conversation, Zack Jackowski, General Manager and Vice President, Atlas and Alberto Rodriguez, Director of Robot Behavior sit down to discuss the path to generalist humanoid robots working at scale and how we approach research & development to both push the boundaries of the industry and deliver valuable applications.[ Boston Dynamics ]