Latest / The Robotics Podcast with Fexingo: Autonomous Systems, Industrial Robots, and Hardware
Why Robot Arms Still Can't Recognise a Spilled Drink
In this episode of The Robotics Podcast, Lucas and Luna tackle a surprisingly hard problem: why even advanced robot arms struggle to identify a liquid spill on a counter. They explore the physics of specular reflection, the limits of today's vision systems, and how startups are using multispectral cameras and thermal imaging to solve it. Along the way, they reference a 2023 MIT study showing that standard lidar fails on transparent puddles, and discuss why this matters for home robotics and factory floors alike. A concrete look at one of the unsung bottlenecks in autonomous manipulation…
The skinny
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