Latest / The Robotics Podcast with Fexingo: Autonomous Systems, Industrial Robots, and Hardware
Why Robot Arms Cant Wipe a Whiteboard Clean
Lucas and Luna dive into a deceptively hard robotics problem: cleaning a whiteboard. They break down why wiping a surface is harder than gripping an object, exploring contact force control, sensor noise, and the subtle physics of smearing. The episode centers on a 2025 ICRA paper from CMU that mapped the forces required to erase dry-erase ink without leaving ghost marks — and why commercial robot arms still can't handle the task. Listeners learn about impedance control, the difference between stiff and compliant wiping, and why a $50,000 robot arm struggles with a task a child can do. If…
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