Latest / The Robotics Podcast with Fexingo: Autonomous Systems, Industrial Robots, and Hardware
Why Robot Arms Still Cant Handle a Power Cord
In this episode of The Robotics Podcast, Lucas and Luna tackle a deceptively simple challenge: why can't a robot arm reliably plug in a power cord? They trace the problem through three specific failure modes — visual occlusion during insertion, force feedback limitations in stiff joints, and the combinatorial geometry of cable bending. Lucas cites a 2025 MIT CSAIL study showing that a robot needs about 2,000 milliseconds to hit a wall outlet, compared to a human's 300 milliseconds, and explains how deep-learning-based tactile sensing might crack the problem. The hosts also touch on…
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