Soft Robotics Podcast

Digit 5: What Are They Not Showing Us?

Agility’s latest Digit demo shows a pretty significant change in the robot’s design. But it also raises a few questions. One of the biggest ones is speed. Speed was never mentioned in their specs.

And then there’s that unusually large backpack. Battery? Compute? Cooling? Something else?
Digit is also one of the heavier humanoids out there, so it’s worth asking what that means for safety.

Scott Walter and I sat down to go through the new design and the footage.
One thing we noticed: Digit doesn’t actually take a step in the footage we reviewed.

There’s also footage that appears to be CGI rather than an actual physical demonstration.
None of this necessarily means the technology doesn’t work. It just means there are still things we can’t really judge from the demo.

And Agility is, of course, welcome to respond or correct anything we got wrong.

I speak with James Kuffner, CTO of Symbotic, about warehouse robotics, humanoids, AI, and what it takes to move robots from impressive demos to real-world deployment.

A conversation about the future of robotics and the challenges of building systems that work at scale.

Why Did This Robot Take 7 Years? Matic Robots by Marwa ElDiwiny

The Case for Three Fingers ... Fluidic Tendons vs. Conventional Tendons vs. Direct Drive

Scott Walter and I sit down with Vikram Pavate, CEO of Tacta Systems, to dive into their unique approach to designing robotic hands.... including their work on multiple inventions in robotic hand design, their tactile sensing approach, and why they chose a three-finger design.

This episode was truly one of the most comprehensive conversations for anyone designing robotic hands.

Matic Robots, Tomorrow’s Reveal + The New Hand of Foundation

Scott Walter and I sat down to talk about the new Hand of Foundation, as well as what’s coming with Matic robots and tomorrow’s reveal.