Robot grippers, not vision, make picking up a pen hard
Darpinian · x · 2026-10-15
Answering why it's easier to train a humanoid to walk than to pick a pen off the floor, Darpinian explains the task requires little visual perception — pens vary wildly in shape — and typical robot grippers are far worse than human hands at grabbing small objects from flat surfaces.
More from Embodied
- Vela: spline-based continuous trajectories scale vision-language-action models — Yifan Li · 2026-10-15
- Scoble: healthcare robots arrive next year, true humanoids likely 2-7 years away — realmeetjames · 2026-10-15
- KAIST's BeetleBot: finger-controlled soft robot walks, grips and streams sensory feedback — CurieuxExplorer · 2026-10-15
- 14-year-old builds handheld AI pesticide scanner PestiSCAND with 85% accuracy — nordicinst · 2026-10-15
- Beat Proof of Quality, win a Tesla: robotics challenge offers five teams a shot — EnigmaFund · 2026-10-15
- Robot Harassment via Teleoperation Will Be 'Regulation Heaven' — ZeroStateReflex · 2026-10-15