Week 2 Aug - Robotix

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Hugging Face Steps Boldly into 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 — and Sells $𝟭𝗠 Worth in 5 Days🚀 In July 2025, Hugging Face’s Reachy Mini #robot brought in $500K in sales within 24 hours, crossing the $1M mark in just five days, with over 𝟮,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄: Acquisition of Pollen Robotics — creators of open-source humanoids like Reachy 2. Two Open-Source Robots Launched: - HopeJR: A 66–DoF humanoid that walks, manipulates objects, and can be fully customized. - Reachy Mini: A desktop-friendly bot starting at $299, Python-programmable, and connected to Hugging Face’s AI model ecosystem [interested in buying one? see comment]. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙄𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨: What’s striking here is the strategy: Hugging Face isn’t chasing the high-end industrial robotics market; they’re targeting the 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺, hoping to ignite a wave of AI-powered robotics projects from the ground up. If their playbook for AI models translates to hardware, we could see an explosion of innovation in accessible, open-source robotics — one that might rival the early days of personal computing. --->> Join my Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eRTNz2is -->> Robotix Engineering Historical Job Data – Oct 2024 to June 2025: https://lnkd.in/gChVuAHE

GM’s Return to AV Development: A Logical Next Step or a Leap of Faith? After shutting down Cruise’s operations, GM’s decision to revive its autonomous vehicle program — reportedly by 𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 — isn’t just nostalgia. It’s a calculated move that builds on what GM already has in production: 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲 and 𝗨𝗹𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲. Super Cruise has been on the road since 2017, offering hands-free highway driving on mapped routes using a combination of LiDAR-mapped highways, GPS, precision cameras, and radar. It’s already in production vehicles and has logged millions of miles under real-world conditions. Ultra Cruise, GM’s next-gen system, is designed to expand hands-free driving to 95% of driving scenarios, including city streets and rural roads. It integrates a much denser sensor suite — high-resolution cameras, radars, and even short-range LiDAR — along with GM’s advanced mapping database. This hardware is already being engineered into future GM platforms, meaning the leap from advanced driver-assist to higher autonomy is a matter of software, validation, and regulation rather than starting from scratch. GM’s sensor-rich vehicles are essentially “AV-ready” platforms — every mile driven with Super Cruise and Ultra Cruise feeds back into GM’s AI and safety datasets. That’s a competitive advantage. Instead of chasing the Level 4 robotaxi dream too soon, GM can now climb the autonomy ladder more strategically — starting from feature-rich ADAS, moving toward higher autonomy in controlled environments, and staying in step with evolving regulations. --> subscribe to my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eRTNz2is

The Future of Fully 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 — Will It Ever Happen? This video highlights recent work by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University, using Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system. In the study, the #robot autonomously performed a significant portion of a gallbladder removal on a model, guided by training from surgical videos (imitation learning, an AI technique). While the vision is compelling, between technological ambition and operating room reality lies a lot of challenges. 𝟭. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘃𝘀. 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 Modern surgical robots are sophisticated but still fundamentally surgeon-controlled. While AI and computer vision have made strides in automating subtasks—such as suturing or tissue dissection in constrained environments—surgery is messy, unpredictable, and highly patient-specific. * Human anatomy varies widely. * Complications can arise in seconds. * Soft tissues deform in ways that challenge even the most advanced simulation-trained AI. 𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀 Even if the technology existed today, regulatory approval would be a monumental challenge. Safety, efficacy, and liability (e.g., who is responsible when a fully autonomous robot makes a fatal error) are major concerns. 𝟯. 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 Hospital adoption, surgeon acceptance, and patient trust will all play a critical role in whether fully autonomous surgical robotic systems ever become mainstream. 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 Rather than a sudden leap to full autonomy, a more realistic trajectory seems to be progressive autonomy: 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 1: Automating specific subtasks — suturing, endoscope navigation, tissue classification. 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 2: Autonomy in low-risk, high-volume procedures (e.g., biopsies, clipping, suturing). 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 3: Supervised autonomy in more complex surgeries, with surgeons monitoring and intervening when needed. In other words, the future may look less like “Surgeons replaced by machine” and more like “𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙨 + 𝙢𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙨𝙮𝙣𝙘.” ---------------------- Thank you Ji Woong (Brian) Kim for granting permission to use the video. Project website: https://lnkd.in/eZUHPTZV --------------------- ➡️Get in touch: https://lnkd.in/eEJffK44 📂 Robotics Engineering Historical Job Data – Oct 2024 to June 2025: https://lnkd.in/gChVuAHE