-- This paper presents a novel mapping approach for a universal aerial-ground robotic system utilizing a single monocular camera. The proposed system is capable of detecting a diverse range of objects and estimating their positions without requiring fine-tuning for specific environments. The system's performance was evaluated through a simulated search-and-rescue scenario, where the MorphoGear robot successfully located a robotic dog while an operator monitored the process. This work contributes to the development of intelligent, mul-timodal robotic systems capable of operating in unstructured environments. Robotics has experienced rapid advancements in recent years, with Vision-Language Models (VLMs) emerging as a powerful tool for mission execution based on RGB images. Since VLMs require only an image and a text prompt as input, they eliminate the need for expensive and specialized sensors such as LiDARs and depth cameras. This simplicity and cost-effectiveness suggest that vision-language-based control will play a crucial role in the future of robotics, with cameras becoming the primary sensor for most robotic systems. In this paper, we introduce a novel mapping approach designed for a universal air-ground robotic system using a single monocular camera.

Kepler's Forerunner K2 represents the fifth generation of its humanoid robot technology. Footage from the streets of China captured a scene straight from a science fiction novel – spherical drones alongside patrolling law enforcement. Chinese robotics company, Logon Technology, unveiled the RT-G autonomous spherical robot in a release, saying it was a "technological breakthrough" designed to assist and even replace humans in dangerous environments. The spherical robots are capable of operating both on land and water. The robots can reach speeds of up to 35km/h (approximately 22 mph) and withstand impact damage of up to 8,818 pounds (4 tons), the company said.

Leveraging the powerful reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs), recent LLM-based robot task planning methods yield promising results. However, they mainly focus on single or multiple homogeneous robots on simple tasks. Practically, complex long-horizon tasks always require collaborations among multiple heterogeneous robots especially with more complex action spaces, which makes these tasks more challenging. To this end, we propose COHERENT, a novel LLM-based task planning framework for collaboration of heterogeneous multi-robot systems including quadrotors, robotic dogs, and robotic arms. Specifically, a Proposal-Execution-Feedback-Adjustment (PEFA) mechanism is designed to decompose and assign actions for individual robots, where a centralized task assigner makes a task planning proposal to decompose the complex task into subtasks, and then assigns subtasks to robot executors. Each robot executor selects a feasible action to implement the assigned subtask and reports self-reflection feedback to the task assigner for plan adjustment. The PEFA loops until the task is completed. Moreover, we create a challenging heterogeneous multi-robot task planning benchmark encompassing 100 complex long-horizon tasks. The experimental results show that our work surpasses the previous methods by a large margin in terms of success rate and execution efficiency. The experimental videos, code, and benchmark are released at https://github.com/MrKeee/COHERENT.

While pets offer companionship, their limited intelligence restricts advanced reasoning and autonomous interaction with humans. Considering this, we propose QuadrupedGPT, a versatile agent designed to master a broad range of complex tasks with agility comparable to that of a pet. To achieve this goal, the primary challenges include: i) effectively leveraging multimodal observations for decision-making; ii) mastering agile control of locomotion and path planning; iii) developing advanced cognition to execute long-term objectives. QuadrupedGPT processes human command and environmental contexts using a large multimodal model (LMM). Empowered by its extensive knowledge base, our agent autonomously assigns appropriate parameters for adaptive locomotion policies and guides the agent in planning a safe but efficient path towards the goal, utilizing semantic-aware terrain analysis. Moreover, QuadrupedGPT is equipped with problem-solving capabilities that enable it to decompose long-term goals into a sequence of executable subgoals through high-level reasoning. Extensive experiments across various benchmarks confirm that QuadrupedGPT can adeptly handle multiple tasks with intricate instructions, demonstrating a significant step towards the versatile quadruped agents in open-ended worlds. Our website and codes can be found at https://quadruped-hub.github.io/Quadruped-GPT/.

Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to avoid placing officers at risk from criminals, dangerous chemicals and explosions. If tests in mocked-up scenarios go well, the artificial intelligence-powered robot will be deployed in real raids, say police.

Law enforcement in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia this week named a Russian national as the person behind LockBitSupp, the pseudonym of the leader of the LockBit ransomware gang that the US says is responsible for extracting 500 million from its victims. Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev has been sanctioned and charged with 26 criminal counts in the US, which combined could result in a prison sentence of 185 years. That is, if he's ever arrested and successfully prosecuted--an extremely rare event for suspects who live in Russia. Elsewhere in the world of cybercrime, WIRED's Andy Greenberg interviewed a representative of Cyber Army of Russia, a group of hackers who have targeted water utilities in the US and Europe and are said to have ties to the notorious Russian military hacking unit known as Sandworm. The responses from Cyber Army of Russia were littered with pro-Kremlin talking points--and some curious admissions.

Ringling Bros. circus star who performs by the name Nick Nack walks Fox News Digital through the process of learning a balancing act called rola bola, which he combines with many other talents, like juggling and comedy. Jan Damm performs as Nick Nack in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus show. His character has a large comedic presence, but he also has other tricks up his sleeve. Damm performs a balancing act called rola bola and is a master juggler. He is also joined on stage by a unique partner, a robotic dog named Bailey.

Chinese tech firm Xiaomi first developed its CyberDog two years ago to compete with rival company Boston Dynamics' Spot. Now it is unveiling an enhanced model, called CyberDog 2, which is even more intelligent and lifelike. Most importantly, it now much more closely resembles a dog than just a robotic creature with legs. That's because it has adopted a number of features resembling a Doberman, including adorable ears. New model: They say every dog has its day -- and that's true for the robotic pooch that has been superseded by this moonwalking, ballet dancing upgrade The four-legged robot is also much smaller and lighter than its predecessor, weighing just 19 lbs (8.9kg) compared to the CyberDog's 31 lbs (14kg).

The New York Police Department is reenlisting robots to fight crime, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday. The NYPD experimented with robot policing in 2021, but faced considerable backlash from residents and activists concerned with profiling in minority and underprivileged communities as well as saying the technology is dystopian. "The prior administration didn't have a mayor that was a computer geek and that was willing to go where others are not willing to go to keep the city safe," the New York mayor said in a press conference Tuesday in Times Square. "I made it clear on the campaign trail, I am going to use technology with transparency to keep this city safe. And others just weren't willing to do that, and I am." "The prior administration didn't have a mayor that was a computer geek and that was willing to go where others are not willing to go to keep the city safe."

If you're a construction worker, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot could soon be coming for your job. New footage from the Massachusetts firm shows Atlas, its scary six-foot-tall bipedal humanoid bot, helping out with construction tasks. Atlas was already able to run and jump, but the footage shows it can now also grip objects, making it an ideal companion on the building site. In the new clip Atlas can be seen laying wood over scaffolding, holding and carrying a tool bag and performing an extravagant mid-air flip. Atlas the most human-like robot in Boston Dynamic's line-up, first unveiled to the public in July 2013.