Ready For Tomorrow #90

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This time of the year, most people focus on gifts, food, and running to finish things before the holidays.
The pace slows down.
Plans move to January.

Robots do not care.
No “New Year, new me”.
They just keep pushing.

TL;DR

• iRobot files for bankruptcy. A strong brand was not enough in a brutal consumer market.
• Robot dogs get arms and start interacting with the real world, not just watching it.
• AI vision makes bin picking closer to human work in real factories.
• Soft grippers learn how to lift heavy and fragile objects at the same time.
• Tiny flying robots copy insects to go where drones cannot.

iRobot files for bankruptcy after years of pressure

iRobot, the company best known for the Roomba robot vacuum, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. The company says it will continue operating while it restructures its business and ownership.

The move follows several difficult years for iRobot. Sales dropped as cheaper robot vacuums from Chinese brands gained ground. At the same time, costs went up and margins got thinner.

A major turning point came in 2024, when Amazon canceled its plan to buy iRobot. The deal, worth about $1.4 billion, was blocked by regulators over competition and data concerns. After the deal collapsed, iRobot struggled to find a new path forward.

Co-founder Colin Angle said the company lost a key chance to scale and stay competitive. Without a strong partner, keeping pace in the consumer robotics market became harder.

iRobot plans to go private as part of the restructuring. The company says customer support, software updates, and products will continue to work as usual.

The case shows how tough the consumer robotics market has become, even for well-known brands.

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Ghost Robotics adds an arm to its robot dog. Big deal for field robots.

Ghost Robotics just announced a big upgrade for its Vision 60 quadruped robot. The company added a manipulator arm to the robot body, giving it the ability to reach, grab, open doors, and interact with objects in the environment.

The Vision 60 is a rugged, all-weather legged robot used by military and public safety teams. It was mainly a sensor platform before. With the new arm, operators can do more than just watch. The arm has six degrees of freedom and can work in harsh conditions – hot, cold, dust, water and tough terrain.

Ghost says the goal is to keep humans out of dangerous spots. The arm lets the robot help with things like opening doors or picking up gear without putting people in harm’s way.

The upgrade also reflects broader trends. Legged robots are becoming more than just mobile cameras. They’re now starting to interact with the world around them. This could matter in disaster response, inspection work, and support roles in defense.

But this also raises questions about how such machines are used, especially in defense contexts where rules and oversight matter.

The Vision 60 with arm is now in the hands of selected customers, and Ghost expects more use cases to emerge soon.

Inbolt shows human-like bin picking with AI vision

Inbolt just revealed a new bin-picking system that works more like a person. It uses AI vision mounted on a robot arm to find and grab random parts from a bin. The goal is simple. Pick messy parts quickly and reliably without fancy fixtures.

The system combines a smart camera and software that sees parts in 3D and figures out how to pick them. It works with many shapes and sizes, not just the same item over and over. That means it can help in real production lines and reduce manual labor.

Inbolt says this approach makes robot picking cheaper and easier to set up. Instead of programmers teaching every move, the AI learns from what it sees and adjusts on the fly. This could cut time and cost for companies trying to automate tedious work.

For now the tech is aimed at industrial users who deal with random part feeding and sorting. But if performance holds up in real plants, human-like bin picking might move from labs into real factories soon.

New vine-inspired gripper lifts heavy or fragile stuff without damage

Researchers at MIT have built a robotic gripper inspired by how vines wrap around objects. The design can gently lift both heavy and delicate items, even things that normally break or deform when picked up.

The gripper uses soft, flexible arms that wrap around objects like a vine. This lets it hold awkward shapes and fragile things without hard pressure points. At the same time, the grip can still support heavy weight, so it’s not just for tiny fragile pieces.

Tests showed the gripper can lift things like whole fruits, soft objects, and oddly shaped parts. The secret is in the material and design that make the grip both compliant and strong.

This kind of approach could help robots work closely with humans or handle items that regular grippers struggle with. Think food, medical supplies, or fragile manufactured goods.

It’s another step toward robots that can pick up and move real-world objects with care, not just rigid machine parts.

MIT builds tiny flying robot that works like a bumblebee

Engineers at MIT have designed a very small aerial robot that flies with a bumblebee-like motion. The robot is tiny, light, and can hover, steer, and move in tight spaces — just like real insects.

Instead of big rotors or heavy parts, this microrobot uses flapping wings. The team learned from how bumblebees move. It can adjust wing motion mid-flight to turn, speed up, or slow down. That makes it more stable and agile than many small drones.

The robot is still in the lab stage. But it shows how bio-inspired flight can help with inspection, search, and environments where regular drones can’t go. Think inside machinery, around structures, or among wires and pipes.

The challenge now is power and control. Tiny robots need tiny batteries or new ways to get energy. But this work brings flying robots closer to real, insect-like capabilities in the real world.

There will be time for deep analysis.
There will be time for long newsletters.

Not today.

Thanks for being here and reading Ready For Tomorrow.
It really means a lot.

Now get back to the Christmas frenzy.
Gifts, food, chaos, all of it.

And remember.
May the robots be with you 😄

Cheers, Jacek!