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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

The Better Actuator Models (BAM) project now covers Dynamixel, eRob80 and Feetech actuators. Its models can be used in simulation, for instance to train policies by reinforcement learning. I think a shared library of actuator models would be useful to the […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Illustration of the BAM experimental setup. Source : "Extended Friction Models for the Physics Simulation of Servo Actuators" (Duclusaud et al., 2025)

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

I love the ideas and robot designs coming out of the JSK laboratory at the University of Tokyo. In a new RA-L paper, K. Sugihara and K. Okada demonstrate a flying humanoid walking on a ceiling. Walking upside-down comes with an interesting twist: normal […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Figure 1 from the paper: on the right, a small two-legged robot with two ducted-fan thrusters hangs upside down with its feet against a ceiling. On the left, a block diagram of the proposed whole-body MPC, whose control input is thrust-rate and joint torque.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

GitHub shows the estimated subsidies for GitHub Actions of an open-source project (Settings → Billing and licensing). For example, the estimate for the Robot Descriptions org is 10.55 USD so far this month. This looks like a useful economic indicator. As it […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Meter usage for the Robot Descriptions GitHub organization, here at 10.55 USD gross meter usage for the July 1 - July 31, 2026 period (we are July 18).

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

Happy to have discovered the works of Benhamou et al. on active sensing during their PhD defense. The idea is rooted in dual control and optimal experimental design: pick trajectories that not only complete a task, but also keep the state observable, with a […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

The optimal control objective becomes:

L(u) = Lc(u) + lambda * La(u)

where Lc is the usual control/tracking cost and La is a scalar function of the EKF posterior covariance along the trajectory.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 29/03/2026

Pixi makes it convenient to switch to a local version of any PyPI dependency during development: just replace the version range with a `path`. Here is how it looks for instance with a robot description package:

Pixi configuration in pyproject.toml when switching from deployment to local version of a dependency.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/01/2026

Releasing #Upkie v2 with a live demo tomorrow at #FOSDEM 2026 🤖 Join us in the Robotics and Simulation devroom (UB2.147, 13:55) if you are interested in open-source robots. Looking forward to the whole day 😃

Robotics devroom on 31 January 2026: "Open-Source Robotics in Practice: Lessons from Upkie Wheeled Bipeds" (13:55 CET, ULB, Brussels)

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/01/2026

#Upkie v2 is here! 🤖 A complete hardware overhaul by Etienne Arlaud and Valentin Tordjman--Levavasseur: - Improved legs with consolidated parts and a wider range of motion - Torso now prints in one pice (down from 7!) with built-in cable management - All […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Upkie v2 standing up and balancing in place.

Upkie v2 crouching in a compact posture.

Inside the torso case of an Upkie v2 wheeled biped robot.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/11/2025

The PlaCo library handles kinematic loop closures 🔄 Frame attachments can be specified in a way compatible with URDF, and a relative position task maintains loop closure during motion. Plus, the documentation is very nice: placo.readthedocs.io/en/v0.9.17/kin…

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2025

Next Saturday, 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲 will present Pollen Robotics & Hugging Face's open-source robots, including Reachy Mini, the SO-100 arm, the Amazing Hand and the Open Duck Mini. He will discuss the sim2real challenges of making the Open Duck Mini walk, and how […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

The Open Duck Mini open-source and open-hardware robot.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2025

On September 27, 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁 will present SigmaBan, an open-hardware humanoid robot that has claimed five RoboCup World Championship victories. He will recount the evolution from prototype to champion, covering the integration of ML for perception and […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Two SigmaBan humanoid robots playing soccer.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2025

On September 27, 𝗖. 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘂 will share the journey of creating the open-source Stanford ToddlerBot, a fully 3D-printed humanoid robot reproducible for under $6,000. She will dive into key questions on embodied data collection, sim-to-real transfer, and how […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

A photograph of the ToddlerBot humanoid robot.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2025

On September 27, 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝘄 will present current results on democratizing dexterity with the open-source LEAP Hands. He will show how these hands can learn complex, human-like behaviors by leveraging large-scale human motion data and modern simulation […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Left: CAD design of the LEAP hand. Right: demonstration scenarios where LEAP hands grasp objects.

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2025

Join us for the 𝗖𝗼𝗥𝗟 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻-𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗿𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴! The day will bring together researchers and makers from both academia and the industry to discuss open-source robot design, integration with reinforcement learning […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

Flyer for the workshop on Open-Source Hardware in the Era of Robot Learning taking place at CoRL 2025

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2024

Scenarios can be played/tinkered with independently from the benchmark 🔧 They are packaged in a separate library called "pink bench": github.com/stephane-caron/pink_bench

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2024

I'm adding a test set of differential IK problems to qpbenchmark: github.com/qpsolvers/ik_qpbenchmark

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Stéphane Caron @locoscaron.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/12/2024

Seen at Humanoids 2024: a new open-source quadruped called MEVIUS. Designed for going outdoors, it is built with T-motor actuators and sheet-metal welded parts that can be ordered on-line. Looking forward to more of those!

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