Check out this drone: Joshua Bird built this drone ($20) in his dorm! [open-source motion capture system⬇️] Built at low cost, a motion capture system for tracking & and flying drones autonomously, with millimeter-level precision at room-scale. The student used $1 PS3 Eye cameras with 150fps capability. The challenge? PID tuning! It took him 4 days of crashes to get the drone to hover, but it's still wobbly. Used a 3x nested PID loop for precise control. This project led to his dissertation on visual SLAM! Full details - Algorithms for camera positioning & obstacle triangulation, in his YouTube video: youtube.com/watch?v=0ql20JKr… Code & 3D files on GitHub: github.com/jyjblrd/Low-Cost-… More projects at joshuabird.com

Teaching robots real dexterity has always been a challenge. But what if they could handle tools like a human? DexterityGen (DexGen) is a new system that helps robots use their hands better. It improves how they grip, move, and handle objects… from holding a pen to using a screwdriver. DexGen learns in simulation and refines its skills in the real world, making robotic hands much more useful. What makes DexGen special? ✅ Smarter movements that refine rough actions into precise skills ✅ Trained on a massive collection of dexterous tasks for better learning ✅ Better teleoperation that makes robotic hand control easier and safer ✅ Handles real-world challenges like small objects, tricky angles, and gravity This moves robots closer to real dexterity. It makes tool use more natural, improves stability, and brings robotic hands one step closer to human-level skill. Seen at @zhaohengyin 🫶 Github: zhaohengyin.github.io/dexter… Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2502.04307