ROBOTICS NEWS: What's Trending in August 2021

What's the trending news in the robotics field for August 2021? Welcome to the 23rd installment in our monthly series, What's Trending in Robotics News! We cover all the breaking news, hot issues, trending stories, and cool stuff that's happening—or has happened—in the robotics industry.

There were plenty of amazing things happening in the robotics industry throughout August. Let's see what caught our attention this month with the trending news in the robotics field for August 2021:

Dance Dance Revolution

Of course, we have to start off with a Boston Dynamics Atlas robot update! This time, we're profiling the coverage in The Verge, Futurism, Digital Trends, New Atlas, Singularity Hub, Engadget, and Popular Mechanics. What does Boston Dynamics have its robot doing this time around? Why, some parkour, of course! Click on any of the links to see this cool bot in action. What do you think, robot lovers? Do you think the Atlas is ready to take on James Bond, one-on-one?

The Musk Robot (Kind Of)

One of the hottest items in trending news in the robotics field for August 2021? Elon Musk's robot unveiling. Well, sort of. Covered in CNN, The Verge, Futurism, the Washington Post, Wired, Gizmodo, and Engadget, it turned out to be a guy in a robot suit. Actual robot coming soon. What are people's impressions of Elon Musk? Is he a visionary, or a con man? A true genius, or one who stands on the shoulders of giants? It's worth wondering if his strange foray into the robotics industry will change some opinions, for better or for worse.

The Amazing Technicolor Robot

Wait, where did that little robot go? Robot researchers in South Korea took design inspiration from the chameleon to put together this remarkable robot prototype that can switch colors to blend into its background. This tremendous color-shifting robot got coverage in Technology Review, Futurism, Science Mag, Gizmodo, and Interesting Engineering. What are your opinions about this new development? Again, it seems another change that could quickly swing between "monumental" and "scary." After all, no one really wants a jump-scare from a robot deciding to hide on your kitchen wall!

A New Dog for the Robotic Kennel

Guess what: there's a new cyber dog out there on the market. This new competitor to the fabled "Spot" from Boston Dynamics has the name of ... well, Cyberdog. It comes from fast-growing company Xiaomi, and earned coverage in Digital Trends, Tech Crunch, The Verge, Techradar, and The Robot Report. Let's compare and contrast it to the Boston Dynamics model (the gold standard). Which one would YOU invest in for your company and home?

What's New in the Industry?

How about some quick hits from around the industry: 

• From LaPresse, the Bangkok Post, FreeThink, TechXplore, and SCMP: a new cafe in Tokyo with robot servers (and a cool story behind them)

• In PC Mag, Mashable, The Verge, and Engadget: this robot used 100,000 dominos to build a Super Mario Brothers mural in a single day. How cool is that?
• Okay, now we really have no excuse: from The Verge, Singularity Hub, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, and TechXPlore: "Cassie" the bipedal robot is doing a 5K.

What's to Come?

There is a lot of news out there—but these are the stories that caught our eyes this month. If we could give one big theme for the month, it would be "every day." What do we mean by that? Well, it looks as though the trending news in the robotics field for August 2021 really focused on how robotics get integrated into our daily lives. A robot cafe in Tokyo where you get served by robots. Robotic dogs to hang around the household. Even the prospect of a Tesla-related bot to come sometime soon (hopefully more than a guy in a suit).

One more thing, readers—if you have anything that we should add for the next edition, let us know! What caught your attention in the robotics world throughout August? Comment below, and we might feature it in our next issue!

Picture Credit: Tesla, Boston Dynamics, Xiaomi