Two weeks ago, we posted about quadrotors that were able to autonomously navigate outdoors, relying solely on IMUs and simple vision systems. What we found notable was that the robots didn’t need either GPS or a motion tracking system, implying that they could go out and do their thing in what some people like to call “the real world.” At ICRA 2012 yesterday, MIT’s Adam Bry presented a paper (and video!) demonstrating a micro air vehicle capable of the same sort of self-contained navigation, but indoors and impressively fast.

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen any new tricks from those amazing high-speed robot hands from Japan. Now another Japanese group, at Chiba University, has managed to teach one of their dexterous hand-arm systems to repeatedly juggle two balls at once with an incredibly lifelike motion, presented yesterday at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Here we are at yet another gigantic robot conference: it's ICRA 2012, the IEEE (that's us!) International Conference on Robotics and Automation, and this year's theme is "Robots and Automation: Innovation for Tomorrow's Needs." While we're not sure we know what that means, exactly, there's still going to be more than enough incredibly awesome robotics research to keep us busy for the next few days.

Last week, researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology took their quadruped robot HyQ for a test run outside the lab for the first time. The researchers were anxious to try some new tricks HyQ has learned, including the ability to trot over obstacles without falling. The robot is still a strange headless creature, and though a sensor head is in the works, this quadruped might get even weirder with a new hardware addition: arms. Yes, arms.

We're busy packing for ICRA, but not too busy to provide you with a fun-filled video Friday, filled with fun. And a robotic butt. And a spacecraft trying to escape from a rocket test. And a robotic butt. And dancing and baseball. And did we mention that there's a robotic butt? Because there's totally a robotic butt.

This picture shows the spot that the Opportunity Mars rover has been sitting on for the last 19 weeks doing its level best to try not to starve to death from lack of solar power. Or I guess, unlevel best, since she was stuck on that little outcropping (called Greely Haven) to keep her solar panels oriented more directly at the sun. But now, the sun is high enough in the sky for Oppy to get her roll on, and she snapped this pic looking backwards after a 3-meter drive into unexplored terrain.

Last month, we broke the news that DARPA had decided to award the contract to produce a standard simulation environment for its Humanoid Challenge to the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which nobody had really ever heard of. Notably, we're just getting a press release today that the OSRF has been officially formed or launched or spun off or what have you, and we now have details on the board of directors (which includes some very big names) as well as a bit more information about how everything is going to work.

For some reason, roboticists seem to enjoy testing their creations by kicking them, punching them, shoving them, and even striking them with baseball bats and heavy pendulums. All in the name of science, of course. It wasn't different with this Japanese pair of robot legs, which as you can see from the photo above, is about to get kicked in the gut.

Last Thursday, tech website Xconomy hosted a forum on "The Future of Robotics in Silicon Valley and Beyond." We were there, of course, and so were a lot of other famous robotics people, including Aaron Edsinger of Meka Robotics, who had an announcement to make: an entirely new company called Redwood Robotics, a joint venture between Meka Robotics, Willow Garage, and SRI International.

Phew, we made it to another Video Friday! That "phew" is because it's been a busy few weeks in the world of robots, and we've still got ICRA to look forward to in Minnesota starting in just 10 days followed directly by both ROSCon and Maker Faire.

If there have been just too many robotics events for you to keep up with, we feel your pain, and we've started up a Google Calendar to try and keep track of everything. We've literally just started it, but you can subscribe to it (the link is in the column over on the right) and as we add events, they'll show up. Shoot us an email if you've got an event you'd like us to stick on there, too.

Meanwhile, on with the videos! Huzzah!