Torque

WATCH 0:08. A DRONE ON A CABLE BACKS OUT OF AN APPLE TREE WITH AN APPLE ON THE TIP OF ITS ARM. NO LADDER, NO PICKER One row of an orchard and a low teal machine parked in it. Above it hang blue drones, each on its own black cable. From 0:02 one of them hovers right against the tree, nose pushed into the leaves. At 0:08 it pulls back with the apple. From 0:10 the camera walks along the machine: row after row of drones hovering over its deck. The drones say Tevel on the side. The cable is the trick. New Atlas reported that Tevel drones draw their power through the tether from the vehicle on the ground, so they can pick through the day and night, as long as its battery lasts. At 0:17 a man in a black t-shirt walks past the machine. His hands are empty. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

ONE SLIPPER LEFT ON THE FLOOR. A ROBOT VACUUM UNFOLDS AN ARM, PICKS IT UP AND PUTS IT BACK NEXT TO ITS PAIR A wooden floor, one blue slide in the middle of it and a round robot vacuum heading its way. At 0:01 a flap on top of the robot slides open. From 0:02 an arm unfolds out of the body, joint by joint, like a desk lamp. At 0:06 it turns to face the slide and rolls up close with the arm out. At 0:09 the claw closes on the strap. At 0:11 the slide is up in the air. At 0:12 it sets it down next to the other one by the wall and folds the arm back in. The uploader says this is a Roborock Saros Z70. Its arm lifts a maximum of 300 grams, and socks and shoes are exactly what it was built to pick up. Nobody had to bend down for this one. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A WORKER DROPS A ROBOT INTO A CARGO HOLD FULL OF GRAIN. FOR THE NEXT 20 SECONDS IT SWIMS ACROSS THE PILE ON SPINNING SCREWS The man in the white hard hat and dust mask stays up on the rail. At 0:00 he holds the machine over the edge, and half a second later it is in the air. It lands, digs in and slides down the slope. By 0:05 it is a small dot far out on the pile, turning circles and leaving rings behind. At 0:11 we get close. Spiral blades on both sides throw the grain back like paddles. From 0:13 it works along the steel wall where the pile is highest, half buried and still pushing. Grain is not solid ground. Purdue University counted at least 21 grain entrapments in the US in 2025, and 28.6% of them were fatal. Nobody on this ship had to step onto it. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

NO HANDS UNDER THIS COW. A ROBOT ARM PUTS ON ALL FOUR MILKING CUPS IN ABOUT 30 SECONDS The camera sits low, right next to the hooves. At 0:00 the arm swings out from under the stall with the first cup. At 0:04 that cup is on. The arm goes back for the next one at 0:06, grabs it at 0:10, and by 0:14 two cups are hanging. Same trip again: the third goes on around 0:22, the fourth at 0:29. Each time the cup comes up from below, lines up under the teat and slides on. At 0:31 the arm folds away and leaves the cups to do their job. The uploader says this is a DeLaval V300, part of what DeLaval calls a voluntary milking system. At launch in 2018 the company said one unit could milk 3,500 kg a day, with a camera that finds teats from a metre away. Here it found all four without a single person in the shot. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A HUMANOID STEPS INTO ITS OWN SHIPPING CASE, SITS DOWN IN THE FOAM AND LIES BACK. NOBODY TOUCHES IT FOR 20 SECONDS A flight case on wheels lies open on the floor of a big hall. The foam inside is cut to the outline of a body. The robot stands over it with its back to us, and one guy films it on his phone. At 0:03 it bends its knees and lowers itself into the case. By 0:08 it is sitting in the foam, arms out in front. At 0:10 it lies back and its head drops into the head-shaped hole. Then the legs. At 0:15 both go straight up in the air, and from 0:17 it folds them down into their slots, one at a time. At 0:21 a human hand finally reaches in to settle the last bits. Omdia estimates about 13,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in 2025. That is a lot of foam cut to shape. This one did most of its own packing. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

WATCH 0:12. A BLADE DROPS BETWEEN TWO BABY BEETS, THROWS UP THE DIRT, AND BOTH PLANTS ARE STILL STANDING Teal frame, four big tyres, no cab and nobody driving. It straddles the rows and creeps forward. At 0:05 the camera catches it side-on: a row of hoe units hanging under the frame. Then the camera gets down to the soil. From 0:09 each unit dips a thin blade into the row on a swinging arm, in and out between the plants. At 0:17 a big tyre rolls past a few inches from the beets. From 0:23 you look straight down on the tools: blue hoses, a box on every arm. This is a Farming GT from Farming Revolution, a German company that began as a nine-person robotics team inside Bosch. The maker says it picks out plants from 1 cm tall and moves all 1,500 kg on electric all-wheel drive. The beets in this clip are barely a hand high. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A HUMANOID ROBOT IN AN OFFICE CHAIR JUST TICKED THE BOX THAT SAYS IT IS NOT A ROBOT. GREEN CHECK AT 0:02 A studio desk at dusk. Two big monitors, a keyboard, a mouse with a purple glow. The hand on the mouse is white plastic. At 0:01 the not-a-robot box is still empty. The fingers press down, and at 0:02 the spinner turns into a green tick. At 0:03 the camera swings over the keyboard. Nobody typed a thing. From 0:05 it pulls back to show who clicked: a full humanoid in a black office chair, propped on a yellow cushion. At 0:06 the other hand comes up in a thumbs-up. Its owner calls it Jarmil. Google rolled out this checkbox in December 2014. Its post at the time said AI could already read even the hardest distorted CAPTCHA text with 99.8% accuracy. So instead of making you read, the box looks at how you behave before, during and after the click. This time the hand on the mouse was plastic. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A HUMANOID GOES FOR A WALK DOWN A SHOPPING STREET IN HANNOVER. IT MEETS A POLICE VAN, TWO KIDS AND ONE BLACK DOG Wide paving stones, big trees, people everywhere. Nobody walks next to it. At 0:01 it is already heading for a police van parked under the trees, and two officers stroll past in the background. At 0:07 it stops next to the van and waves with the whole arm. At 0:08 you can see an officer standing at the open door, watching it. At 0:10 the clip cuts to two kids walking hand in hand with a grown-up. The robot is up ahead, and they are going its way. From 0:12 it stands next to a man with a black dog on a leash. The dog stares and leans in. At 0:17 the owner bends down and keeps a hand on him, and at 0:18 the robot turns and walks straight at the camera. Hamelin is about 45 km from here. The town tells it like this: on June 26, 1284, 130 children followed a piper out of town and were lost. This one only got two, and they held on to a grown-up. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A CAT IN A CARDBOARD BOX, ON TOP OF A ROBOT VACUUM. 29 SECONDS AND IT NEVER GETS OUT A living room, a wood floor, a white robot vacuum doing its rounds. On top of it rides an open cardboard box, and in the box sits a very fluffy white cat. At 0:00 a pomeranian trots up to the camera while a ginger cat watches from the sofa. By 0:04 the dog is nose to nose with the box. At 0:07 the passenger stretches out and lies down. The vacuum keeps turning. From 0:10 the dog circles the whole convoy, and at 0:13 the cat sits up and stares straight into the lens. At 0:17 the ginger cat strolls through like this is normal here. At 0:20 the ride is already in the next room, rolling past the chairs toward the window. Still in the box. Utrecht University researchers once gave 10 newly arrived shelter cats a box to hide in and left 9 without. The box cats were calmer by about day 3. The others only caught up by day 14. This one just added wheels. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A 74,500$ ROBOT DOG DOING LAPS OF A RUG, DECEMBER 2020. THE TERMS IT SHIPPED WITH SAID: NOT FOR THE HOME Night, city lights in the window, a guy in an armchair holding a glass of wine. Spot stands in the middle of the rug, front lights glowing green. At 0:03 it turns side-on and walks the rug like it owns it. Watch 0:24. The back end drops, the front stays up, and it holds that pose for four seconds like a dog waiting for a treat. By 0:29 it is back on all four. At 0:31 the clip jumps to another room and you see who is driving: a man on his feet, tablet in both hands. By 0:45 Spot has walked around a column and parked next to a panel of black and white squares. Boston Dynamics put Spot on sale in June 2020. The terms said it IS NOT CERTIFIED SAFE FOR IN-HOME USE, and the company told IEEE Spectrum it did not want people using it at home for fun. Six months later, here it is on the rug. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A 200 KG FLOOR SCRUBBER IN A BUSY TESCO AISLE. IT DRAWS ITS OWN PERSONAL SPACE ON THE FLOOR Trolleys everywhere. The machine is dark grey, about waist high, a hose looped down its side, and it just keeps rolling. Look at the floor around it. From 0:01 a thin blue arc of light sits a step or two out from the body, and it moves when the robot moves. At 0:09 a shopper with a full trolley cuts straight across in front of it. The robot holds its line. At 0:14 a man carrying kitchen roll walks through the gap. From 0:16 a blue trolley handle drifts into frame - the filmer is shopping too. At 0:18 the robot turns and heads off with its back to us. This is a LionsBot R5. The company lists it at 200 kg with a 50 L tank, good for 5,000 m2 on one charge, and pitches it as a machine that runs a walk-behind scrubbers route with nobody on the handle. By the end it is just another thing in the aisle. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

FIRST HOUR OF A SNOWSTORM. A MAIL CARRIER ON THE ROUTE STOPS TO FILM A DRIVEWAY THAT IS CLEARING ITSELF December 11, 2025. Snow still coming down, a quiet street, nobody outside. On the driveway a small tracked machine with two headlights crawls along, throwing a white plume off to the side. Behind it the drive is striped darker where it has already passed, and every lap lays down another stripe. At 0:08 it is heading almost straight at the camera, chute up, lights on. At 0:10 the camera pulls back - the whole house, bare trees, and the machine still working the bottom of the drive. At 0:14 a cloud of thrown snow drifts back across the garage. Nobody comes out to check on it. It looks like a Yarbo: yellow and black body, two antennas sticking up. Yarbo says its snow blower can start when the snow begins, and that clearing during the storm keeps the snow under its 12 inch intake. So it does not wait for morning. Neither does the mail. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A CART ROLLS UP WITH A STACK OF DRYWALL. BY 0:13 THREE SHEETS ARE STANDING ON THE STUDS A bare floor, metal studs, concrete. One cart, two arms on a tall column: a frame of suction cups on one, a drill on the other. At 0:01 the suction frame peels the top sheet off the stack and swings it upright. By 0:03 it is pressed flat against the studs. The drill arm reaches in at 0:06. Second sheet goes up at 0:08, third at 0:12, each one set right next to the last. The stack on the cart hardly looks smaller. At 0:14 the clip cuts to a second machine. A red laser line runs across the board at 0:15, a circular saw swings in at 0:16, and from 0:18 a drill riding on the suction frame works the board. USG lists its standard 5/8 inch fire-rated board at 2.2 lb per square foot. One 4 by 12 sheet of it comes out around 105 lb, about 48 kg. Nobody on this floor is carrying one. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A DELIVERY ROBOT MET ONE GUY WHO WOULD NOT STEP ASIDE. THE STANDOFF LASTED 18 SECONDS A wide sidewalk at dusk. At 0:00 it is far down the block, two round eyes glowing. By 0:03 it is right at his feet. He does not move. At 0:04 the camera drops to his shoes - black sneakers, neon green laces, planted on the concrete. From 0:05 the robot sits face to face with the phone, close enough to fill the frame. Its name is Zuri, it works for Serve Robotics, and for the next 15 seconds neither of them gives way. At 0:09 he checks his feet again, just to be sure. At 0:21 he backs off a few steps. Zuri waits. At 0:26 it turns, and by 0:29 it is rolling right past him. Serve says it has deployed more than 2,000 robots across the US. Its Q2 2026 report counts 792 of them out doing deliveries on an average day. At 0:32 the tail lights go red. Back to work. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

THAT IS NOT FOG OVER THE FIELD. EVERY LITTLE PUFF OF SMOKE IS ONE WEED SHOT WITH A LASER The camera is bolted under the machine, looking forward. Up top: the underside of the frame and a row of bright lights. Down below: rows of young chard rolling past. From the first second, puffs rise between the plants. Watch 0:03 - tiny orange sparks flare on the soil. Those are the hits. By 0:05 smoke is drifting across the whole bed, and the chard stays green. At 0:16 a big puff rolls right up into the light bar. This is a LaserWeeder G2 from Carbon Robotics. Cameras look at every plant, the AI decides crop or weed, and the laser fires. The G2 got 240 W lasers, up from 150 W, and runs about twice as fast as the first version. Nothing digs the soil, so buried weed seeds are not stirred up to sprout. The first commercial one carried 30 lasers and 42 cameras, and Carbon said it out-weeded a hand crew of 75 people. Nobody has to bend over in this row. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

AN AIRPORT GROUND CREW STOPPED TO FILM A HUMANOID IN WORK GLOVES DANCING ON THE WALKWAY A covered walkway at an airport. A line of ground staff in hi-vis jackets stands against the wall, phones out. In front of them, a small humanoid in a navy vest and yellow work gloves. At 0:02 it starts to shuffle, knees bent. By 0:05 the gloves are up in the air. At 0:06 it throws a high kick. From 0:09 it hops off down the walkway, kicks its heels back and comes back toward the camera. At 0:17 it finishes with both arms out wide. Nobody in the line puts the phone down. The joke is closer to real than it looks. In April 2026 Japan Airlines announced a trial with humanoid robots in ground handling at Tokyo Haneda, running through 2028: towing, loading baggage and cargo, cleaning cabins. The reason is a labor shortage - more tourists, fewer people of working age. This one has only learned the dance part so far. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

SOMEONE OFFERS A 6-AXIS WELDING ROBOT A BOWL OF FOOD. THEN CASH. ONLY THE CASH ENDS UP IN THE BOX A small workshop. Blue arm, a steel table full of holes, a pipe elbow clamped in a chuck. In the first second a guy in a grey T-shirt sets down a steel bowl of food, spoon still in it. By 0:02 the torch has come down into the bowl. At 0:03 he takes the bowl back. At 0:04 he lays a few red banknotes on the table instead. Watch 0:05. The torch tip pushes the cash into an open case. By 0:06 the lid is down, and around 0:07 the arc flashes twice at its edge. Only then does it get to the actual job. From 0:08 it welds around the joint where the elbow meets the pipe. At 0:10 the whole arm curls over the top to reach the far side. At 0:14 you get the finished seam up close. Factories around the world installed 603,307 new industrial robots in 2025, per the IFR. The first year ever above 600,000. The bowl never comes back. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

NOBODY IS HOLDING THIS WOK. A STEEL MACHINE IS TOSSING IT OVER AN OPEN FLAME, ABOUT 3 TIMES A SECOND A commercial kitchen, stainless steel everywhere. The wok is fixed to a steel arm coming out of the machine, gas fire underneath. At 0:01 a hand slides a plate of sliced peppers and red onion into the empty pan. By 0:03 the machine starts rocking it. From 0:04 the onions go up on every swing. At 0:06 it tilts back, holds for about half a second, then picks the rhythm back up. At 0:09 someone pours from a purple bottle. At 0:10 the fire jumps up over the pan. The tossing does not slow down. In 2020 researchers at Georgia Tech filmed five restaurant chefs doing this by hand. They tossed at about 2.7 times a second. The same paper cites a study where 64.5% of Chinese restaurant chefs had shoulder discomfort. Human hands show up twice in this clip - the plate and the bottle. Neither one touches the handle. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

A 156 HP TRACTOR IS PULLING A CULTIVATOR ACROSS THIS FIELD. NOBODY IS ON IT - THERE IS NOWHERE TO SIT The phone is held low, almost in the dirt. Old ruts up front, a line of trees behind. At 0:00 it is still far out. You can see a red and white warning board on the implement. By 0:03 it has turned side-on and keeps coming. Look at 0:06. There is no cab. Just a white body with a green stripe and a short mast on the roof. Per AgXeed, the lidar sits up there, with radar and ultrasonic sensors built into the bumper. From 0:08 you can see a black weight block hanging off the front. The blue cultivator behind it is still in the ground. The machine is an AgBot from AgXeed, a Dutch company. The company says one can run up to 20 hours on a single tank at 75% engine load. The only human anywhere in this clip is the one holding the phone. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…

AN SUV UP ON A LIFT, ONE FRONT WHEEL OFF. THE MECHANIC UNDER IT IS A HUMANOID IN A NAVY VEST AND BLACK GLOVES A busy repair shop. Wet concrete, oil stains, more cars up on lifts in the back. At 0:01 it leaves the workbench with a long bar in one hand. Look at the bench at 0:03 - a cordless impact wrench is lying right there. It walks past it. At 0:04 it is under the car, next to a blue support stand. A drain pan of dark oil sits by its feet. From 0:05 both arms go up into the underside. At 0:07 you can see the tool - a ratchet on a long bar. At 0:12 one glove takes the blue handle at the far end. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 66,200 openings for auto mechanics every year through 2035. Many of them just replace people who move to other jobs or retire. The impact wrench never leaves the bench. nitter.cf/torquelog/status/21115…