Torque

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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/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. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A ROBOT ON FOUR SPIDER LEGS IS BUILDING A WALL. IT SPENDS 11 SECONDS ON ONE BLOCK A wet concrete slab, a half-built wall of clay blocks, a column with rebar still sticking out of the top. At 0:01 the arm is reaching into the stack of blocks behind it. At 0:02 it pulls one out. At 0:03 it carries it right over its own body. At 0:04 the block lands on the end of the top course. Then the gripper just holds it there. It lets go at 0:15 and swings back for the next one. The machine looks like WLTR, the bricklaying robot Wienerberger developed in Czechia. Per Wienerberger, it averages 5-6 square meters of wall an hour and needs only water and electricity to run. The bricks had to change for it too - a patented Robot Ready Porotherm block with two grooves on its sides, so the robot can handle it. By 0:17 it is back at the stack. Nobody is in the frame at any point. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A 38 KG DELIVERY ROBOT SPENT 24 SECONDS ON ONE SLUSH RIDGE IN TALLINN. THEN IT WENT FOR THE CROSSING Night, a wide sidewalk, snow still coming down. At 0:00 it is far ahead, orange flag lit. At 0:03 the camera catches up and you can see the snow sitting on its lid. From 0:04 its wheels are dug into a ridge of slush and it barely moves. Watch the flag at 0:12 - it jerks to the side. Rocking, not resting. At 0:16 the camera finds the crossing. The walk signal is red. At 0:28 it gets going again. At 0:37 look at the snow it leaves behind - wheel tracks going round in loops. The six wheels and the flag are a Starship design, and Bolt Food launched Starship robot delivery in Tallinn in October 2024. Per Starship, the robot weighs about 38 kg empty, and after significant snowfall the company may pause service until sidewalks are swept. At 0:43 it is at the curb. The signal is green. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A WHITE HUMANOID SPENDS 35 SECONDS LOADING A DISHWASHER. ONE GLASS AT A TIME A bright home kitchen, a wood table, the dishwasher door already down. At 0:02 it reaches past a plate and picks up a glass. At 0:09 the glass goes into the rack. From 0:12 it works out of the sink - lift, turn, lower, back to the sink. At 0:17 it bends its knees to reach the rack. From 0:24 it is bent over the racks, fitting things in. At 0:32 it straightens up and just looks at the rack for a second. The machine took the hard half of this chore a long time ago. Per ENERGY STAR, a certified dishwasher can save over 230 hours of personal time a year compared to washing by hand - the scrubbing, rinsing and drying. What it never took over is the loading. That part is still someone standing at the sink. The plate next to that glass stays on the table. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A FRENCH BULLDOG SPENT 20 SECONDS TRYING TO SMELL A ROBOT DOG. NOTHING CAME BACK A city square, a ring of people with phones. A grey robot dog on one side, a cream French bulldog on the other. At 0:02 the bulldog walks up for a first look. At 0:08 it goes nose to nose with the robots head. At 0:10 it drops flat on its belly right in front of it, then springs back up at 0:11. At 0:18 it checks the face one more time. Dogs meet each other nose first. Per PBS NOVA, a dog has up to 300 million olfactory receptors in its nose. We have about 6 million. The robot looks like a Unitree Go2 - about 15 kg of aluminium alloy and engineering plastic, per Unitree. A lot to sniff, nothing to read. The small orange dog by the scooters at 0:01 watches all of it from a distance. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A 35 KG HUMANOID IN A COWBOY HAT SPRINTS ACROSS A PARK LAWN. AT 0:05 THE LAWN WINS It starts far back on the grass, arms pumping, the hat somehow staying on. By 0:03 it is close enough to see the yellow soles and the knee joints doing all the work. At 0:04 it is almost at the camera. At 0:05 the whole body tips over and the hat goes flying. From 0:06 it lies on its back, arms and legs spread out. Behind it at 0:09 people keep walking along the path. The clip comes from the Rizzbot account, and the body is a Unitree G1 - about 35 kg and 1.32 m standing, per Unitree. Reporters who followed Rizzbot around Austin wrote that a human operator drives it with a wireless controller. Grass hides dips and soft spots that a paved path does not. The path was right there. xitter.gq/torquelog/status/21115…

A LOW GREEN ROBOT IS DRIVING A FULL CAGE OF PACKAGES DOWN A WAREHOUSE AISLE. NOBODY IS PUSHING IT Yellow steel frames on both sides, a long empty aisle. At 0:01 a tall blue-and-green cart is coming toward the camera. At 0:03 it is a few meters away and you can see how it moves. There is no person behind it. The cart sits on a flat lime-green base no higher than your shin. Look at the floor at 0:03. A green light glows right under its nose. The clip was posted from an Amazon warehouse, and the base looks like Proteus - the robot Amazon called its first fully autonomous mobile robot in June 2022. Its job is lifting GoCarts, the plain wheeled cages that carry packages through the building. Per Amazon's demo, it shines a green beam ahead of itself and stops if a worker steps in front of it. By 0:10 it is far down the aisle again. No horn, no handle. Just that green glow leading the way. xitter.gq/dredgefactory/status/2…