Happy Friday from RobotCafe, where the theme is flying things that shouldn't quite work — birotors becoming quadrotors, maple-seed drones, and a robot bound for the ISS. We've also got FDA news from the colonoscopy front, seabed-mapping vessels, and a healthy dose of introspection about whether AI can actually build robots and whether any of this is sustainable.

In today’s roundup

• Video Friday: Two Birotors Make a Quadrotor — IEEE Spectrum Robotics
  The weekly video roundup leads with a clever bit of aerial arithmetic, pairing two birotors into a functioning quadrotor for your Friday viewing.
• Neptune Medical earns FDA clearance for its Triton 1 robotic system — The Robot Report
  FDA clearance means Neptune's Triton 1 can now assist endoscopists with routine colonoscopies, a reminder that robotic gains often come in unglamorous but high-volume procedures.
• Icarus Robotics flies ISS-bound robot in microgravity for the first time — The Robot Report
  JOY passed its first microgravity flight, the last big hurdle before Icarus sends the robot to the ISS in early 2027.
• The clock is ticking: Final 24 hours to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — TechCrunch Robotics
  Today's the deadline for robotics startups wanting a table in front of Disrupt's crowd of founders and investors this October.
• Maple-seed-inspired robot flies more accurately with predictive control — TechXplore Robotics
  With just one moving part, this maple-seed-inspired flyer is fiendishly hard to steer — predictive control is what finally makes it fly precisely.
• Open-source benchmark tests whether AI agents can engineer working robots — TechXplore Robotics
  As coding agents automate software, this open-source benchmark asks the harder question: can AI actually engineer robots that work?
• US to deploy 2,877-mile-range vessels to map Atlantic seabed for submarine navigation — Interesting Engineering
  Saildrone's $10M Navy contract puts long-range uncrewed vessels to work charting the Atlantic seabed for submarine navigation.
• Reimagining robotics for sustainability — Robohub
  A solar-installing robot made from costly materials and heavy batteries raises the uncomfortable question of whether our machines are as green as the work they do.

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