Ep 329: AI Surgery, a Prison Camp Lathe, and a One Hertz Four-Fer

Hackaday Podcast · 18 Jul 2025 · 1h 12m · Episode 329

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss a range of hardware hacks, including an AI-driven surgical robot from Johns Hopkins University that performs ex vivo pig bladder surgery, and budget robotic dog actuators inspired by MIT's Mini Cheetah. They also cover the restoration of a FAA-certified flight simulator, the history of the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war, and a clandestine machine shop built by POWs in WWII. The episode concludes with an update on the struggling Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft and entries from the One Hertz Challenge.

Mentioned

Companies
Johns Hopkins University, HP, NASA, Sony
Products
da Vinci surgical robots, MIT Mini Cheetah, ODrive, MKS X Drive Mini, Raspberry Pi, Lunar Trailblazer, Artemis, PlayStation 3, Blu-ray, HD DVD
Chips
ESP32
Also
Wendelstein 7X

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