Know What's Happening in Autonomy
Know What's Happening in Autonomy
ClassNK certifies first autonomous container ship navigation system
ClassNK has granted its AUTO-Nav2 (All) notation to the container ship Genbu, marking the world’s first certification for autonomous navigation on medium‑ to long‑distance routes. The vessel, built by Kyokuyo Shipyard and operated by Suzuyo Marine, is part of the Nippon Foundation’s MEGURI2040 fully autonomous program.
After extensive testing, the Royal Netherlands Navy has purchased twelve V‑BAT autonomous drones from Shield AI. The drones, fitted with radar and high‑resolution cameras, provide long‑duration, high‑altitude maritime reconnaissance and can operate without satellite connectivity. Control units are being installed on eight Dutch warships, and the first operational trials were conducted from HNLMS Johan de Witt during the Cold Response exercise off Norway. Delivery was accelerated through the NATO procurement framework, allowing the compact system to be fielded quickly.
Hôtel Monville has replaced its original Savioke room‑service robot with Pudu Robotics' Flashbot, a more powerful model featuring two to four delivery compartments. The upgrade expands the robot’s capacity to handle a broader range of guest requests, from amenities to meeting...
Hesai Technology has joined Nvidia’s Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, the first ANSI‑accredited facility for testing AI‑driven physical systems. The partnership obliges Hesai to evaluate its LiDAR platforms against a unified framework covering functional safety, cybersecurity and AI compliance. Hesai,...
DeepRoute.ai unveiled a 40‑billion‑parameter vision‑language‑action (VLA) foundation model at Nvidia GTC 2026, compressing the autonomous‑driving data‑processing cycle from over five days to roughly 12 hours per iteration. The model simultaneously drives, analyzes events, and critiques trajectories, automating high‑value training data...
Raglan Mine, owned by Glencore, marked a milestone when its first autonomous haul truck successfully discharged ore at the Anuri underground operation in Quebec. The unload was executed from a remote control centre 14 km away using Sandvik’s AutoMine® platform, which...
Innodisk and its subsidiary Aetina showcased a heavy‑vehicle safety platform at Nvidia GTC 2026 that merges surround‑view perception with AI‑driven driver monitoring on the Jetson AGX Orin. The solution stitches eight GMSL2 camera feeds via a custom capture card, delivering real‑time...
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers unveiled an AI‑driven robot that evaluates the “harvest‑ease” of each tomato before attempting to pick it. The system blends image recognition with statistical analysis to select optimal picking angles, achieving an 81% success rate in field...
On March 18, 2026, Swedish autonomous‑vehicle company Einride announced a partnership with the operator of Texas State Highway 130 to create a testbed for cabless freight trucks. The pilot will run on the toll‑road corridor, representing the first large‑scale autonomous...
Today Didi Autonomous Driving announced a partnership with Chinese thermal‑imaging specialist Raytron to equip its upcoming robotaxi platform with advanced thermal cameras, enhancing perception and safety for passengers across China.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Nvidia founder Jensen Huang announced on March 17 that Uber will launch Nvidia‑powered Level 4 robotaxis in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027, expanding to 28 cities across North America, Europe,...
Saildrone and Woolpert have teamed up to collect high‑resolution bathymetric data for NOAA around the Mariana Islands using a 20‑meter autonomous surface vessel, the Saildrone Surveyor. The unmanned platform began mapping a 13,000‑square‑nautical‑mile area of the northwestern Pacific this month,...
The U.S. construction industry generates about $2.1 trillion annually, yet over three‑quarters of projects face delays due to fragmented monitoring and a skilled‑labor shortage. Virginia Tech and Procon Consulting have created “Mario,” a coordinated system of robots, drones, AI sensing, and computer...
igus unveiled the ReBelMove Pro, a modular autonomous mobile robot designed for rapid, code‑free deployment across industrial settings. The compact AMR reaches 6.5 mph, lifts 550 lb, and can tow nearly 2,000 lb while mapping 2,150 sq ft in under three minutes using LIDAR, 3D...
Researchers at Leipzig University have, for the first time, demonstrated that synthetic microswimmers can autonomously navigate complex fluid flows by using their own body shape as a sensor. The team employed reinforcement‑learning algorithms coupled with real‑time optical control, enabling particles...
Humanoid robots are generating buzz at IFA and CES, but the near‑term kitchen solution appears to be countertop cooking devices rather than bipedal machines. Startups such as Posha and Nosh are building appliances that combine multi‑step cooking intelligence with automated...
Loving the Booster K1 robot 🤖 It moves + balances very well and is super rugged (it’s survived the bushes already). Also has a fully open API to train and upload your own policies - all at << 1/4 cost...
Parrot announced that NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) has issued its first call‑off orders for the ANAFI UKR micro‑UAV, with deliveries scheduled for Q1 2026 in batches of 100‑500 units and potential scaling to thousands. The initial orders serve the Finnish...
A San Francisco passenger was trapped inside a Waymo autonomous taxi when an anti‑robot protester smashed windows and threatened the occupants. The attacker exploited the vehicle’s safety‑stop feature, a design intended to protect pedestrians but now creating a stationary target. Similar...
ZenaTech announced that its ZenaDrone unit is developing Interceptor‑P1, a low‑cost, single‑use autonomous VTOL drone designed to physically intercept hostile UAVs. The expendable interceptor targets the cost asymmetry in modern warfare, offering a cheaper alternative to missiles and laser systems....
Advantech and FORT Robotics announced the MIC‑735, an industrial‑grade edge AI system built on NVIDIA’s IGX Thor platform and powered by the IGX T5000 module. The solution embeds functional safety through NVIDIA Halos and FORT’s Nano Safety Controller Pro, delivering up to 2,070 FP TFLOPS...
Swiss ag‑tech firm Ecorobotix announced that it has sold 1,000 ARA ultra‑high precision sprayers worldwide over the past five years. The AI‑driven machines deliver a 6 × 6 cm treatment footprint, cutting herbicide use by up to 95% compared with conventional broadcast spraying....
BlueBotics introduced SmartPass, an add‑on to its ANT software suite that equips AGVs and AMRs with configurable obstacle‑avoidance while keeping them on virtual paths. The function lets robots take the shortest detour around blockages, then return to their predefined route,...
Recent research showcases Clearpath Robotics platforms powering advances in off‑road autonomy, precision agriculture, and swarm construction. The University of Rochester used a Warthog to validate the TSEASL planner, achieving smoother, more stable forest navigation. UC Riverside deployed a Jackal in...
Universal Robots and Scale AI unveiled the UR AI Trainer at NVIDIA GTC 2026, a system that captures high‑fidelity force, torque and vision data to train AI models directly on production‑grade robots. The trainer uses a leader‑follower configuration to record...
Tesla spotted a fleet of Model Y vehicles equipped with rear‑camera washers in Henderson, Nevada, a clear indicator that the company is preparing to launch its Robotaxi service in Las Vegas. The unique hardware confirms these cars are dedicated Robotaxi units,...
Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Heriot‑Watt University, funded by the TransiT hub, discovered that everyday traffic can significantly degrade 5G signals needed for autonomous vehicles and digital twins. In a simulated 160‑metre urban road, high congestion reduced the...
Vention unveiled Rapid Operator AI at NVIDIA GTC 2026, a turnkey system that automates deep bin picking in unstructured environments. Built on the Generalized Robotic Industrial Intelligence Pipeline (GRIIP) and integrated with NVIDIA Isaac models, the solution delivers up to...
OC-SORT: Improving Object Tracking by Fixing Motion, Not Just Detection In this episode of Artificial Intelligence: Papers and Concepts, we explore OC-SORT (Observation-Centric SORT), an evolution of traditional tracking algorithms that improves how AI systems follow objects in dynamic environments. While...
Seasats announced that its Quickfish autonomous surface vessel successfully completed an eight‑day continuous sea trial, demonstrating over‑35‑knot top speed and multi‑week on‑station endurance. The hybrid jet‑electric propulsion and a dedicated payload bay for UAV launch set it apart from other...
Bones Studio announced the release of BONES‑SEED, a multimodal motion dataset tailored for humanoid robotics. The open‑source collection contains 142,000 high‑fidelity human motion sequences, each enriched with up to six natural‑language captions, precise temporal segmentation, and detailed skeletal metadata. Built...
PTC announced a cloud‑native integration that links its Onshape CAD and PDM platform directly with NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim robotics simulation framework. The workflow streams mechanical relationships from Onshape into Isaac Sim, automatically updating physics‑based simulations whenever designs change. Demonstrated at...
Open Skies Network has partnered with ASONE Park to build the United Kingdom’s first DronePort at St Merryn Aerodrome in north Cornwall. The aviation campus will host eVTOL, eSTOL and BVLOS drone operations, creating a multi‑use environment where traditional and emerging aircraft...
FANUC announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to accelerate "physical AI" in its industrial robot lineup. The collaboration embeds NVIDIA Jetson edge modules, Isaac Sim, and Omniverse into FANUC's robots and ROBOGUIDE software, enabling photorealistic digital twins and real‑time AI...
University of Florida researchers uncovered three previously unknown vulnerabilities in thermal‑camera perception systems used by autonomous drones and robots. The flaws—rooted in image equalization, sensor calibration and lens optics—can be triggered by ordinary or malicious heat sources, causing real obstacles...
ZeroUSV successfully demonstrated the first fully autonomous launch of a Teledyne Slocum ocean glider from its Oceanus12 uncrewed surface vessel, marking a milestone for the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Bastion programme. The trial showed a glider deployed without any human intervention,...
📍@NissanMotor Global HQ, Yokohama🇯🇵 Privileged to have had an exclusive demonstration of @Nissan's in-house #selfdriving vehicle technology & their mobility service in Yokohama. Got the full experience of booking through Nissan's Easy Ride App, Pick-Up and Drop-Off (PUDO), including a visit to...
The U.S. Navy has signed a five‑year IDIQ contract with Pittsburgh‑based Gecko Robotics, starting with a $54 million award and a $71 million ceiling. Gecko’s autonomous inspection robots will crawl inside 18 Pacific Fleet vessels to generate detailed digital twins and feed...
Furniture maker Foliot equipped its Quebec and Las Vegas plants with Fanuc CRX‑30 collaborative robots after a successful pilot, expanding to 31 cobots in 2026. The automation shifted operators from repetitive panel‑feeding tasks to supervisory roles, boosting line throughput by 15%...
Performance Drone Works has launched CORE 1.4, the latest software upgrade for its C100 unmanned platform. The update introduces Vision‑Based Navigation that enables GPS‑free “Cold Start” missions and fully activates the Multi‑Mission Payload suite. It also enhances SROC communications with...
Neousys Technology unveiled the Nuvo-11160GC, a compact rugged edge AI computing platform targeting industrial and robotics markets. Powered by Intel Core Ultra 200S CPUs and supporting up to 150W NVIDIA RTX GPUs, it delivers real‑time AI inference within a -25°C...
Exciting to see how far the industry has come since we gave our first end-to-end AI driving demo a decade ago. But what matters now is scaled deployment. Every day this week we are releasing a new hour long video of...
Theory: We don't let LLMs control robots and operate freely in the physical world (yet?) because they'd fall all the time, break everything, and cause massive damage. But in software the falling and the massive damage are invisible, so it's fine. https://t.co/HMltzq20lp
Nvidia announced new partnerships with Hyundai, Nissan, Isuzu, BYD and Geely to integrate its Drive Hyperion autonomous‑vehicle platform. The deal expands Nvidia's reach into Level 4 robotaxi‑ready systems, complementing existing customers such as Waymo, Aurora and Lucid. Nvidia frames the move...
AI agents are getting expense cards. Ramp and Stripe are both building infrastructure that lets autonomous agents buy, spend, and transact end-to-end without a human in the loop. The ceiling on what agents can do has always been money. That...
On Yokohama🇯🇵 streets... The behaviour that most impressed me about @Nissan's selfdriving tech is 👇🏽 https://t.co/tGMsVqllhO
At GTC 2026, NVIDIA and European rideshare firm Bolt announced a partnership to develop robotaxis across Europe. Bolt will leverage NVIDIA’s Cosmos, Omniverse, the Alpamayo autonomous‑vehicle model, and Drive Hyperion platform to turn its fleet data into a scalable learning...
"The headline “launch” by $UBER and $NVDA may simply mean a safety driver behind the wheel of a Level 2 car in the first half of next year."
No doubt @tonyzzhao knows what’s up. Diversity and scale of data is becoming key in training robotics models. And not all data is made equal.
How can robots acquire skills through interactions with the physical world? An interview with Jiaheng Hu by @aihuborg and Lucy Smith https://t.co/HF0EtUnsaR
“In the spring of 2025, renting a humanoid robot for a corporate event in China cost…10,000 [to] 20,000 yuan per day. By March 2026, JDcom’s rental storefront lists a Unitree humanoid, with on-site engineer included, starting at 1,796 yuan.” @poezhao0605 https://t.co/yotqwvFfWf
