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.
Rising e‑grocery sales and aging U.S. cold‑storage facilities are driving a surge in demand for modern, temperature‑controlled warehouses. DHL Supply Chain teamed with real‑estate developer RLCold to build over 5 million square feet of new cold‑storage space across North America, emphasizing scalable automation. Meanwhile, Corvus Robotics launched its Corvus One for Cold Chain drones, capable of operating down to –20°F and delivering 99.9% inventory‑count accuracy. Early adopters such as Kroger are already deploying the drones, signaling a broader shift toward robotics in sub‑zero logistics.
The episode explores the rapidly evolving autonomous vehicle landscape in Texas, featuring hands‑on rides in Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi, Uber’s AV partner Averid, May Mobility’s hybrid shuttles, and a Kodiak Class 8 autonomous truck. While Tesla’s Robotaxi impressed with smooth, familiar performance,...
Austin‑based Saronic Technologies closed a $1.75 billion Series D round, valuing the autonomous‑vessel maker at $9.25 billion. The funding, led by Kleiner Perkins, adds Advent International, Bessemer, DFJ Growth and others to its investor base. Recent milestones include acquiring Gulf Craft’s shipyard, a...
Vecna Robotics announced CaseFlow Voice, embedding Lucas Systems’ Jennifer voice platform into its CaseFlow case‑picking automation. The hands‑free solution promises up to a 2× boost in throughput and cuts training time by as much as 50%. Designed for high‑mix, high‑volume...
South Africa’s Master Drilling reported a record $292 million revenue and a near‑billion‑dollar 2026 order book, driven by its raise‑boring business which accounts for over 80% of sales. The company announced the development of fully autonomous raise‑boring rigs, targeting deployment before...
Lucid Motors unveiled the Lunar, a two‑seat, doorless robotaxi concept, at its Investor Day in New York. The vehicle trims its battery to about 55 kWh, promising roughly 9.7 km per kWh—nearly double the efficiency of typical four‑seat EVs and enough for...
Dino and his team scaled @saronic faster than any defense company to date. He’s delivered hundreds of autonomous vessels to the US Navy, redefining naval autonomy, and the fastest-built big ships since WWII. Now, we’re scaling. I’m proud to have helped them...
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has selected UT Austin professor Maruthi Akella to deliver the 2026 von Kármán Lecture in Astronautics. His talk, “Opinion Dynamics, Learning, Trust, and Control of Autonomous Space Systems,” will be held on May 20 during...
Sandvik secured an order from Chilean miner Codelco for 13 Toro LH515i load‑haul‑dump machines to support the Chuquicamata underground expansion. Deliveries start in March 2026 and run through November 2027, coinciding with the ramp‑up of a new production panel at one of the...
The Commercial UAV News webinar on April 7 will tackle Europe’s fragmented drone certification landscape, where each member state interprets EASA guidance differently. Speakers Tiziano Fiorucci of WindShape and Jordi Salvador of BCN Drone Centre will discuss how controlled indoor testing...
PR‑DC unveiled the IKA‑ROCKET, the world’s first military‑certified multicopter capable of launching three aircraft rockets. The system, built on the IKA‑20‑M hexacopter, passed internal tests that proved it can fire rockets from all three launch positions while hovering and during...
I did a futures wheel exercise with the Hungarian National Ambulance Service about an exciting possible milestone in the future: the ambulance fleet of a national service becoming fully autonomous by 2035. This exercise helps determine the primary and secondary consequences...
Federal investigators have opened a probe into Ford Motor Co.'s Blue Cruise system after two 2024 crashes in Texas and Pennsylvania killed three people. The National Transportation Safety Board will issue recommendations on how partially automated, hands‑off features monitor driver...
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released its first national standard system for humanoid robots in February 2026, aiming to unify safety, technical, and ethical requirements. The framework, developed by a 120‑member committee, addresses hardware integrity, predictable software behavior,...
Colruyt Group’s Collect&Go is piloting an unmanned electric delivery vehicle in Leuven from mid‑May through August, marking Belgium’s first autonomous vehicle on public roads without a fixed route. The compact vehicle, limited to 25 km/h, can transport groceries for two customers,...
Teledyne Marine has secured a UK Ministry of Defence contract to provide autonomous ocean observing systems—including Sentinel and Slocum gliders and APEX floats—for the Royal Navy’s Future Maritime Data Gathering (FMDG) program. The equipment will expand the Navy’s unmanned fleet,...
The Association for Standardisation of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM) convened its 2026 Technical Seminar in Munich, spotlighting interoperability and cross‑domain collaboration across simulation, data management, and diagnostics. Key updates included the OpenX suite’s high‑fidelity sensor modeling, the integration of...
Drone warfare 🤝 AI Currently each drone requires a single pilot. Now that drone production is increasing rapidly, manufacturers in Ukraine are attempting to move to 1 pilot for many drones. The idea is the drones will pilot themselves towards targets...
Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) placed a follow‑on order for additional GAVIA autonomous underwater vehicles and payload modules from Teledyne Marine, signed at the Navy Tech Conference in Gothenburg. The new units build on the four AUVs delivered in early...
Researchers unveiled the MiniV‑Bat, a 233.7 g micro bicopter that can hover for 74 minutes, setting a new benchmark for endurance in its class. By redefining control to focus on the rotor disc rather than the vehicle’s attitude, the team eliminated non‑minimum...
Researchers at EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Laboratory introduced a hyper‑redundancy framework that lets modular robots share power, sensing and communication resources across all units. In the Mori3 origami robot, this local resource‑sharing revived a completely dead module, allowing the four‑module system...
STV Group and UK‑based Post‑Quantum announced the successful trial of the world’s first quantum‑resilient drones, demonstrating secure, future‑proof communications between unmanned aircraft and operators. The tests, conducted in operational environments linked to Ukraine and other allied theatres, proved the drones...
Greensea IQ demonstrated autonomous detection and classification of unexploded ordnance (UXO) using its Bayonet 350 autonomous underwater ground vehicle (AUGV) at a former military bombing range in Maine. The vehicle towed White River Technologies’ APEX three‑dimensional electromagnetic sensor and, aided by...
XPONENTIAL 2026 in Detroit serves as a decision‑making hub for autonomous systems across commercial, public safety and defense sectors. The conference blends education and networking, offering sessions on regulatory readiness, scaling manufacturing, workforce readiness and supply‑chain security. New formats such...
Sikorsky and Robinson Helicopter Company unveiled the R66 TURBINETRUCK, an autonomous cargo helicopter that integrates Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomy suite with Robinson’s R66 airframe. The platform, the 21st aircraft equipped with MATRIX, targets both civil and military logistics, offering rapid reconfiguration...
AM‑Quality, the world’s first fully automated in‑line metrology system, uses eight high‑speed 3D laser line CMMs to scan parts in seconds and compare them against digital CAD models. Certified to ISO 10360‑13, the solution delivers spherical accuracy of 50 µm and planar...
A semi-autonomous legged robot equipped with compact scientific instruments can rapidly survey planetary surfaces, accelerating resource prospecting and the search for biosignatures on the Moon and Mars. spaceexploration
The U.S. is falling way behind in uncrewed aerial logistics. I can't count how many of these China has in development now.
NASA’s Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) lets spacecraft compare live images with onboard maps to pinpoint safe landing zones. First proven on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, TRN reduced landing uncertainty from miles to roughly 50 meters. The system’s compact camera‑computer design has...
ModQuad: Modular Quadrotors That Dock Mid-Air to Fly as One Cooperative #Robot by @lukas_m_ziegler #Drone #Innovation #EmergingTech #Tech #Technology https://t.co/bxJL2C5Dko
On-Site #Robot Intelligence: Adaptive #AI for Safe Operation in Unknown Environments via @ZappyZappy7 #Robotics #Transportation #Engineering #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/TqJFzH30aN
Agility Robotics has signed a Robots-as-a-Service agreement with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada to place seven Digit humanoid robots at the Woodstock, Ontario plant that builds RAV4 SUVs. The robots will automate repetitive logistics tasks such as loading and unloading totes...
#Robots Run the Show in China’s Almost Unmanned #Logistics Factory by @Natie2Natie #Robotics #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/BtfY58zCWx
#Robots Take Over Solar Panel Installation for Faster, Safer Deployment by @lukas_m_ziegler Robotics #ArtificialIntelligence #MI #ML #Tech #Innovation https://t.co/frX7ZyVon4
Sphere, an Australian full‑stack tech provider, is moving HubT autonomous drone hardware manufacturing entirely in‑house. The shift includes enclosure fabrication, electrical integration and compliance testing, enabling faster, repeatable production cycles. New trailer and skid deployment configurations reduce site preparation, while...
Electronic Skin Could Give Humanoid #Robots a Real Sense of Touch by @CyberRobooo #Robotics #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/nPzkdQpSdO
BaBot: The DIY Ball-Balancing #Robot That Teaches Real Control Systems via @WevolverApp #Robotics #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology https://t.co/tGizRJRcmJ
Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov announced plans to embed its robotaxi technology in privately owned cars, even as the company grapples with a series of school‑bus‑passing incidents in Austin that have drawn NHTSA and NTSB investigations. The dual narrative highlights both...
This Smart Cleaning #Robot Picks Up Clutter and Scrubs Floors with a #Robotic Arm by @XRoboHub #EmergingTech #Technology #Innovation https://t.co/kcCM6YUmin
This All-Terrain Bipedal #Robot Keeps Its Balance—and Gets Back Up After Falling via @ZappyZappy7 #AI #MachineLearning #Robotics #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/6RlBAo7im4
Tesla is reintroducing its Optimus robot to the Tesla Diner in Hollywood with the third‑generation (Gen 3) model. The new robot features 50 actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, powered by Tesla’s AI5 chip and Grok‑enabled voice interaction. Musk...
Ericsson announced a Brazil‑originated patent for an intent‑based network management method developed by researcher Pedro Henrique Gomes. The solution creates public and private profiles that let operators set high‑level objectives while the infrastructure determines how to meet them, working across...
My interview with Shawn Ryan is now live We sat down for a 3-hour deep dive into the future of humanoid robots, flying cars, weapon detection systems, and next generation AI interfaces Youtube Video: https://t.co/QpX9tBQdmz https://t.co/BccuY3KhVw
Waymo has identified two distinct depots in Dallas, one temporary hub in West Dallas with about 18 vehicles and portable charging, and a larger, permanent‑type site in East Dallas equipped with roughly 36 fast chargers. The depots sit on opposite...
Uber has pledged $1.25 billion to Rivian and will buy 10,000 R2 electric SUVs for a driverless rideshare service launching in Miami in 2028, with San Francisco as a second launch city. The partnership targets 25 U.S. markets by 2031, positioning...
Intramotev, a developer of autonomous freight railcars, announced a new partnership with short‑line operator R.J. Corman Railroad Company. The company’s TugVolt railcars will be deployed on Corman’s 113‑mile Memphis Line, serving 30 customers across Kentucky and Tennessee. R.J. Corman, which...
