Today's Robotics Pulse
Chinese Humanoid Robots Lead the Opening Day of Canton Fair 2026
The 2026 Canton Fair opened with a strong focus on AI, automation and robotics, showcasing a wave of Chinese humanoid machines. Companies such as Ti5 Robot, ChangingTek Robotics and PHYBOT demonstrated robots capable of heavy lifting, dexterous hand manipulation and acrobatic movement, already operating in warehouses and factories.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Home Depot acquires Simpl Automation to boost fulfillment
Anduril’s Fury Drone Completes Contested‑Ops Test, Air Force Takes Lead
Anduril Industries’ autonomous YFQ-44 Fury fighter drone finished a contested‑operations test at Edwards Air Force Base, where Air Force Experimental Operations Unit personnel conducted launch, recovery, weapons handling and flight tasks without Anduril staff. The exercise, part of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Increment 1 program, could speed fielding of unmanned fighters and intensify competition with General Atomics’ Dark Merlin.
Large AI Models Control Robots to Act Physically
a humanoid robot is kind of like computer use, but for the physical world you could have a large model running on the server that gives instructions to the smaller model on the robot to manipulate whatever physical objects are required...
U.S. Army Arms Hunter Wolf UGV with .50‑Caliber Machine Gun, Expanding Combat Role
The U.S. Army has fitted its Hunter Wolf unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) with a .50‑caliber machine gun during a 101st Airborne Division exercise, shifting the platform from pure logistics to a security‑focused combat configuration. The move signals a broader push...
Cadence Commits $65 M to Deepen AI and Robotics Ties with Nvidia and Google Cloud
Cadence Design Systems announced a $65 million investment to broaden AI and robotics partnerships with Nvidia and Google Cloud. The funding will fuel joint design initiatives, integrate Nvidia’s Omniverse and CUDA‑X libraries, and launch a cloud‑based AI agent for chip layout,...
Ulysses Secures $46 Million to Accelerate Ocean‑Tech Fleet, Led by A16z’s American Dynamism
Ulysses announced a $38 million Series A, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, pushing total capital raised to $46 million including an earlier $8 million seed round. The funding will fund production of its Mako underwater vehicle, Leviathan surface craft, and Kraken...
Human Helpers Rescue Finnish Delivery Robots After Curb Mishap, Fueling Safety Debate
Two autonomous food‑delivery robots in Turku, Finland, failed to clear a curb on April 15, 2026, and were manually lifted by nearby pedestrians. The incident has reignited debate over the safety and regulatory framework for sidewalk robots, echoing bans in...
Antioch Raises $8.5M to Become the ‘Cursor’ for Physical AI Simulations
Antioch, a New‑York‑based robotics simulation startup, announced an $8.5 million seed round that values the company at $60 million. Backed by A* and Category Ventures, the firm says its platform will let developers train autonomous robots in high‑fidelity virtual warehouses, cutting the...
Instawork Launches Robotics Data Lab as Physical Intelligence Unveils General‑purpose Robot Brain
Instawork announced its Instawork Robotics Lab and a certification program that has already enrolled more than 20,000 gig workers, projecting 20 million hours of robot‑training data in 2026. At the same time, Physical Intelligence published research on its new π0.7 model,...
Podcast: Editors Recap MODEX 2026
Episode 240 of The Robot Report podcast recapped MODEX 2026, the Atlanta‑based supply‑chain expo that drew more than 1,000 exhibitors and roughly 50,000 attendees. Editors Gene Demaitre and Sarah Wynn highlighted rising AI‑driven automation, new partnerships, and standout robots from...
Medline to Implement Symbotic AI Robots in Healthcare Initiative
Medline Industries announced a strategic agreement to deploy Symbotic’s AI‑enabled robotics across its distribution network, becoming the first healthcare supplier to adopt the technology. The autonomous system will manage inbound and outbound pallets, storage, and order assembly, targeting faster, more...
Deep Rover Enables 1km Underwater Exploration in Acrylic Bubble
With Deep Rover, you could dive a kilometer underwater, gaze into the abyss from an acrylic bubble, and unravel the ocean's mysteries. https://spectrum.ieee.org/deep-sea-submersible
Robotics Streamline Warehouse Automation for Faster Operations
How to #Automate Your #Warehouse with #Robotics by @antgrasso #Robots #RPA #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/LYCHsW7agp
Tesseract & ROS-I Developer Monthly Meeting Revisit
The second‑quarter ROS‑Industrial (ROS‑I) developer meeting, led by Matt Robinson, unveiled new documentation for the Scan and Plan Workshop and Noether repositories, complete with updated architecture diagrams. Michael highlighted a shift from Swig to NanoBind for Tesseract’s Python bindings and...
Weekly ROS Update: New Solver, NVIDIA, LEGO Packages
Here is your #ROS and open source #robotics news for the week of April 13th, 2026: 🌷ROSCon Global talk's due 4/26 🌷New ROS 2 Jazzy SO-101 IK Solver 🌷ROS Package for @nvidia Fast Foundation Stereo 🌷Jazzy Package for @LEGO_Group Mindstorms 🌷OSRA Technology Strategy for 2026 ⬇️...
Chinese Humanoid Robots Dominate Opening Day of Canton Fair 2026
The 2026 Canton Fair opened with a strong focus on AI, automation and robotics, showcasing a wave of Chinese humanoid machines ready for real‑world deployment. Companies such as Ti5 Robot, ChangingTek Robotics and PHYBOT demonstrated robots capable of heavy lifting,...