Today's Robotics Pulse
Chinese startup Spirit AI tops global AI robot leaderboard, beating Nvidia
Spirit AI’s embodied intelligence model, Spirit v1.6, achieved a score of 1,924 on the RoboArena benchmark, surpassing Nvidia’s Cosmos3‑Nano‑Policy. The company also disclosed a ¥1.5 billion (≈$222 million) funding round to accelerate its robotics AI platform.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OneRobotics acquires Nanoleaf for $40M
NūMove Robotics & Vision Partners with KPI Solutions to Develop New Robotic Order Picking System for Beverage Warehousing
NūMove Robotics & Vision and KPI Solutions have teamed up to launch RAPTOR, a dual‑robot order‑picking system designed for beverage warehousing. The vision‑guided solution occupies roughly 2,500 sq ft and separates depalletizing from palletizing using temporary SKU‑specific buffer lanes. RAPTOR can handle a wide range of product formats, from closed cases to returnable shells, and is already being installed in U.S. distribution centers. The partnership promises higher throughput, greater flexibility, and improved worker safety for fast‑moving beverage SKUs.
Steer Pretrained Robots in Real Time without Retraining
A training-free framework that guides robot behavior in real time. [📍 Project, paper & videos below 👇] VLS runs uncut, steering pretrained policies across long-horizon tasks. Most robots don’t fail because they lack skill. They fail because their behavior isn’t...
Give Fremont Workers Home Robots for Dual‑use Data
I've been visiting with robot video data collectors and merchants of said data. He's buying a lot of data from these people as well, but the 12,000 workers at Fremont are an under-thought-of resource. He could lend a Tesla robot to...
New Generation of Robotic Cells to Drive Flexible, Zero-Emission Aerospace Manufacturing
The ROBOCOMP project, led by the DANOBAT cooperative and supported by IDEKO, has created a new generation of flexible, sensorised robotic cells for aerospace component manufacturing. These cells can machine carbon‑fibre parts vertically, improving access to complex geometries while cutting...
Upcoming Lunar Rover Missions (2026–2035)
Between 2026 and 2035 a wave of lunar rover missions will transform Moon exploration from static landers to mobile surface operations. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, along with national agencies and private firms, will launch dozens of rovers ranging...
Tesla Admits Optimus Robots Are Doing No Useful Work & Other Things We Learned From Mag 7 Earnings
Tesla confirmed on its earnings call that Optimus humanoid robots are still in R&D and are not performing useful work in its factories, contradicting earlier claims. The admission resets expectations for the robotics sector, underscoring the gap between prototypes and...
Paladin Unveils Knighthawk 2.0: Advancing Public Safety Infrastructure and Emergency Response Worldwide
Paladin introduced Knighthawk 2.0, an autonomous NDAA‑compliant drone built on Drone‑as‑a‑First‑Responder (DFR) technology, aimed at modernizing public‑safety infrastructure worldwide. The platform reaches incident sites in 70 seconds, offers 40 minutes of flight time, and streams 4K video plus thermal imagery via unlimited‑range 5G/LTE...
Unusual Machines Promotes Drew Camden to President
Unusual Machines announced that Drew Camden has been promoted to President while retaining his Chief Operating Officer duties. Camden will continue overseeing manufacturing, supply chain, and operational execution as the company expands its U.S. production footprint. Under his leadership, the firm...
Loki Robotics Focuses Beyond Humanoids, Innovates Differently
Everyone talks about humanoids. Meanwhile, Loki Robotics :
‘No Strangers to Drones’: Singapore Eyes Unmanned Surge with Israeli Tech
Singapore’s Air Force is expanding its unmanned fleet by operationalising Israeli‑made Orbiter 4 and Hermes 900 UAVs, while introducing new doctrines to counter low‑cost drone swarms. A dedicated DROID unit and UAS Warfare and Tactics Centre will experiment with micro‑drones and integrate...
AMD Expands Midrange FPGA Offerings with Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 Family
AMD announced the Kintex UltraScale+ Gen 2 FPGA family, a mid‑range line that modernizes memory, I/O, and security for industrial, medical, and broadcast applications. The new devices deliver up to five times higher memory bandwidth and double the PCIe channel...
Intelcom to Open Automated Sorting Center in Québec
Intelcom Courrier Canada announced a 190,000‑sq‑ft automated sorting center in Candiac, Quebec, slated to open after construction begins in May 2026. The $45 million Rosefellow‑built facility will employ over 170 staff and uses Bastian Solutions’ conveyor and sortation technology. It consolidates...
Dynamic OCR Inspection with HALCON Ensures Maximum Product Quality
H&H Group’s manual label verification caused mislabeling, complaints, and financial loss. The company partnered with Shenzhen Jiangrun Xuneng Technology to build a machine‑vision platform that uses MVTec HALCON for dynamic OCR of batch numbers, dates and other codes. HALCON’s preprocessing...
Predictive World Model Lets Robots Learn Tasks Instantly
Robots usually fail for one simple reason: they don’t understand what will happen next. [📍Paper, code & task gallery at the end] > 14B “World Action Model” from NVIDIA : DreamZero… Instead of copying motions or replaying demonstrations, this model...
RoboDK Launches CAM Solution Designed to Slash Robotic Machining Deployment Times
RoboDK has introduced RoboDK CAM, a new software that automates robot code generation from CAD designs, dramatically shortening robotic machining deployment times. The solution covers milling, drilling, deburring, cutting and additive manufacturing, and offers both a standalone interface and add‑ins for...
Russia’s Domestic Drone Push Is a Mixed Bag for Its War on the West
On January 1 2026 Russia enacted a tax incentive that lets companies deduct two rubles from income tax for every ruble spent on domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicles. The measure is designed to accelerate the home‑grown drone sector that has become central...
Untitled
Palladyne AI announced the first flight of IntelliSwarm, its integrated SwarmOS autonomy software and BRAIN X2 flight computer, on the Banshee loitering‑munition UAV. The three‑week integration demonstrated autonomous collaboration with Red Cat drones, proving decentralized edge AI in a heterogeneous multi‑vehicle scenario....
Valqari Secures 17th U.S. Patent Expanding Autonomous Drone Operations to Package Sending
Valqari, a Chicago‑based autonomous drone startup, secured its 17th U.S. patent (US12528599B2) covering automated loading of packages onto drones and outbound deployment. The patent expands Valqari’s technology from receiving to full “send‑to‑end” operations, completing its control of the drone distribution...
XAG P150 Max Agricultural Drone Comes to U.S. with Proven Efficiency and Reliability
XAG has introduced its P150 Max agricultural drone to the U.S. market, offering a 176‑lb payload, 44.7 mph cruise speed and up to 80 acres per hour spraying capacity. The platform supports autonomous spraying, spreading, mapping and logistics, and can be...
Stanford, Princeton Scientists Launch MedOS AI-XR-Cobot Clinical System
Stanford and Princeton researchers unveiled MedOS, the first AI‑XR cobot system designed to act as a real‑time clinical co‑pilot. The platform fuses smart glasses, collaborative robotic arms and a multi‑agent AI that builds a 3‑D world model, enabling perception, planning...
Basler AG at LogiMAT 2026: Tailor-Made Machine Vision Solutions for Logistics
Basler AG will exhibit at LogiMAT 2026 in Stuttgart from March 24‑26, showcasing its full machine‑vision portfolio for logistics. The highlight is the debut of the new Basler Stereo mini 3D camera, a lightweight, cost‑efficient stereo sensor designed for object...
Staples Canada Boosts Productivity, Cuts Training Time with Fulfillment Center Robotics
Staples Canada, a three‑decade leader in next‑day delivery, has modernized its fulfillment network by adding Locus Robotics to two warehouses and plans three more deployments this year. The robots, integrated with a Manhattan Active WMS, have nearly doubled productivity, boosted...
Innovative Drone Tech Start-Up to Reach New Heights at Space Park Leicester
DroneOD, a 2025‑founded start‑up, has joined the University of Leicester’s Space Park to develop a universal, secure IoT controller for drones. Its rugged GNSS‑enabled device offers real‑time tracking, geofencing, autonomous control and fleet analytics across all major drone platforms, and includes...
AutoFlight Unveils World’s First 5-Ton Class eVTOL Aircraft
AutoFlight unveiled Matrix, the world’s first 5‑ton class eVTOL, completing a public full‑transition flight. The aircraft features a 20‑meter wingspan, 5,700 kg maximum take‑off weight, and offers both pure‑electric (250 km range) and hybrid (1,500 km range) variants. The passenger version seats up...
Moog and Echodyne Announce Collaboration to Advance Weapon Systems for Global Defense
Moog Inc. and radar‑platform specialist Echodyne have signed a partnership to fuse Moog’s precision weapon‑system technology with Echodyne’s Metamaterial Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radars. The joint effort will target integrated air‑and‑missile defense (IAMD), airfield safety and combat‑vehicle applications, accelerating hardware‑software...
Sports Discipline Fuels AI-Driven Industrial Automation
"Discipline Is a Transferable Skill" 🎙️ Camilla Mazzoleni is the co-founder & CPO of FORGIS , a Zurich-based startup building an AI operating layer for industrial automation: In this episode, Camilla shares a founder journey shaped long before robotics. She...
For Rayhawk Technologies, Automating Away Risk Is a Family Story
Rayhawk Technologies, founded by Tom Boehm, has turned a family‑rooted safety concern into an automated gantry system that opens and closes railcar lids at grain elevators. Leveraging machine‑learning and computer‑vision, the solution replaces hazardous manual work with precise, weather‑resilient robotics....
Faraday Future Launches Three Series of Robot Products in Las Vegas at the Annual NADA Show
Faraday Future Intelligent Electric announced the formation of a U.S.-based robotics subsidiary, FF EAI‑Robotics, and unveiled three robot products—a pair of humanoids and a quadruped—at the NADA show in Las Vegas. The company says it has secured paid, non‑binding deposits...
Robotics Startup Octobotics Raises Rs 10 Cr in Seed Round
Octobotics, an AI‑enabled non‑destructive testing robotics startup, raised roughly Rs 10 crore in a seed round led by Navam Capital with BYT Capital joining. The capital will fund accelerated product development, certification, and expansion into Singapore and the Middle East. Founded in...
U.S. Robotics at Strategic Inflection Point, AUVSI-Backed Partnership for Robotics Competitiveness White Paper Warns
A new white paper from AUVSI’s Partnership for Robotics Competitiveness warns that the United States is at a drone‑sector‑style inflection point for robotics and physical AI. It argues that delayed, fragmented policy could let Chinese state‑backed firms dominate critical supply...
Neura Robotics and Drees & Sommer Launch Strategic Partnership for Robotics-Ready Buildings
Neura Robotics and Drees & Sommer have formed a strategic partnership to develop robotics‑ready buildings, beginning with automated sanitary facilities. The collaboration blends Neura's cognitive robotics and AI with Drees & Sommer's expertise in planning, sensor technology, digital twins, and...
Learn STEM & Robotics From an AI Avatar Professor
Let my AI Avatar Robotics Professor teach you key concepts in STEM and robotics #Robots #STEM #AI #NoireSTEMinist #Robots https://lnkd.in/gpe_5j9i
Robotic Modules Bloom Like Flowers to Auto‑shade Rooms
Scientists have developed rearrangeable robotic modules that can “bloom” like flowers to shade a sunlit room by sensing light levels and adapting collectively. Learn more in Science #Robotics: https://t.co/0zas9GijHE https://t.co/eodfL5SNiU
Nightfood Holdings: Transforming Hotels and Guest Experiences Through Robotics
Nightfood Holdings announced the launch of a dedicated hospitality robotics vertical, combining two owned hotels with its newly acquired TechForce Robotics and RoboOp365 companies. The firm is deploying autonomous pallet‑style robots for linens and trash, and culinary assistants for 24/7...
SMART and NUS Pioneer Neural Blueprint for Human-Like Intelligence in Soft Robots
SMART, NUS and MIT researchers unveiled a neuron‑inspired AI controller that lets soft robotic arms learn a full suite of motions once and instantly adapt to new conditions without retraining. The system combines offline‑trained structural synapses with online‑updating plastic synapses...
The World's First 'Biomimetic AI Robot' Just Strolled in From the Uncanny Valley —and Yes, It's Super-Creepy
Chinese startup Droidup unveiled Moya, a humanoid robot it dubs the world’s first fully biomimetic AI robot. The machine features warm, skin‑like polymer that maintains a human‑like temperature and a Walker 3 skeleton that claims 92 % walking accuracy. Moya’s camera‑eyes and...
AWS Prototyping Team Delivered a Tutorial for MassRobotics Residents
The AWS Prototyping Team delivered a hands‑on tutorial to MassRobotics residents and Physical AI Working Group participants, outlining its mission and showcasing AWS tools for building physical AI systems. The session highlighted a natural‑language interface that lets users command the...
The Lightning-Fast Reflexes of a Royal Navy Drone Pilot Prevented a £2.5m Aircraft Plunging Into the Ocean
Royal Navy drone pilot Lt Cdr Adrian “AJ” Hill earned the first Green Endorsement for a UAV operator after manually rescuing a £2.5 million Peregrine camcopter that suffered a computer error and began descending toward the Gulf of Oman. The 10‑foot surveillance drone...
Self‑driving Demo Shows Learned Competence, Not Scripted Automation
Keep coming back to this demo because it does something rare: It looks boring... in the best possible way. A vehicle drives itself around a facility, makes reasonable choices, and reaches a waypoint without any visible choreography. No dramatic edge...
HSST Passes NASA Authorization Bill, Rejects Drone Detection Amendment
HSST unanimously adopted (37-0) the NASA auth bill, HR 7273, as amnded. List of adopted amndmnts: https://t.co/DpUjGFOTeA. One (Rep Stevens) rejected by recorded vote (18-19) to improve NASA's ability to detect drones entering its airspace. Opponents said not right bill...
Making Autonomous Cargo Work at Real-World Scale: Charles Acknin, CEO Skyways
In this episode, Charles Acknin, CEO of Skyways, discusses how his company is moving autonomous cargo drones from prototype to operational scale, highlighting real‑world missions that deliver substantial payloads for military and commercial clients. He explains the technical and regulatory...
Robot Faces Now Sync Lips Across 12 Languages
Scientists have designed a framework that enables a humanoid robot face to produce realistic lip-audio synchronization across 12 different languages, including English, Russian, Korean, and Arabic. Learn more in Science #Robotics: https://t.co/Sk4UElC3o8 https://t.co/geXyInLY89
Inside the Gaganyaan-1 Uncrewed Mission Scheduled for March 2026
India’s Gaganyaan‑1 uncrewed test flight is slated for March 2026, using the human‑rated LVM3 (HLVM3) launch vehicle. The mission will carry the humanoid robot Vyommitra to monitor cabin conditions and simulate astronaut activities in microgravity. It will execute a full launch‑orbit‑re‑entry‑recovery...
ETM Brings Its Transverse Flux Motor Technology to Robotics
Electric Torque Machines (ETM) announced the launch of its transverse flux motor (TFM) technology for robotics and advanced actuators. The company offers the TFM via a licensing model that lets OEMs manufacture the motors in‑house, preserving margins and roadmap control....
Machina Labs Raises $124M to Scale Manufacturing Infrastructure for Defense and Advanced Mobility
Machina Labs closed a $124 million Series C round to build its first large‑scale Intelligent Factory in the United States. The 200,000‑square‑foot facility will host up to 50 RoboCraftsman robotic cells, enabling rapid, software‑defined production of complex metal structures. Investors include Lockheed...
Hesai and Grab Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate LiDAR Deployment Across Southeast Asia
Hesai Technology and Grab announced a strategic cooperation making Grab the exclusive distributor of Hesai’s LiDAR sensors across Southeast Asia. The deal gives Hesai access to Grab’s extensive sales, support and marketing network, while securing a reliable LiDAR supply for...
Robot Orders Grow 6.6% in 2025 as General Industries Drive Broader Automation Adoption
North American robot orders rose 6.6% in 2025, reaching 36,766 units worth $2.25 billion, a 10.1% revenue gain over 2024. Growth was driven primarily by non‑automotive sectors such as food, consumer goods, semiconductors and life sciences, while automotive component orders lagged...
Bedrock Robotics Raises $270 Million in Series B Funding to Accelerate the Future of Autonomous Construction
Bedrock Robotics announced a $270 million Series B round, valuing the autonomous construction startup at $1.75 billion. The funding, led by CapitalG and Valor Atreides AI Fund, brings total capital raised to over $350 million and will support scaling of fleet‑level autonomy across excavation,...
Video Wednesday
Johnson & Johnson’s Verb Surgical unveiled OTTAVA, a six‑armed robotic platform designed for minimally invasive procedures. The system integrates advanced imaging, AI‑driven guidance, and modular instrument arms to enhance surgeon precision. OTTAVA targets complex abdominal and thoracic surgeries, promising reduced...
Apeiron Labs Gets $9.5M to Flood the Oceans with Autonomous Underwater Robots
Apeiron Labs announced a $9.5 million Series A round to scale its low‑cost autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that sample temperature, salinity and acoustics across the water column. The three‑foot, 20‑pound AUVs can be launched from boats or aircraft, operate in 10‑20 km spaced...