Today's Robotics Pulse
ROBOTIS’s AI Sapiens learns K‑POP dance from a phone video
South Korean robotics firm ROBOTIS showcased its AI Sapiens humanoid robot mastering a complex K‑POP routine using only a smartphone video. The approach leverages video‑based motion capture, reinforcement‑learning simulation and Sim2Real transfer, removing the need for costly motion‑capture studios. The 1.3‑meter, 34‑kg robot is equipped with 23 DYNAMIXEL‑Q actuators.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Waymo acquires Apple’s Arizona Proving Ground for $220M
Linamar Moves Into Robotics with New Cobots and Humanoid Line
Linamar Corp., a longtime auto‑parts supplier, announced it is building collaborative robots and developing a humanoid robot platform. The move leverages its precision‑manufacturing expertise to tap a high‑growth robotics market.
LLMs Help Robots Understand Vague Instructions and Focus on Key Details
MIT's CSAIL researchers introduced Masked Inverse Reinforcement Learning, a method that leverages two large language models to clarify ambiguous instructions and filter irrelevant environmental details for robot motion planning. The approach cuts required kinesthetic demonstrations by roughly fivefold and improves...
Report: 17.3% Growth Forecast for Collaborative Robot Shipments From 2025-30
Collaborative robot (cobot) shipments are forecast to grow 17.3% annually from 2025 to 2030, nearly doubling to 128,918 units. 2025 saw a 14.5% shipment increase to about 57,000 units and revenue rise to over $1.2 billion. By 2030 revenue is...
Sharpa Hands Added to NVIDIA Humanoid Robot Design
Sharpa announced that its Wave tactile five‑finger hands are now part of NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, creating the first dexterous humanoid built on the GR00T platform. The integrated system combines a Unitree H2 Plus chassis, 75 total degrees...
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Morph announced the world’s first shapeshifting soft‑robotics cells platform, embedding sensors and adaptive control directly into deformable materials. The technology enables products to alter their morphology and stiffness in real time, creating a new class of embodied physical AI. Backed...
Nvidia Launches Secure H2 Plus Humanoid Robot Platform Amid Geopolitical Scrutiny
Nvidia announced the H2 Plus (Isaac GR00T) secure humanoid robot platform at Computex, a 6‑foot, 150‑lb system built with Chinese chassis maker Unitree and Singapore‑based Sharpa. The platform embeds data‑center‑grade security, a move that directly addresses rising US‑China geopolitical and...
XELA Robotics to Unveil New Major Tactile Sensor Capabilities at Automate 2026
XELA Robotics will showcase major upgrades to its uSkin tactile sensor line at Automate 2026, including a robotic fingertip with a six‑axis force‑sensitive nail and magnetic‑interference compensation. The enhancements add automatic weight and hardness detection, high‑durability fingertip covers, and tighter integration...
Nvidia Launches Cosmos 3, Open‑world Model to Boost Robotics and Autonomous‑vehicle Perception
Nvidia announced Cosmos 3, an open‑world foundation model that unifies visual reasoning, world generation and action prediction for robotics and autonomous vehicles. The release includes two checkpoints—Nano (16 B parameters) and Super (64 B)—and a suite of open datasets, tools and a new...
LUMOS Robotics Offers 100 NIX Robots for Global Co-Creation After Mind-Blowing Street Dance Showcase
LUMOS Robotics announced Project EDGE, a co‑creation program that will distribute 100 free NIX humanoid robots to selected universities, labs and developers worldwide. The upgraded NIX showcases high‑speed dance flips, handstands and dynamic motion powered by the proprietary P‑60 joint module...
NATO Countries Test Canadian-Made, High-Speed “Cannibal” Drone
NATO member states are trialing the Anuri CUAS drone, a Canadian‑made high‑speed “cannibal” system unveiled at CANSEC 2026. The platform can detect, track and neutralise hostile UAVs traveling up to 400 km/h, reaching a target within 80 seconds at a 5 km range. Developed...
SoftBank Is Reportedly in Early Talks to Back an $800m Agile Robots Round
SoftBank is in early discussions to contribute more than $300 million to an $800 million financing round for Munich‑based Agile Robots. The Japanese conglomerate previously led the startup’s $220 million Series C in 2021, which made Agile Robots Germany’s first robotics unicorn. Agile Robots,...
Determinism All the Way Down – How UiPath's Market Bet and the Engine Beneath It Turn Out to Be the...
UiPath has woven Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex into its orchestration platform, positioning AI as a catalyst for building deterministic automation rather than the automation itself. The company’s Maestro orchestrator runs on Temporal, an event‑sourcing engine that preserves workflow state...
Startups Shore Up Ukraine’s Defenses With Sea Drone Swarms and Robot Trucks
Former U.S. submarine commander Charles Maher’s BlueShadow is developing autonomous sea‑drone swarms to shield Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, targeting a first squadron of missile‑armed vessels by early 2027. The effort is part of a broader wave of startups accelerated by...
Virtual Testing Eliminates Downtime in Modern Manufacturing
A month later, I'm still thinking about that day in Augsburg. We co-hosted the KUKA × Visual Components Simulation Event... and honestly, it was one of those events where you leave with your head full. The room was packed with...
Humanoid Robot Matches Intern in 10‑Hour Sorting Test
Human vs. Humanoid: Figure #AI’s F.03 #Robot Takes on a College Intern in a 10-Hour Package-Sorting Showdown by @IntEngineering #Robotics #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/lTAadfWYck
RLWRLD Debuts Robotics Foundation Model ‘RLDX-1’ at NVIDIA GTC Taipei 2026
Physical AI startup RLWRLD unveiled its Robotics Foundation Model RLDX-1 at Nvidia’s GTC Taipei 2026, showcasing a humanoid hand system optimized for dexterous manipulation. RLDX-1 topped eight public robotics benchmarks, scoring 70.6 on the RoboCasa Kitchen task and outperforming Nvidia’s...
Sharpa Wave Is a High-End Dexterous Robotic Hand with 22 DoF, High-Sensitivity Dynamic Tactile Array
NVIDIA unveiled the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot at Computex 2026, featuring the Sharpa Wave dexterous robotic hand as a key component. The hand offers a human‑scale 1:1 form factor, 22 active degrees of freedom, and a dynamic tactile array that can...
UiPath: Can RPA And Agentic AI Coexist And Thrive? (Downgrade)
UiPath posted first‑quarter 2027 results showing 17% year‑over‑year revenue growth and higher margins, but investors remain uneasy about the durability of that growth as the company blends robotic process automation with emerging agentic AI. The hybrid model promises richer automation...
JCPenney Parent Catalyst Brands Deploys Humanoid Robots in Nevada Warehouse
Catalyst Brands, the parent of JCPenney and other apparel labels, has signed an agreement with Figure AI to pilot its Figure 03 humanoid robots in the company’s 1.7‑million‑square‑foot Reno, Nevada distribution center. The robots will automate repetitive sorting and packing tasks, using...
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Humanoid-Bosch Deal Highlights What’s Next for Australia’s Robotics-Driven Logistics Market
UK startup Humanoid has partnered with Bosch to mass‑produce its HMND 01 industrial robots, moving the technology from prototype to manufacturing scale. The deal arrives as Australia’s logistics sector ramps up automation, highlighted by Amazon’s A$750 million (≈$500 million) robotic fulfillment centre near...
Sam Altman Is Quietly Backing a Stealth Startup That's Building Software for Robots and Cars
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, through his venture firm Hydrazine Capital, is backing a stealth startup called Alfred, founded by a former Tesla designer and an ex‑Meta Reality Labs engineer. Alfred is raising capital at a $40 million valuation to build a...
Inside the DJI Trust Center
A new analysis of DJI’s Trust Center reveals that the company’s security audits and certifications are narrow, time‑boxed penetration tests that have been repackaged as broad guarantees of safety. The reports cover single firmware versions, specific devices, or isolated cloud...
42 Technology and Omnisense Collaborate on Safer Autonomous Drone Landing System
42 Technology partnered with Omnisense to develop an ultra‑wideband (UWB) positioning system that enables autonomous drones to land safely when GNSS signals are unreliable. The extended‑range RF hardware, designed by 42T, supports both ground beacons and airborne units, maintaining stable...
Nvidia Chief Pushes Industrial Humanoid Robot Opportunity
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a new reference humanoid robot at Computex 2026, pairing Nvidia Isaac GR00T compute with a Unitree H2 body and Sharpa Wave tactile hands. The platform is aimed at universities to lower the cost and complexity...
Human-Robot Collaboration: How Modern Workplaces Can Be Designed for Safety, Productivity, and Employee Wellbeing
The industrial robotics market, now worth roughly $85 billion, is eliminating physical barriers on production floors, creating shared spaces where humans and robots operate side by side. New ISO 10218‑1:2025 standards tighten functional safety and cybersecurity requirements, while zone‑based layouts—green, yellow, red—manage...
Volatus Aerospace Clears Key Milestone in U.S. Drone Dominance Initiative
Volatus Aerospace Inc. has been chosen to progress to Phase II of the U.S. Drone Dominance Program, a federal initiative aimed at securing a technological edge in unmanned aerial systems. The selection moves the company into a deeper evaluation stage where...
How to Bring Down Cheap, Low-Flying Drones
Small, inexpensive quadcopters are proliferating across conflict zones, from Ukraine to U.S. and British bases, and are being used by groups such as Hezbollah to strike armored targets. Their low cost and ease of operation make them attractive to both...
Integrated Solutions for Safe & Compliant UTM, Drone Operations & Airspace Integration
ITG Drone Solutions, a European leader in advanced UAS technology, has been added as a Silver Partner to Unmanned Systems Technology's global supplier ecosystem. The partnership highlights ITG's integrated hardware and software portfolio—including DroneSuite, DroneSafeBox, Daliah, and SkyGuard C1—designed to...
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VinDynamics, a Vingroup subsidiary, unveiled its first humanoid robot, Dyno, at two premier tech gatherings—ICRA 2026 in Vienna and Computex 2026 in Taipei. Dyno combines an advanced AI platform with a responsive sensing suite, targeting security, surveillance, and household assistance roles. The...
Changingtek Robotics Unveils Uhand, a High‑Precision Tactile Sensing Hand for Enterprise Automation
Changingtek Robotics launched Uhand, a compact tactile sensing hand that captures multi‑modal data at 30 Hz with 0.7 mm positioning accuracy and 0.01° pose precision. The device targets large‑scale manufacturers, logistics firms, and aerospace producers seeking faster AI model training and more...
West Egg Labs' Gatsby Robot Completes First On‑demand Home‑cleaning Service in San Francisco
West Egg Labs' on‑demand cleaning platform deployed its humanoid robot, Gatsby, to clean a randomly selected San Francisco apartment, marking the first consumer home‑cleaning service by a full‑size robot in the United States. The $150 flat‑rate service took about three...
How the Drone Industry Can Help Shape Its Own Future
The commercial drone market is increasingly fragile, relying on a single dominant platform that leaves operators vulnerable to supply‑chain shocks and regulatory shifts. Chris Raabe of ACSL argues that collaboration across manufacturers, software firms, payload developers, and allied nations is...
Intel Stakes New Claim in Physical AI with Robotics Chips
Intel is re‑entering the physical AI market with its Core Ultra Series 3 processors, now featured in 130 edge‑AI and robotics designs, including the barista robot Ella from SensoryAI. The chips, derived from laptop designs, combine vision, control and graphics on...
The Drone in the Room: What the AI Act’s August Deadline Actually Means for Unmanned Aircraft
The EU AI Act’s August 2 deadline focuses on large general‑purpose AI models, but its definitions of “AI system” already capture many drone autonomy stacks. While most consumer and commercial drones may fall outside the immediate scope, the Act’s high‑risk...
Russia Boosts OWA Drone Output, Cuts Missiles Amid Budget Limits
Russia produced approximately 74,000 OWA drones in 2025 and plans to produce 127,000 in 2026, including 12,000 Geran-4 and 12,000 Geran-5 jet engine variants, which recently entered serial production. Interestingly, Russia has reduced the production of certain missiles to afford...
Spider Robot Prints Entire House in Just 24 Hours
Meet Charlotte: The Spider #Robot That Can #3D Print a House in 24 Hours by @spaceandtech_ #3Dprinted #Technology #Innovation #EmergingTech #TechForGood https://t.co/PP0MAlZAQi
EngineAI Starts Mass Production of T800 Humanoid Robots at Shenzhen Plant
EngineAI Robotics has launched a 12,000‑square‑meter intelligent manufacturing base in Shenzhen, beginning mass production of its T800 full‑size humanoid robot. The facility can output a robot every 15 minutes, giving the company a 10,000‑unit delivery capability and signaling a shift...
Robot Valet Eliminates Parking Stress Completely
No More Parking Stress: This #Robot Valet Handles It All by @IntEngineering #Robotics #Engineering #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/NY4WqxG6cJ
Bonus Episode: Empowering Robotics with 6G (ERF 2026)
In this bonus episode from the European Robotics Forum, a panel of academics and industry leaders discussed how 6G connectivity will empower multipurpose robotics. They highlighted technical gaps such as inefficient multicast, the need for seamless, secure, and AI‑assisted deployment,...
OpenAI Starts with Infrastructure Robots but Aims for "Everyone Having a Personal Robot Doing Anything They Need"
OpenAI has revived its robotics division, hiring engineers across hardware, operations, systems, and machine learning. The near‑term focus is to deploy robots that assist specialists in building infrastructure, while the long‑term vision is to create a personal robot for every...
Scaling Automation in Contract Manufacturing: Interview with Rodrigo DallOglio of Flex
Flex announced an expanded partnership with Teradyne Robotics, allowing the contract manufacturer to both deploy advanced robotics in its own plants and produce key robot components for Teradyne customers worldwide. The move reflects Flex’s strategy of scaling automation from single‑site...
Beyond the Factory Floor: XR Training for the Next Industrial Era
The EU Horizon project MASTER has built an open XR platform that lets manufacturers train workers on industrial robots without physical equipment. Leveraging the Viroo enterprise suite, the system adds code‑free programming, gaze‑based interaction and safety‑zone controls, while AI‑driven “Dreamer”...
Autonomous Drone Platform Achieves Cybersecurity & Defense Certifications
Skyfish Corporation announced that its autonomous drone platform has earned both Green UAS certification and Blue UAS Cleared status, the highest security benchmarks for uncrewed systems. The certifications, administered by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, verify compliance with...
Open Source Hardware for Robotics: Democratizing Robot Building
Open‑source hardware has transformed robotics from a high‑cost, lab‑only activity into a widely accessible field. Platforms such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, TurtleBot and 3D‑printed components let students, hobbyists and startups build functional robots for a few thousand dollars. This hardware democratization...
Nvidia's New World Model Helps Robots Navigate the World
Nvidia unveiled Cosmos 3, an open‑source world model that lets robots, autonomous vehicles and other physical systems simulate and predict real‑world environments. The model was trained on 20 trillion multimodal tokens, including nearly a billion images, 400 million videos, audio, text and action...
NVIDIA Factory Operations Blueprint Gives Factories a New AI Brain
NVIDIA unveiled the Factory Operations Blueprint (FOX) at GTC Taipei, a reference design that lets manufacturers build autonomous factory manager agents to monitor, reason over, and orchestrate real‑time production data. The blueprint runs on the DGX Station powered by the...
How Cosmos 3 Helps Physical AI Think Before It Acts
NVIDIA’s Cosmos 3 platform merges live factory data with Omniverse‑powered simulations, letting physical AI evaluate actions before execution. The system underpins the Factory Operations Blueprint, advances robotics from simulation to real‑world deployment, and supports a simulation‑first design cycle. At Hannover Messe 2026, NVIDIA...
Add Flexibility and Speed to Your Operation with Next-Generation Robotics by Okuma
Okuma unveiled its second‑generation ORL Mark‑II robotic loaders, featuring the ORL‑D II turning‑center system and ORL‑MC II milling system, while previewing the two‑machine ORL‑PLUS series for the upcoming IMTS 2026 show. The upgrades replace pneumatic grippers with electric ones, add programmable force control,...
Swisslog to Showcase Next-Generation Automation Solutions at CeMAT 2026
Swisslog will showcase its next‑generation warehouse automation portfolio at CeMAT 2026 in Melbourne, occupying Stand D27 alongside parent company KUKA. The exhibition will feature the AutoStore grid‑based storage system, the newly introduced WonderStore 4‑way pallet shuttle, and the AI‑driven SynQ...
Table Tennis Robot Beats Elite Players, Transforming Robotics
Table tennis robot defeats some of world’s best players – why this has major implications for robotics By Kartikeya Walia @KartikeyaWalia , Nottingham Trent University / The Conversation https://t.co/nnOcXNY4re