MQ-9B SeaGuardian Shows Off Four Sonobuoy Pods for Anti-Submarine Warfare
General Atomics showcased its MQ‑9B SeaGuardian equipped with four Sonobuoy Dispensing System (SDS) pods at CANSEC 2026, confirming the drone’s full ASW payload configuration. Each pod can carry up to 10 A‑size or 20 G‑size sonobuoys, giving the aircraft a potential load of 40 A‑size or 80 G‑size sonobuoys. The added pods increase weight—up to 340 kg when loaded—potentially trimming the platform’s 24‑to‑40‑hour endurance. The display also featured a central radar pod, highlighting the SeaGuardian’s multi‑mission flexibility for maritime domain awareness and submarine tracking.
Using No Soldiers, Just Robots – Ukraine Captured Russian Position; Ukraine Frontline Ground Robots
Ukraine’s armed forces seized a Russian-held position solely with unmanned ground robots and drones, marking the first such infantry‑free victory in the war. President Zelensky highlighted that platforms such as Ratel, TerMIT, Ardal, Rys, Zmiy, Protector and Volia have completed...
How Orchestration of Humans and AMRs Will Modernize the Warehouse
The article explains that modern warehouses must move beyond simply deploying autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to orchestrating them with human workers. Intelligent software layers dynamically assign tasks, synchronize robot movements, and enable real‑time communication, turning humans and robots into a...
A Stair-Climbing Robot that Catches Itself when It Falls
A team at Singapore University of Technology and Design’s ROAR Lab has created a reinforcement‑learning‑based fall‑mitigation system for stair‑climbing service robots. The system uses a three‑joint arm that can brace against five identified fall modes, achieving a 69.4% success rate...
Africa’s Drone Revolution, By the Numbers
An open‑source dataset compiled by Military Africa tracks 234 drone procurement records across 34 African nations from 1980 to 2026, totaling 1,959 units from 21 supplier countries and over 150 platforms. More than half of those units were bought between...
Schindler Expands Fleet of Elevator Shaft Robots
Schindler has increased its fleet of R.I.S.E elevator shaft robots to seven worldwide, adding two more units. Since launch five years ago, the robots have been deployed at 36 sites, installing roughly 50,000 anchor bolts across seven countries. The self‑climbing...
NTU 3D Prints Self-Sensing Soft Continuum Robot
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University have 3‑D‑printed sacrificial molds that enable a soft continuum robot to sense its own shape using a graphite‑PDMS conductive polymer composite. The robot’s embedded resistive network, read by a high‑frequency board, feeds a Conformer machine‑learning...
Tesla’s Dedicated Optimus Factory Construction Officially Underway at Giga Texas
Tesla has begun building a dedicated Optimus robot factory on the North Campus of Gigafactory Texas, with the first steel structure now standing. The new plant will add more than 5.2 million square feet, stretching almost the full length of the...
How Vision and AI Are Changing Picking Operations
A new white‑paper from Automated Warehouse surveys how machine‑vision and AI are reshaping robotic picking across e‑commerce, kit assembly, and palletizing. It features insights from industry players such as Nomagic, Plus One Robotics, Fizyr, Kardex, Tutor Intelligence and Inbolt, highlighting...
OMRON Launches New Mast Configuration Options for Its Cart Moving AMR
OMRON Robotics has added three mast configurations—no‑mast, 1.2 m mid‑mast, and 1.6 m full‑mast—to its OL‑450S autonomous mobile robot for cart transport. The options let manufacturers tailor the robot’s scanning height to ceiling clearances, traffic density, and workflow complexity. The OL‑450S retains...
NATO Looks to Civil Industry to Scale Drone Production
NATO is crafting an "innovation scale‑up" package to bridge the gap between defence tech firms that have advanced counter‑drone solutions and civilian manufacturers with idle production capacity. The initiative pairs matchmaking with financing tools such as loans and guarantees to...
Kubota, NTT, and DOCOMO Demonstrate Stable Communications for Remote Robotic Farm Machinery
Kubota, NTT, and NTT DOCOMO demonstrated a communications system that keeps video feeds stable for remotely operated robotic farm machines in Japan’s mountainous terrain. The solution blends mobile and satellite links using multi‑link control, automatically switching to the stronger connection....
Researchers From the University of Oulu and the University of Tokyo Demonstrate Drone-Mounted 5G Base Station for Emergency Communications
Researchers from the University of Oulu and the University of Tokyo have successfully demonstrated a drone equipped with a compact 5G base station and satellite backhaul, delivering stable mobile coverage in a controlled test environment. The proof‑of‑concept was carried out...
Mechanical Delays Masking PLC Program Errors
Industrial plants often rely on PLC logic that seems flawless during commissioning, but mechanical inertia—such as motor coast‑down, valve lag, and conveyor drag—can unintentionally compensate for missing interlocks or feedback checks. When equipment is upgraded, speeds increase, or process conditions...
Army Awards First Fast-Tracked UGV Contract to UK Startup
Windsor‑based XRC Robotics has secured a Ministry of Defence contract for its RHINO uncrewed ground vehicle, marking the first time the UK MoD has fast‑tracked a robotic platform into frontline experimentation. The February 2026 award covers the modular RHINO, built for...