Pendleton UAS Range and Gambit Partner to Deliver Red Force as aService for Counter UAS Testing and Training
Pendleton UAS Range and AI‑focused firm Gambit have teamed up to deliver a Red Force as a Service offering for counter‑UAS testing, validation, and operator training. The integrated capability creates realistic, coordinated multi‑aircraft threat scenarios within a controlled, FAA‑approved airspace, and will be showcased in a live demonstration on April 23 at the Pendleton range. Gambit’s behavior‑based intelligence enables autonomous systems to act as adaptive, heterogeneous threat teams, while Pendleton provides the structured airspace and safety framework. The service aims to help defense, federal and critical‑infrastructure customers verify detection performance and engagement workflows before field deployment.
US and UK Teaming up to Destroy Underwater Drones
The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit has issued the Robotic Exclusion and Engagement Framework (REEF) solicitation, inviting commercial solutions to detect and neutralize underwater drones threatening ports and critical waterways. The program seeks AI‑driven sensor suites, sensor fusion,...
Steadicopter Launches Dedicated UAS Academy to Train GlobalOperators and Technicians on Advanced Rotary UAV Missions
Steadicopter, a developer of rotary unmanned aerial systems, announced the launch of its Steadicopter UAS Academy, a global training program for operators, mission commanders and technicians. The curriculum emphasizes the unique capabilities of rotary UAVs—persistent hover, precision deployment and flexibility—across...
Carbon Robotics Surpasses $100 Million in Annual Revenue as Agricultural AI Adoption Accelerates
Carbon Robotics reported annual revenue surpassing $100 million for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026. The company now operates in 15 countries across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It introduced a Large Plant Model trained on 150 million plants to power its...
Humanoid Robots Are Learning Tennis — and It’s a Big Leap for Real-World AI
Chinese researchers have unveiled LATENT, a reinforcement‑learning framework that enables humanoid robots to play tennis in real time using imperfect human motion data. By decomposing strokes and footwork into learnable components, the system achieved a 96.5% success rate over 10,000...
Caterpillar and Fortescue Extend Command for Hauling Agreement for Western Australia Mines
Caterpillar has renewed its MineStar Command agreement with Fortescue’s Chichester Metals and FMG Solomon to supply and operate autonomous haulage software at three Western Australian mines. The extension continues a decade‑long deployment that began in 2012, reinforcing safety, reliability and...
For CSX, Drones Are An Important Item In The Toolbox
CSX has turned drones from a proof‑of‑concept into an enterprise‑wide asset, now operating over 250 unmanned aircraft across its rail network. More than 350 employees hold FAA Part 107 certifications, enabling eight departments to leverage aerial data for inspections, mapping and...
Software-Defined Automation Ushers in IT-Like Engineering
Industrial automation is shifting toward software-defined automation (SDA), a paradigm that separates control logic from hardware using containerized, virtualized environments. By adopting IT‑like engineering practices such as DevOps, modular code, and version control, manufacturers can achieve rapid scaling, easier updates,...
Volvo FH Autonomous Truck Fleet Now Hauling All Production for Brønnøy Kalk
Volvo Autonomous Solutions has expanded its Autona/earth platform at Norway's Brønnøy Kalk limestone mine to run three shifts, allowing a fleet of nine Volvo FH autonomous trucks to handle the entire five‑kilometre haul route around the clock. The trucks, equipped...
Wayve, Uber and Nissan Launch Robotaxi Pilot in Tokyo
Uber has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nissan and UK‑based AI firm Wayve to launch a robotaxi pilot in Tokyo, targeting operation by the end of 2026. The service will use Nissan’s Leaf equipped with Wayve’s end‑to‑end AI driver...
Air Data & Flow Measurement Solutions for UAVs & Autonomous Flight
Aeroprobe has joined Unmanned Systems Technology’s global supplier ecosystem as a Silver supplier, offering ISO 9001:2015‑certified air data and flow measurement systems for UAVs. Its product line includes micro air data computers, multi‑function probes, pitot‑static probes, and total‑air‑temperature sensors designed to...
Germany Finances New STRILA Interceptor Drones for Ukraine
Germany announced a new aid package that finances 15,000 STRILA interceptor drones for Ukraine’s National Guard, accompanied by training, logistics and further development support. The missile‑type UAV is engineered to engage high‑speed threats such as Shahed‑136 and Shahed‑131 drones, extending...
US-Made Naval Drone with Active Warhead Washes up in Northern Turkey, Gets Blown Up
A U.S.-manufactured AEGIR‑W unmanned surface vessel washed ashore on Turkey's Black Sea coast on March 20, 2026, and was found fully operational with an active warhead. Turkish Navy explosive ordnance disposal teams towed the 10‑meter drone offshore and detonated it...
Alstef Group Unveils AI-Powered Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Ahead of LogiMAT
Alstef Group announced an AI‑powered autonomous industrial vehicle (AIV) ahead of LogiMAT 2026, featuring a real‑time "perception bubble" that continuously maps its surroundings. The system uses onboard cameras and AI models to classify objects, adjust speed, routing, and docking, and...
Japan to Build Drone-Based Coastal Defense System
Japan’s Defense Ministry has earmarked roughly ¥100 billion ($629 million) to launch the SHIELD program, a drone‑centric coastal defense network slated for deployment by fiscal 2027. The system will field thousands of autonomous drones across more than ten variants for surveillance, strike...
Junior Disobeyed Orders and Tried Untested Feature During a Live Robot Demo
A robotics team attempted a live demo for a defence‑sector investor when the semi‑autonomous humanoid’s battery ran low. Senior staff prepared a standard five‑minute battery swap, but a junior engineer ignored explicit instructions and performed an untested hot‑swap. The robot...
Mind Robotics Raises $500 Million to Build AI-Powered Industrial Robots for Real-World Deployment
Mind Robotics announced a $500 million Series A round, co‑led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, to accelerate its AI‑powered industrial robot platform. The financing follows a $115 million seed round and adds Accel partner Sameer Gandhi to the board. Leveraging Rivian’s manufacturing data...
Hexxabotics to Unveil Honeycomb-Based AS/RS with Shuttle-Style AMRs at LogiMAT
Hexxabotics will debut a honeycomb‑based automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) at LogiMAT 2026, merging autonomous mobile robots (Hexxabots) with a modular hexagonal grid. The design eliminates fixed rails and in‑rack electrification, promising higher cubic storage density and lower energy use....
ZIYAN & GreenValley Leverage F15 Unmanned Helicopter to Advance Precision LiDAR Mapping
ZIYAN and GreenValley announced a partnership that leverages ZIYAN’s F15 electric VTOL helicopter to deliver precision LiDAR mapping services. The F15 can lift a 5 kg payload, carry GreenValley’s sensors, and fly up to 100 minutes while tolerating Beaufort 8 winds. Integrated...
Chinese Surgery Robot Outperforms Humans, Cuts Brain Imaging Time by 29%
Chinese researchers unveiled the YDHB‑NS01 cerebrovascular intervention robot, which cuts brain angiography time by roughly 29%, shaving nine minutes off a standard 38‑minute procedure. In a head‑to‑head trial at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the robot matched manual methods with...
Monash University Research Highlights Safer, Smarter Human-Robot Teamwork in Manufacturing
Monash University researchers published a review in the International Journal of Production Research showing that better prediction of human behaviour by robots can make manufacturing safer, more adaptive and efficient as Industry 5.0 evolves. The study compares mechanism‑based, data‑driven and hybrid...
China Creates First National Standards for Humanoid Robots to Support Industry Scale-Up
China unveiled its first national standard system for humanoid robots, the Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligence Standard System (2026 Edition), at a Beijing technical committee meeting. The framework, built by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology with input from...
Dexterity Says Its Physical AI World Model ‘Unlocks Full Potential on Nvidia Hardware’
Dexterity.ai announced that its production‑proven world model, Foresight, now runs on Nvidia L4 GPUs with a 17× speedup, cutting perception cycles from 1,508 ms to 90 ms. The redesign also increased sensor data utilization from 3 percent to 100 percent, delivering 32× more information...
INTERVIEW: Armir Harris, Founder & CEO, CharterUP
CharterUP, the largest group‑transportation marketplace in North America, has teamed up with autonomous‑technology firm Holon to embed self‑driving shuttles into its AI‑enabled platform. The partnership will roll out Holon’s integrated autonomous mobility solution across campuses, airports, transit agencies and private...
Poland Marks First Flights of ZEUS Unmanned Aircraft
Poland’s Ekolot Aerospace & Defense completed the inaugural test flights of its ZEUS unmanned aircraft, demonstrating stable, autonomous operation in conventional take‑off and landing (CTOL) mode. The modular platform, developed with Spain’s UAV Navigation‑Grupo Oesía, can be reconfigured for VTOL...
US Navy Picks Robot Sub “Mothership” To Unleash Underwater Drone Swarms
The U.S. Navy has chosen Anduril Industries’ Dive‑XL autonomous submarine for its Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP) initiative. The 27‑foot, free‑flooding design serves as a “mothership” that can launch smaller AUVs such as Copperhead and Seabed Sentry. Its modular payload...
MODEX 2026 Preview: AI, Robotics & Supply Chain Innovation Take Center Stage
MODEX 2026, scheduled for April 13‑16 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center, will host over 1,000 exhibitors and more than 200 free educational sessions focused on AI, robotics, and supply‑chain digital transformation. The agenda features high‑profile keynote speakers such as...
RSI Europe – FPV Drone Operator
RSI Europe, a fast‑growing Lithuanian defense tech firm, announced a vacancy for a Product Operator focused on its FPV drone systems. The role combines client training, after‑sales support, and direct feedback to product engineers, requiring extensive drone expertise and multilingual...
Delivery Drones Cleared for Flight over Populated Cities in Brazil
Brazil’s civil aviation authority (ANAC) approved a national framework allowing beyond‑visual‑line‑of‑sight (BVLOS) delivery drones to operate over densely populated areas. The rule lets Speedbird Aero’s DLV‑2 A25 fly over zones with up to 5,000 people per square kilometre and the...
Simple Motor Networks Mimic Human Muscle Behavior Under Increasing Load
Scientists at the University of Bristol have built a tabletop network of simple electric motors that self‑organize into coordinated traveling waves, reproducing the load‑dependent recruitment seen in human muscle. The motors interact only through a shared backbone, creating mechanical feedback...
Turkish Firm Develops New-Gen Kamikaze Drone Boat
Turkey’s state‑owned defense firm MKE unveiled the PİRANA kamikaze unmanned surface vessel, a low‑cost, high‑speed USV designed for naval strike missions. The craft can travel over 40 knots, carry a 100‑kilogram warhead and operate up to 200 nautical miles, either solo or...
Airbus Is Fitting AI War Drones for the German Air Force with First Flight Due in 2026
Airbus is integrating its European MARS mission system, featuring the MindShare AI, into two Kratos Valkyrie combat drones for the German Air Force. The first flight is targeted for late 2026, with full operational capability expected by 2029. The Valkyrie...
AI-Evolved Adaptable Robot Is Almost Impossible to Destroy
Northwestern University researchers leveraged AI‑driven evolutionary algorithms to create a modular "legged metamachine" that can reconfigure itself and keep moving after losing parts. Each Lego‑like module contains its own battery, motor and computer, allowing the assembled robot to crawl, roll,...
Overland AI to Showcase Autonomy Solutions at AUSA
Overland AI will unveil its ULTRA fully autonomous tactical vehicle at the AUSA Global Force exhibition in Huntsville next week. The company ties ULTRA directly to the Army’s Transformation in Contact initiative, which emphasizes early field testing with soldiers. By...
Bluebottle USV to Feature in Australian Navy’s Fleet Review for the First Time
Australia’s Royal Australian Navy will feature the Ocius Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel in the Exercise Kakadu Fleet Review on 21 March 2026, marking the first time a USV is displayed alongside crewed ships in a formal navy review. The inclusion follows a $176 million...
Perciva 5D Camera: Occlusion-Free 3D Vision for Industrial, Retail, and Robotic Imaging
Teledyne e2v introduced the Perciva 5D camera, a short‑range 3D vision system that combines 2D imaging and depth mapping in a single CMOS sensor. The device uses angular‑sensitive pixel technology and an on‑board neural‑processing unit to deliver real‑time, occlusion‑free depth maps...
A Photojournalist Is Challenging FAA’s Drone Ban over DHS Vehicles
The FAA’s recent Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) FDC 6/4375 bans all drone flights within 3,000 feet laterally and 1,000 feet vertically of Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of Homeland Security facilities and mobile assets. Photojournalist Rob Levine, represented by the...
Three Ways AI Is Learning to Understand the Physical World
Large language models struggle with physical causality, driving a surge in "world model" research and billion‑dollar funding rounds from AMI Labs and World Labs. Researchers are exploring three architectural families—JEPA’s latent, real‑time embeddings, Gaussian‑splat 3D scene generators, and end‑to‑end generative...
MISUMI, Oishii Farm Corporation Announce Strategic Partnership
MISUMI Group Inc. has signed a strategic partnership with U.S. vertical farming pioneer Oishii Farm Corporation. Through its recently acquired subsidiary Fictiv, MISUMI will provide mechanical components for Oishii’s Ametalas Farm, leveraging AI and robotics to fine‑tune temperature, humidity, lighting...
C&C Marine Expands 24 Acres, Builds Automated Spool Shop
C&C Marine & Repair announced a 24‑acre expansion of its Belle Chasse facility and the construction of a fully automated spool shop, touted as the most advanced in the United States. The shop will house CNC bending, plasma cutting, blasting,...
AI Aims for Autonomous Wheelchair Navigation
Researchers at Germany’s DFKI unveiled prototype smart wheelchairs equipped with dual lidars, a 3D camera, odometers and an embedded computer, capable of both semi‑autonomous joystick control and fully autonomous navigation via natural‑language commands using ROS2 Nav2. The system integrates external...
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) lets robots create and navigate maps without GPS by fusing LiDAR, cameras, IMUs and wheel encoders. Modern SLAM favors graph‑based optimization, which scales better than early EKF approaches and supports real‑time pose estimation. Loop‑closure detection...
US Army Signals End of Traditional Combat with Drone Shift
The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division conducted a live‑fire drill at Fort Campbell showcasing drones as the initial combat element rather than mere support tools. Multiple UAV platforms, from the MQ‑1C Gray Eagle to small reconnaissance drones, operated alongside Special...
Drone Pilots Face $100K Fines Under New DOD Crackdown
The Department of Defense, together with the DOJ, DHS, and FAA, has launched a coordinated crackdown on illegal drone operations under the White House Task Force to Restore American Airspace Sovereignty. Violations in restricted airspace such as airports, military bases,...
The University of Texas at El Paso Is Gearing up to Build Drone Tech
The University of Texas at El Paso’s Aerospace Center secured a $2 million congressional grant to expand its unmanned‑air‑system (UAS) capabilities. The funding will upgrade the Tornillo and Fabens test sites with enhanced power, computing, networking, radar, and beyond‑visual‑line‑of‑sight (BVLOS) operations....
Ukraine Says Its 'Red' Team Forces Beat NATO's 'Blue' Team Forces in Every Combat Scenario During Recent Naval Drone Drills
Ukraine’s red team, equipped with home‑grown Magura V7 naval drones, won all five combat scenarios in a NATO‑led drill off Portugal. The exercise simulated attacks on ports, convoys and a frigate, demonstrating the drones’ ability to conduct ISR, mine‑countermeasure and...
U.S. Army Awards XTech Win to ABRIS DG Unmanned Support Vehicle
ABRIS DG’s UNEX unmanned ground vehicle was chosen as one of five winners in the U.S. Army’s XTech Edge Strike Ground Competition in Vilseck, Germany. The victory secures a ten‑year contract on the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate marketplace through...
