SoftBank Robotics Debuting Autonomous Cooking Robots ‘STEAMA’ and ‘FLAMA’ in the US
SoftBank Robotics is launching its autonomous cooking robots STEAMA and FLAMA in the United States, debuting them at the National Restaurant Association Show 2026 in Chicago. STEAMA uses high‑pressure steam to prepare frozen noodle dishes in roughly 90 seconds, while FLAMA handles ingredient handling, stir‑frying, plating and cleaning, linked to SyncKitchen recipe software. The rollout targets restaurants, corporate dining halls and retail food courts, aiming to mitigate labor shortages, rising wage pressures and consistency challenges. SoftBank frames the move as a broader redesign of kitchen workflows around automation.
RS Tackles Industrial Inefficiency with Integrated Motion Control Solutions and Support
RS Group announced a suite of integrated motion‑control solutions aimed at eliminating the inefficiencies of open‑loop systems in manufacturing and logistics. The portfolio includes Festo servomotors, ABB Baldor AC motors, Lenze i550 drives and Phoenix Contact remote I/O, all engineered...
Purdue Drone Initiatives Focus on the Future of Autonomy in the Sky
Purdue University is spearheading a multi‑disciplinary push into autonomous drones, blending AI, advanced computing and aerospace engineering. The school helped Indiana win an FAA‑designated unmanned aircraft systems test site and launched the Center on AI for Digital, Autonomous and Augmented...
Industrial Control Systems Manufacturer Eliminates Stockouts
Nexus Automation and Control Systems, a Louisiana‑based maker of custom industrial equipment, replaced Excel and QuickBooks with MRPeasy’s cloud‑based MRP platform in mid‑2024. The switch eliminated chronic stockouts and overstocking, giving the firm real‑time visibility over roughly 3,000 SKUs and...
Report: China Robotic Hand Maker Linkerbot Targets $6B Valuation
Chinese robotics startup Linkerbot announced it will seek a $6 billion valuation in its next funding round, up from the $3 billion valuation set in a recent Series B+ round. The Beijing‑based firm claims more than 80% of the global market for...
How Europe Is Building Its Own DARPA to Counter the Drone Threat
Europe’s SPRIND (Germany) and Vinnova (Sweden) have teamed up to fund anti‑drone projects, backing teams like Czech professor Martin Saska’s EAGLE.ONE. The partnership mirrors DARPA’s challenge‑driven model but without a military focus, aiming to speed radical innovation and create sovereign...
US Army Combines Bunker-Buster Warhead with Drone Delivery
The U.S. Army successfully tested the Bunker Rupture and Kinetic Explosive Round (BRAKER), a high‑kinetic warhead mounted on an expendable UAV, at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Leveraging 3D‑printed components and the Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit, the system can attach...
GITAI Selected by U.S. Space Force for Space-Based Interceptor Program
GITAI USA Inc. has been selected by the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command for the Space‑Based Interceptor (SBI) program. The award places GITAI among a small group developing interceptor systems for national security. GITAI will use its vertically integrated...
EVERYWHERE Communications Partners with Parsons to Enable Resilient, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Autonomous Drone Operations Under SBIR Initiative
EVERYWHERE Communications has teamed up with Parsons Corporation under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to create a resilient data‑transport layer for autonomous drones. The solution uses Iridium satellite connectivity to keep drones linked to command centers even in...
Payload Field Guide: Lunar Rovers
NASA’s March Ignition event announced a shift toward faster, scalable lunar rover delivery to support a permanent human presence. Private firms such as Astrobotic, Lunar Outpost, ispace, Intuitive Machines, Venturi Astrolab, and JAXA‑Toyota are racing to field rovers that can...
London Borough of Harrow Builds Digital Twin Program One Drone Flight at a Time
The London Borough of Harrow launched a digital‑twin program using a consumer‑grade drone costing about $1,270. By layering a low‑resolution aerial mesh with high‑detail drone scans, the council saved $15,240 on a roof survey and saw strong public interaction with...
SAIL Tech Lets Robots Perform Human-Scale Tasks Far More Quickly
Georgia Tech researchers unveiled Speed Adaptation of Imitation Learning (SAIL), a system that lets robots execute human‑scale tasks up to 3.2× faster while maintaining accuracy. SAIL blends smooth‑motion algorithms, high‑fidelity tracking, adaptive speed control, and action‑scheduling to adjust in real...
Autonomous Bus without Safety Driver Hits Road in Norway
Norway’s public‑transport operator Vy Buss received regulatory clearance to run Karsan’s e‑ATAK electric bus without a safety driver, making it Europe’s first fully autonomous scheduled service. The Level 4 vehicle will operate on the Kolumbus network at speeds up to 40 km/h, navigating...
Physical AI Raises Governance Questions for Autonomous Systems
Physical AI, the convergence of autonomous AI with robots, sensors, and industrial equipment, is prompting new governance challenges as models move from code to real‑world actions. The International Federation of Robotics reports 542,000 industrial robots installed in 2024, with demand...
Hexagon and Fill Pilot Humanoid for Factory Automation
Hexagon Robotics and Fill Maschinenbau have teamed up to pilot Hexagon’s AEON humanoid at a Fill client facility in Gurten, Austria. The three‑month trial will embed the robot in real‑world workflows, handling machine tending, inspection and data‑capture tasks alongside existing...
For First Responders, Faster Adoption of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Means Stronger Physical Security
The Science and Technology Directorate’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) is seeing a surge in demand for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) among first‑responder agencies. To meet this need, NUSTL released a comprehensive "Small Unmanned Aircraft System Program Documentation...
U.S. Army Awards Contract for Autonomous Resupply Drone
The U.S. Army has awarded SURVICE Engineering a production contract for the Joint Autonomous Aerial Resupply System (JTAARS), an autonomous cargo‑delivery drone built on the Tactical Resupply Vehicle platform with UK partner Malloy Aeronautics. The contract was secured through the...
U.S. Army Integrates Drone and Jamming Tech in Latvia Exercise
On April 29, 2026, the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment conducted a live‑fire exercise in Selija, Latvia, embedding drone reconnaissance and the Titan V3 counter‑UAS jammer into a simulated movement‑to‑contact squad attack. The drill placed drones at the front of the...
Lithuania Air Focus: Majority of $235.98 Million Drone Investment to Be Spent Before 2030
Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence has earmarked €200 million (≈ $236 million) for uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) programmes through 2029, with more than $54 million already deployed. The initial spend included a €36 million ($39 million) purchase of three drone systems, notably the home‑grown Hornet XR mini‑fixed‑wing UAV....
Primoco UAV Reports Strongest Q1 in Its History: Robust Performance, New Contracts and Infrastructure Expansion
Primoco UAV posted its strongest first‑quarter ever, generating roughly $4.5 million in revenue and $2.7 million EBITDA. The company now holds a $38 million backlog of 30 aircraft, including a rapid one‑month delivery to Spain’s Guardia Civil. It is expanding infrastructure with a new...
CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
CARA 2.0 is a revamped quadrupedal robot that targets hobbyists and researchers with a sub‑$1,500 price tag, roughly half the cost of its predecessor. By redesigning the actuator stack, rewinding low‑cost TYI motors, and using inexpensive XDrive controllers, the team cut...
Dutch Startup Intelic Sets up Drone Marketplace for European Militaries
Dutch defence‑tech startup Intelic has launched BASE, a European military drone marketplace that aggregates manufacturers from nine countries and lets ministries compare mission‑ready UAVs. The platform relies on Intelic’s Nexus command‑and‑control software to guarantee plug‑and‑play interoperability, aiming to slash procurement...
Efficiency Driver
Hong Kong International Airport now runs more than 70 autonomous vehicles—including 56 electric tractors, eight patrol cars and six staff shuttles—making it the world’s first airport with a fully Level 4 driverless fleet. The vehicles have collectively covered over three million...
Carmeuse Selects Caterpillar's Autonomous Hauling Solution to Deploy at Drummond Island Operation
Caterpillar Inc. has signed an agreement with limestone producer Carmeuse to install its autonomous hauling system at the Drummond Island quarry in Michigan. The deployment will integrate Cat MineStar Command across Carmeuse’s fleet of 777 trucks, supported by Fabick CAT and complemented by...
Japan’s Terra Drone Bets On Ukraine’s Cheap Way To Stop Shaheds
Terra Drone Corp. of Japan has partnered with Ukraine’s Amazing Drones to produce the Terra A1, a $2,500 interceptor drone designed to shoot down low‑cost Shahed attack drones. The system trades missile‑grade expense for speed, simplicity and mass‑production, aiming to...
The US Has Banned the World’s Best Drones. It Has Not Figured Out How to Make Them.
The FCC’s December 2025 decision automatically placed DJI on the Covered List, halting imports of new DJI drones that command roughly 80% of the U.S. consumer and commercial market. In response, Skydio unveiled a $3.5 billion, five‑year SkyForge program to build a...
Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground
A Texas startup near Austin has developed a robotic system that constructs homes from on‑site clay. The robot extracts dirt, mixes it into adobe, and uses a claw and hammer attachment to shape walls, guided by machine‑learning feedback. The pilot...
Geekplus Reports 50 Percent Growth in Americas as It Pushes Embodied Intelligence Into US Warehouse Market
Geekplus reported a 50% year‑on‑year increase in new orders across the Americas in 2025, driven primarily by U.S. demand. The Chinese‑origin robotics firm now has more than 72,000 autonomous mobile robots deployed in over 40 countries, serving roughly 950 customers,...
Meta Acquires Humanoid Robot Developer Assured Robot Intelligence
Meta has completed the acquisition of Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup that builds AI models for humanoid robots. The deal, announced Friday, positions Meta to develop robots that can understand, predict and adapt to human behavior in dynamic environments. The...
The Humanoid Robot Market Is Smaller Than It Looks
The article argues that the humanoid robot market is far smaller than the often‑cited $20 trillion labor figure because real deployments must overcome two key burdens: dexterity and human‑proximity safety. By scoring tasks on these axes, the author shows that only...
Table Tennis Robot Defeats some of World's Best Players. Why This Has Major Implications for Robotics
Sony AI's table‑tennis robot Ace beat three of five elite players, showcasing real‑time spin detection and 20 m/s returns. The system combines event‑based vision, high‑speed cameras, and deep reinforcement learning trained in simulation to make sub‑100 ms decisions. Unlike earlier robots that...
Japan Is Building Military Drones Out of Cardboard, and They're Faster and Cheaper than You'd Expect
Japanese startup Air Kamuy is introducing the AirKamuy 150, a fixed‑wing drone built from corrugated cardboard that costs roughly $3,000 per unit—significantly cheaper than the $10,000 Lucas drone. The design folds flat, can be assembled by hand in about five minutes,...
Scaling for the Frontlines: Meeting the Department of War’s Urgent Demands
Kraus Hamdani Aerospace announced that it has scaled its production of the K1000ULE drone to meet the Department of War’s urgent demand. The company now controls the entire supply chain, from in‑house computer boards to mission‑system integration, eliminating reliance on...
RAF Regiment Counter-UAS: Defending the Airspace and Turning Threat Into Intelligence
The RAF Regiment has fielded a layered Counter‑Unmanned Aerial System (C‑UAS) capability that detects, identifies and defeats hostile drones using radar, RF and optical sensors, plus electronic and kinetic options. Systems such as ORCUS, Ninja and Rapid Sentry enable jamming,...
This $25,000 Robot Looks Right Out of Star Wars
LimX Dynamics unveiled the Tron 1, a two‑legged robot priced at $25,000 that looks like a miniature Star Wars AT‑ST. Initially shown at CES with basic pre‑programmed motions and remote control, the robot now demonstrates real‑world tasks such as guiding hotel...
Report: Humanoid Robots Represent a Premium Growth Market for Motion Controls
Interact Analysis reports that motion‑control demand tied to humanoid robots will surge, with a projected 102% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2029. Shipments are expected to jump to roughly 20,000 units in 2025, up from 2,000 in 2024,...
Antioch Raises $8.5 Million to Accelerate Simulation-Based Development of Autonomous Systems
Antioch, a New York‑based cloud simulation platform for robotics, closed an $8.5 million funding round led by A* and Category Ventures. The capital will accelerate its push to move autonomous‑system development from costly physical testbeds into scalable software simulations. Co‑founders—ex‑Tesla Autopilot, DeepMind,...
How Coratia Technologies Is Protecting Undersea Data Highways With Marine Robots
Coratia Technologies, an Odisha‑based deep‑tech startup, is deploying marine robots to survey and protect undersea fibre‑optic cables after recent threats in the Strait of Hormuz. The company has raised about $2.6 million and landed a roughly $8 million contract with the Indian...
Androids Break Human Record at Half Marathon
At the Beijing E‑Town Half Marathon, Honor’s humanoid robot Lightning finished the 21‑kilometer course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, eclipsing the human world record of 57:20 set by Jacob Kiplimo. More than 100 robotic entries competed on separate tracks,...
Everest Work Delayed Again as Authorities Ban Cargo Drones
Local Nepalese authorities have abruptly revoked the license that allowed Airlift Technologies to operate cargo drones on Mount Everest, halting a service that was delivering oxygen cylinders, gear, and planned waste removal. Both the Chinese‑made DJI FlyCart 100 and the...
Washington University–Fudan University EMBA Conducts In-Depth Study Tour at Fourier
The Washington University–Fudan University EMBA program organized a study tour of Fourier, a global AI‑robotics leader, where faculty, students and alumni examined the company’s market‑driven development model and GRx series humanoid robots. Fourier’s VP Shi Hui highlighted a virtuous loop...
Robotic-Assisted Surgery Introduced in Hawke’s Bay with Royston Hospital Urology Operations
Robotic‑assisted surgery arrived in Hawke’s Bay as Royston Hospital installed Medtronic’s Hugo system, marking the region’s first use of a surgical robot. The first two procedures, robot‑assisted prostatectomies, were completed in March 2024, allowing patients to stay local instead of...
Robots Can Run a Marathon and Play Ping Pong. But Will They Ever Achieve True Sporting Greatness?
A humanoid robot recently shattered the half‑marathon world record, running faster than any human, while an AI‑powered robot defeated elite table‑tennis players with millisecond‑level reactions. Both feats highlight how robots can master high‑speed, dynamic sports through intensive simulation‑to‑real training and...
Ukraine’s Rapid Rise as an Anti-Drone Powerhouse
Within four years of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine shifted from desperate aid‑seeker to a leading exporter of battlefield‑tested anti‑drone systems and expertise. Leveraging low‑cost electronic‑warfare solutions and a rapid feedback‑driven production model, Kyiv now supplies hardware, training and advisory services to...
Japan Airlines Vs. The World: How Robotics Is Reshaping Aviation and Tourism
Japan Airlines is trialing general‑purpose humanoid robots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to handle baggage and cargo, with the program running through ~2028. The initiative addresses Japan’s acute labor shortage and surging tourism, marking a shift from fixed automation to adaptable, human‑like...
Eric Schmidt’s Drone Killer Is Now Protecting U.S. Troops in Germany
U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited Germany’s USAG Ansbach and formally signed a Merops AS‑3 Surveyor counter‑drone system, highlighting a massive procurement effort that bought 13,000 interceptors in eight days. Each Surveyor unit costs about $15,000, and the Army deployed 10,000...
US Navy Signs Deal with AI Firm for Training Underwater Drones to Detect Mines in Strait of Hormuz — $100...
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $99.7 million contract to San Francisco‑based AI startup Domino Data Lab to equip its unmanned underwater vehicles with rapid‑learning detection software. The new system will fuse side‑scan sonar and visual data, allowing mine‑hunting algorithms to...
Australia’s Speartooth Submarine Drone Enters U.S. Service
C2 Robotics has commissioned and delivered its first Speartooth Large Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle (LUUV) to the United States, marking the inaugural Australian export of the platform. The 8‑meter autonomous submarine can travel 2,000 kilometers, dive to 2,000 meters, and supports ISR and...
One Hour per Drone: KIHOMAC Takes on America’s UAV Supply Crisis
KIHOMAC unveiled the Agami, a 20‑lb fixed‑wing UAV that can be assembled from carbon‑fiber parts in under one hour, a stark contrast to 3D‑printed drones that require up to 100 hours. The platform features a "Bring Your Own Payload" open...
Trump Praised AI Drone Killer at the White House
President Donald Trump publicly praised Allen Control Systems’ Bullfrog autonomous weapon station during a White House appearance, calling it a "very special machine gun that knocks them out of the air like flies." The Austin‑based startup has tripled its facility...