FAA Steps Up Drone Enforcement in 2025
The FAA intensified drone enforcement in 2025, issuing fines and suspending or revoking licenses for unsafe and unauthorized flights near sporting events, emergency response operations, and restricted airspace. Penalties ranged from $1,771 to $36,770 across 18 violations, with the agency able to levy up to $75,000 per infraction. Eight remote pilots faced license suspensions or revocations, including a revocation for a Mar‑a‑Lago airspace breach. In 2026 the FAA updated its policy to require legal action whenever drone operations endanger the public or violate airspace rules.
Latvian Company Develops Battlefield Logistics Vehicle
Latvian Brasa Defence Systems showcased its UNHUMAN unmanned ground vehicle at Finland’s Griffin Tech Days 2026, operating in Arctic temperatures as low as –27 °C. The 110‑kg robot can transport up to 200 kg of supplies, equipment or casualties and run for...
Ai2: Building Physical AI with Virtual Simulation Data
Ai2 unveiled MolmoBot, a suite of robotic manipulation models trained exclusively on synthetic data generated in the MolmoSpaces simulation environment. The open‑source stack includes 1.8 million procedurally created trajectories, delivering a 79.2% success rate on real‑world pick‑and‑place tasks—more than double the...
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Grubhub announced a three‑month pilot with Dexa to deliver food via drones from Wonder’s Green Brook location in New Jersey, marking the state’s first FAA‑certified commercial drone food delivery. Eligible customers within a 2.5‑mile radius can order through the Grubhub...
Rivian Spin-Out Mind Robotics Raises $500M for Industrial AI-Powered Robots
Mind Robotics, a Rivian spin‑out, closed a $500 million Series A round co‑led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, lifting its valuation to roughly $2 billion. The funding follows a $115 million seed round, bringing total capital raised to $615 million since its November 2025 launch. The...
E-Stops, Safety Controllers and Sensors Require Planning and Coordination
The article stresses that emergency stops, safety controllers, and sensors must be designed with coordinated planning rather than ad‑hoc additions. Dual‑channel redundancy and low‑voltage signaling ensure a single failure triggers a safe halt, while over‑specifying safety can provoke workarounds that...
Windracers ULTRA to Be Deployed in Greenland for Glacier Surveying
Windracers ULTRA will be deployed in June 2026 as part of the GIANT programme to collect climate data in northwest Greenland. The heavy‑lift drone can carry over 150 kg and fly up to 2,000 km, enabling autonomous mapping of floating ice‑shelf bases...
U.S. Government Growing Interest in Robotics
On March 10 the U.S. Department of Commerce hosted a roundtable with leaders from robotics, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and investment to chart how the United States can scale Physical AI‑enabled robotics. The discussion covered domestic supply‑chain strengthening, talent pipelines, digital...
Hidonix Is Now a Defense Company
Hidonix Industries announced a strategic shift from commercial applications to a primary focus on defense and public safety, leveraging its spatial intelligence, human‑centric AI, and robotics expertise. The company will target defense operators, emergency responders, and mission‑critical missions requiring precise...
Canopii Looks to Succeed Where Past Indoor Farms Have Not
Portland‑based Canopii has built a fully autonomous robotic greenhouse that can grow up to 40,000 pounds of herbs and specialty greens per year using only a single water spigot and standard household electricity. The company raised about $3.6 million, largely from...
HOJ Innovations’ New AMR Division Adds to Its Inventory Management Software History
HOJ Innovations, a Utah‑based warehouse inventory software veteran with over 60 years of experience, announced the launch of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) division in late October 2025. The new hardware arm integrates directly with its WarehouseOS platform, leveraging a...
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Faraday Future delivered its Master robot and a pilot Aegis robot to Texas‑based NS Federation, marking the company’s second EAI robotics delivery after a home‑sharing operator. The rollout introduces two new application scenarios—Robot & Vehicle + Education and Robot & Vehicle + Performance—targeting schools,...
Hybrid AI Planner Turns Images Into Robot Action Plans
MIT researchers unveiled VLM‑guided formal planning (VLMFP), a hybrid AI system that converts a single image into executable robot action plans. The approach couples a vision‑language simulator (SimVLM) with a generative model (GenVLM) to produce PDDL files for classical planners,...
UK Moves Forward with Project Beehive, Plans 20 New Uncrewed Surface Vessels
The Royal Navy will acquire 20 uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) under Project Beehive, with a £10.25 million contract awarded to Kraken Works. The agreement, decided on 5 March 2026, moves into signing by 23 March and execution through 31 March 2027. Delivered at Technology Readiness Level...
The Download: Pokémon Go to Train World Models, and the US-China Race to Find Aliens
Niantic Spatial, a spin‑out of Pokémon Go creator Niantic, is turning the game’s massive crowdsourced map data into a real‑world model that can ground large language models and give delivery robots centimeter‑level navigation. The firm hopes this will enable autonomous vehicles...
The DJI Drone Everyone’s Been Waiting for Gets a Launch Date
DJI announced the Avata 360, an 8K flagship 360° drone, with a public unveiling scheduled for March 26. The aircraft merges true spherical video capture with high‑speed FPV flight, featuring a dual‑lens system that can record native 8K 360 footage and switch...
New Partnership to Offer Smart Robots for Dangerous Environments
ADLINK Technology and Under Control Robotics have entered a strategic alliance to develop general‑purpose, bipedal robots for hazardous industrial environments. The collaboration merges ADLINK’s DLAP edge AI platform, built on NVIDIA Jetson Thor, with Noble Machines’ autonomy and whole‑body control software,...
Australia Orders 40 Additional Bluebottle USVs
The Australian government has approved a $176 million contract with Ocius Technology to procure 40 additional Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessels, raising the navy’s fleet to 55 units. The solar‑, wind‑ and wave‑powered USVs provide long‑endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance across the...
Silver‐enhanced Photoresponsive G‐C3N4/Ag Janus Microrobots With Negative Photogravitaxis Efficient Antibiotic Degradation
Researchers have created silver‑enhanced g‑C3N4/Ag Janus microrobots that move upward against gravity when illuminated, a behavior termed negative photogravitaxis. The silver coating improves charge carrier separation, suppressing recombination and boosting photocatalytic activity. This three‑dimensional propulsion increases mass transfer, enabling the...
Greenfield Robotics Unveils Next-Generation Robots for Precision Weed Control and Crop Management
Greenfield Robotics unveiled a new generation of Botony robots featuring tracked locomotion, heavier cutting decks and motors, and a weight increase to roughly 500 pounds. The machines are modular, supporting weeding, foliar feeding and future cover‑crop seeding attachments, and can...
This Sensor Lets DJI Drones Detect Methane and Toxic Gases
AIRINS introduced new multi‑sensor configurations for its Sniffer4D Nano2+ gas detection system, enabling DJI enterprise drones to monitor up to ten gas parameters in a single flight. The solution pairs AI‑driven analytics with lightweight sensors to map methane, hydrogen sulfide,...
‘Battle Lab’ to Produce Standard Plans for Air Base Counter-Drone Defense
Air Combat Command has tasked the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at Grand Forks AFB to run the Point Defense Battle Lab, a series of monthly 2026 exercises that will test counter‑small‑UAS technologies. The lab issued two RFIs—one for detection, identification and...
Garuda Selects Airbus Flexrotor to Expand Its UAS Leasing Portfolio
Airbus Helicopters and Garuda Technologies have signed a contract to deliver up to 18 Flexrotor uncrewed aerial systems. Garuda will integrate the high‑endurance Flexrotor into its leasing portfolio, offering both dry and wet lease options for civil and parapublic missions...
Poultry Processing Robotics Advances with ChicGrasp
Researchers at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station unveiled ChicGrasp, a dual‑jaw robotic gripper that learns to grasp, lift, and hang chicken carcasses by imitating human motions. The system employs a diffusion‑policy imitation‑learning algorithm and camera perception, achieving an 81% success...
Windracers Sets New Safety Benchmark with World-First BARS Status for Heavy-Lift Drones
Windracers, a British dual‑use heavy‑lift drone firm, has become the first heavy‑lift operator worldwide to earn Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) Green status, confirming compliance with the Flight Safety Foundation’s rigorous safety criteria. The certification covers its flagship ULTRA platform,...
Eyes in the Sky: The French Drone Redefining Remote Surveillance
Boreal SAS unveiled the BOREAL ISR, a sub‑25 kg fixed‑wing drone that relies exclusively on satellite communications, freeing it from traditional radio‑frequency constraints. The platform launches via catapult, can be readied by two operators in under 30 minutes, and delivers eight hours...
Robot Hands so Sensitive They Can Grab a Potato Chip
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin unveiled FORTE, a tactile‑sensing robotic hand that can delicately grasp items as fragile as potato chips and raspberries. The soft‑robotic fingers use 3‑D‑printed air channels to detect pressure changes, providing real‑time slip...
President Trump's Sons Tee up Their Latest Drone Deal
President Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are backing a merger that turns the tiny Florida golf operator Aureus Greenway into Powerus Corporation, a drone manufacturer slated to trade under ticker PUSA. The deal includes a $9 million private placement at...
Roboticom Announces New Distribution and Innovation Partnership with Forged Path Automation
Roboticom announced a distribution and innovation partnership with Forged Path Automation to broaden U.S. market reach and develop turnkey process‑automation solutions. The deal leverages Roboticom’s ARPP® software, which reduces robot training from weeks to days, and its SandRob™ finishing robot...
Aurrigo International Signs £6.28m Deal to Manufacture 25 AGVs for Ultra Global
Aurrigo International has secured a £6.28 million contract to build an initial fleet of 25 autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) for Ultra Global, with delivery targeted for September 2027. The agreement calls for modernising existing platforms, swapping lead‑acid batteries for lithium‑ion packs, upgrading...
TUM RoboGym Will Begin Robot Training Midyear
Neura Robotics and the Technical University of Munich have launched the TUM RoboGym, a 2,300 m² physical AI training centre at the Munich Airport Convergence Center. The facility will host a large fleet of humanoid robots for real‑world training starting mid‑2026. Joint...
Rhoda AI Raises $450M to Build Foundational Robotics Models that Learn From Internet Videos
Palo Alto‑based Rhoda AI announced a $450 million Series A round that lifts its valuation to $1.7 billion. The startup aims to train foundational robotics models using publicly available internet videos, a method it calls Direct Video Action. By supplementing limited robot telemetry...
Restoring Surgeons’ Sense of Touch with Robotic Fingertips
A Europe‑wide EU‑funded consortium called PALPABLE is creating a soft‑robotic fingertip that restores tactile perception for minimally invasive and robotic surgery. The device uses fibre‑optic sensors embedded in a silicone dome to translate tissue deformation into visual stiffness maps, helping...
AirData Launches Dedicated Public Safety Program for Law Enforcement, Fire, and Emergency Response Agencies Worldwide
AirData, the world’s leading drone fleet management platform, has unveiled a dedicated Public Safety Program aimed at law‑enforcement, fire and emergency response agencies across 60 regions. The service promises a guided, self‑serve onboarding that can activate an agency’s account in...
6 Best Robot Lawn Mowers That Make Yardwork Easy and Automated
The article reviews six top robot lawn mowers, highlighting categories such as best overall, best value, best multi‑season, best for large yards, most user‑friendly, and best remote control. Prices now range from $750 to $2,500, with rear‑wheel‑drive units covering flat...
Integral AI, Founded by Former Google Researchers, Targets Japan’s Robotics Industry
Integral AI, founded by former Google researchers, is developing AI models that let industrial robots learn tasks by watching demonstrations and using natural‑language commands. The startup has partnered with Japanese auto parts maker Denso since 2021 and is in talks...
U.S. Marines Operate Vector Drone During Puerto Rico Operations
U.S. Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed Quantum Systems' Vector eVTOL unmanned aerial system at Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, to support U.S. Southern Command missions against illicit trafficking. The Vector delivers real‑time, high‑resolution imagery and on‑board AI processing,...
Rethinking Customization in Warehouse Automation
Warehouse automation leaders warn that excessive customization can backfire, inflating costs, extending rollout times, and creating fragile systems. Exotec’s CEO Romain Moulin promotes a modular “Lego‑block” approach, using standardized hardware, software and robotics that can be re‑configured per facility. This...
Niantic Spatial Partners with Coco Robotics to Accelerate the Future of Autonomous Delivery
Niantic Spatial announced a strategic partnership with Coco Robotics to embed its Visual Positioning System (VPS) into Coco’s autonomous delivery fleet. The collaboration aims to overcome GPS limitations in dense urban environments by delivering centimeter‑level localization using spatial AI and...
New Collaboration Between ACS and FANUC Robotics Powers Single-Source Delivery of Facility Design and Automation Implementation
ACS announced its certification as a FANUC systems integrator, enabling the company to deliver fully integrated facility design and robotics implementation from a single source. The partnership merges ACS's engineering, controls, and construction expertise with FANUC's industrial robots, covering specification,...
XGSynBot Debuts Z1 Wheeled Robot, Targeting the "Last Mile" Of Industrial Embodied AI
XGSynBot unveiled the Z1 wheeled robot, featuring a modular quick‑change end‑effector system and proprietary high‑performance joint modules. The robot’s dual‑system central brain separates high‑level reasoning from 100 Hz real‑time motor control, enabling rapid task switching and millisecond‑level stability on factory floors....
FAULHABER BXI: Made for the Next Generation of Robotics
FAULHABER introduced the BXI, its most powerful integrated drive system yet, delivering up to 20 Nm torque within a 34 mm package. The unit combines an internal‑rotor motor, stepped planetary gearhead, and a 15‑bit absolute encoder, operating up to 50 V. Its flat...
How Emerson Applies Automation to Deliver Custom Pneumatic Valves Within 5 Days
Emerson’s Bonneville facility has digitized its entire valve‑making workflow, turning customer configurations into production‑ready CNC programs in about ten minutes and cutting manual engineering time by two to four hours. The system automatically creates 3D CAD models, machining instructions and...
Certis Partners with FieldAI to Deploy Autonomous Robots for Security Operations
Singapore security services firm Certis has struck a strategic partnership with U.S. robotics specialist FieldAI to field autonomous robots across multi‑site security operations. The collaboration blends FieldAI’s foundation‑model autonomy software with Certis’ Mozart orchestration platform, enabling robots to patrol, monitor...
How Drones Are Transforming Railway Incident Response
Network Rail has deployed drones across its East Midlands routes, enabling mobile operations managers to launch aerial inspections within minutes. Over a 90‑day trial the pilots logged more than 500 minutes of flight time, cutting incident assessment times and reducing...
SS Innovations Raises $18.6M as Surgical Robot Nears US Market
SS Innovations announced an $18.6 million private placement to accelerate its global rollout, including a U.S. launch of the SSi Mantra surgical robot. The company filed for FDA 510(k) clearance in December, with a decision expected by mid‑2026, and aims to compete...
ForwardX Marks One Year of Large-Scale AMR Operations at Chery's Dalian Factory
ForwardX Robotics celebrates one year of large‑scale autonomous mobile robot (AMR) operations at Chery's Dalian automotive plant. Over 270 fourth‑generation AMRs now run in the welding and final‑assembly workshops, handling material delivery for 32 welding parts and 95 final‑assembly parts....
Iran Fields Updated Shahed-101 Kamikaze Drone
Iran has unveiled an upgraded Shahed‑101 loitering munition featuring a front‑mounted electric motor and nose‑propeller, diverging from the family’s traditional gasoline piston engines. The redesign retains the fixed‑wing airframe and 800 km strike range while adding a rear‑mounted rocket booster for...
Ukraine Deploys Robot Battalion To Fight Russia
Ukraine has organized a dedicated battalion of uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) that are now armed and actively engaging Russian forces on the front lines. The robots, originally intended for logistics, carry machine guns, grenade launchers and explosive payloads, and are...
Facing the Age of Robots? Material Innovation in Architectural Structures
Robotic systems are reshaping architectural construction by moving beyond simple automation to become material makers. Advanced six‑axis arms, mobile platforms and 3D‑printing robots now translate computational designs directly into built forms, enabling complex geometries and on‑site adaptation. Projects such as...
