Big Robot on Campus: Starship Finds 97% Student Approval Rating
Starship Technologies surveyed 5,000 students across 65 U.S. campuses and found a 97% approval rating for its autonomous delivery robots. The company reports over 9 million total deliveries and 1.5 million miles traveled on U.S. campuses in 2025 alone. Funding of $50 million in October 2025 brings total capital to more than $280 million, supporting further expansion. Starship argues the robots are becoming a cultural fixture that improves student safety, health, and study efficiency.
Scientists Develop Advanced Low-Damping Impedance Control for Collaborative Robots
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Liverpool introduced an adaptive jerk control (AJC) method built on a biased sliding surface to achieve low‑damping, high‑stiffness impedance control for collaborative robots. The biased sliding surface continuously characterizes...
Kollmorgen Advances Linear Motor Safety and Performance with SafeMotion™ Monitor Firmware Upgrade
Kollmorgen released SafeMotion™ Monitor firmware version 3.0, extending functional‑safety support to linear motors and axes. The upgrade adds EnDat 2.2 safe feedback compatibility to AKD2G drives, AKM2G and AKMA servo motors, enabling dual‑channel positioning and faster data cycles. SMM 3.0 also secures...
Nord Modules Expands AMR Ecosystem With KUKA Collaboration
Nord Modules announced a collaboration with KUKA, adding the robotics giant to its Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) ecosystem. The partnership launches the Nord Pallet Mover top module for KUKA KMP1500P, offered in three variants—PM800, PM1000 and PM1200—tailored to Euro, US...
This Humanoid Is Ready to Bring You a Toothbrush
Fauna unveiled Sprout, a $50,000 child‑sized humanoid robot designed for hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. The robot combines lightweight mechanics, expressive eyebrows and built‑in large language model capabilities to understand natural‑language requests, such as fetching a toothbrush. Sprout ships with...
Vention Raises $110M to Accelerate Physical AI Deployments in Manufacturing
Vention Inc., a Montreal‑based industrial automation firm, announced a $110 million Series D round to accelerate its “physical AI” strategy. The funding will expand its Zero‑Shot Automation platform, add AI‑driven tools, and support a four‑playbook growth plan focused on enterprise customers, AI...
9 Self-Service Tech Trends to Watch
At the Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation Show, Blue Sky Robotics CEO Steven King outlined nine AI‑driven self‑service trends reshaping retail and hospitality. While fully autonomous robots remain years away, computer vision, digital agents, edge computing, cobots, biometrics, predictive modeling,...
Beyond Cobots: Adaptive Robots for Dynamic Industrial Environments
Flexiv introduced its Rizon series, a line of adaptive industrial robots that blend AI-driven decision‑making with industrial‑grade force control. The robots can sense forces as low as 0.03 N, allowing delicate handling of unpredictable objects. Their Elements graphical interface lets users...
From Shoe Box to Smart Robot: A Maker’s Journey to Autonomy
Maker Survy transformed a shoe‑box prototype into an autonomous outdoor robot, showcasing a step‑by‑step journey from concept to functional device. He began with a simple motorized box, then added sensors, a Raspberry Pi, and a smartphone for GPS and vision through...
LUCID Launches Helios2 Wide Chroma, a Factory-Calibrated IP67 RGB-D Camera
Lucid Vision Labs has launched the Helios2 Wide Chroma, a compact, factory‑calibrated RGB‑D camera that merges a 12.2 MP Triton RGB sensor with its Helios2 Wide Time‑of‑Flight 3D imager. The IP67‑rated unit offers a 108° × 78° field of view and delivers perfectly...
AAA20 Group Debuts Cobot Palletizer for Food and Protein Processing
AAA20 Group will unveil the CP-66-WD wash‑down collaborative palletizer at the International Production & Processing Expo in Atlanta. The IP69K‑rated cobot is built for food and protein processors, especially beef plants, and can be power‑washed like standard equipment. Offered through...
Unpredictable Movements of Autonomous Robots Can Increase Human Discomfort
Researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology discovered that autonomous robots moving unpredictably trigger sustained human discomfort, as measured by elevated arousal and skin‑conductance responses in a VR passing scenario. Predictable straight‑line motion caused initial arousal that habituated over repeated encounters,...
State of Robotics Industry Report 2026
The Robot Report’s State of Robotics Industry Report 2026 marks an inflection point as the sector moves from speculative demos to reliable, real‑world deployments. It surveys the full robotics ecosystem—industrial automation, mobile units, humanoids, and autonomous vehicles—while highlighting advances in...
Meet the Soft Humanoid Robot that Can Grow, Shrink, Fly and Walk on Water
Researchers at Southern University of Science and Technology unveiled GrowHR, a soft humanoid robot that can inflate its limbs to more than triple their length and deflate to shrink to 36% of its original height. The robot’s bone‑mimetic, air‑filled chambers...
Benefits of 3D Guidance in Industrial Robots
Industrial robots are shifting from pre‑programmed, 2D‑guided motions to dynamic 3D vision systems that provide six degrees of freedom tracking. This depth perception eliminates costly mechanical fixtures, allowing robots to adapt to random part placement and receive software‑driven updates in...
Why EVs and Robots Are Suddenly Everywhere
Electric vehicles and robots have shifted from niche concepts to everyday fixtures as battery costs, AI capabilities, and sensor technology converged with stricter emissions rules and labor shortages. Automakers now treat software as a core vehicle feature, while logistics firms...
Soft Robotic Probe Enhances Fetal Monitoring Techniques
A new soft robotic probe designed for fetal monitoring offers a flexible, skin‑like interface that conforms to the maternal abdomen, delivering continuous, high‑fidelity heart‑rate data. The device incorporates stretchable piezoelectric sensors and wireless telemetry, achieving up to 30% better signal...
Optimizing Railway Infrastructure for Mining Using High-Resolution Drone LiDAR Survey Data
High‑resolution drone LiDAR surveys are reshaping railway infrastructure planning for mining projects. In the Northern Cape manganese mine, the dense point‑cloud enabled engineers to pinpoint track positions, elevations, and surrounding obstacles with centimeter accuracy. The rapid, safe data capture reduced...
Skylift UAV Delivers UK Aviation First with Landmark BVLOS Drone Trials in the Solent
Skylift UAV completed the United Kingdom’s first coordinated BVLOS drone operations across the congested Solent waterway, operating under a CAA‑approved Airspace Change Proposal. The June‑July 2025 trials, run from Fort Cumberland, involved multiple aircraft delivering medical supplies to the Isle...
FORT Robotics Launches Wireless E-Stop Pro: Real-Time Wireless Safety for Complex Industrial Environments
FORT Robotics unveiled the Wireless E‑Stop Pro, a safety‑certified wearable that lets operators trigger an emergency stop from up to 200 m away. The device uses long‑range Bluetooth to maintain reliable connections in radio‑dense warehouses and plants, and it meets SIL 3...
Lianhe Sowell International Group Ltd Announces $200M Plan for Industry Robotics Headquarters in the UAE
Lianhe Sowell International Group (Nasdaq:LHSW) announced a $200 million plan to build a specialized industry robotics headquarters in the United Arab Emirates. The facility will combine R&D, manufacturing and global sales, targeting applications such as automotive spray‑painting, hazardous environments, underwater operations...
Pickit 3D Launches Major Release of Its 3D Robot Vision Solution
Pickit 3D unveiled its Pickit 4.0 platform, a major upgrade to its 3D robot vision solution. The release introduces four modular licensing options, up to 61 % faster detection, native multi‑camera support, and new high‑definition cameras delivering 0.1 mm accuracy. A refreshed software...
SEB Analysts Say 2026 Marks Shift From Virtual to Physical AI
SEB analysts forecast that 2026 will mark a decisive shift from purely virtual AI to AI embedded in physical capital goods such as autonomous vehicles, drones and humanoid robots. The steep drop in AI usage costs in 2025 has broadened...
XTI Aerospace to Host Town Hall Highlighting Strategic Inflection Point Following the Drone Nerds Acquisition
XTI Aerospace (Nasdaq:XTIA) will hold an investor town hall on February 5, 2026 at 4:30 PM EST to outline its post‑acquisition strategy after buying Drone Nerds in November 2025. Management will detail how Drone Nerds’ UAS platform and customer base give XTI clearer revenue visibility...
Scanifly and IronRidge Integrate Drone-Based PV Design with Racking Layouts
Scanifly has launched a direct API integration with IronRidge, linking its drone‑derived PV layout data to IronRidge’s Design Assistant. The connection automatically transfers panel placements into the racking and bill‑of‑materials (BOM) workflow, removing the need for manual data entry. Contractors...
Retail’s Supply Chain Divide: Who Survives – and Who Won’t
Retail margins are tightening, making supply‑chain efficiency a make‑or‑break factor. Supply‑chain specialist Peter Jones splits the sector into "haves" – retailers that have invested in automated, next‑generation warehouse technology – and "have‑nots" still reliant on manual pick‑and‑pack processes. The COVID‑driven...
Jan. 25, 2004: Opportunity Lands on Mars
On January 25, 2004 NASA’s Opportunity rover touched down on Mars after a dramatic “six minutes of terror” descent involving parachutes, retrorockets, and an airbag‑cushioned landing. The rover bounced 26 times before settling inside Eagle Crater, an ideal scientific site that allowed...
Hadrian Raises Funding for Automated Manufacturing, Bringing Valuation to $1.6B
Hadrian, an AI‑powered factory builder for aerospace and defense, announced a new funding round that lifts its valuation to $1.6 billion. The capital, led by T. Rowe Price and backed by a16z, Founders Fund and other investors, will fund rapid factory expansion,...
XELA Robotics Unlocks Enhanced Automation for Humanoid and Industrial Robots
XELA Robotics showcased its uSkin 3D tactile‑sensing system at CES 2026, demonstrating how full‑hand touch perception can boost manipulation for humanoid and industrial robots. The elastomer‑based sensors capture contact force, object shape, and motion across fingertips, phalanges, and palms, surpassing traditional...
Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind Announce AI Partnership Focused on Humanoid Robots
Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind unveiled a research partnership at CES 2026 to embed DeepMind's Gemini Robotics foundation models into the Atlas humanoid platform. The collaboration aims to equip Atlas with advanced visual‑language‑action capabilities, enabling it to tackle a broader set...
Neura Robotics Showcases New Humanoid, Quadruped, and AI Platform at CES 2026
Neura Robotics used CES 2026 to unveil its next‑generation humanoid 4NE1, a smaller 4NE1 Mini, and a new quadruped robot, all running on the Neuraverse AI platform. The Neuraverse is positioned as a shared operating layer that lets robots exchange learned skills...
SmartRay Demonstrates ‘Breakthrough AI-Powered Weld Inspection’ System
SmartRay showcased its AI‑powered JOSY weld inspection system at the EY Innovation Hub in Stuttgart. The system integrates hardware with Tool Path Generation software from Wandelbots and Grid Dynamics, creating a closed‑loop workflow that generates inspection paths directly from CAD...
Nowaste Logistics Advances Automation with Cognibotics Robot Picking Cell
Nowaste Logistics, a Swedish third‑party logistics provider, has placed a second order for Cognibotics' robot picking cell after a successful pilot. The cell integrates with Nowaste’s AutoStore system from Swisslog and uses Sics.AI’s vision alongside Cognibotics’ Juliet & Romeo software‑defined motion platform....
Connecting Machines: How eSIMs Are Shaping the Future of Global Robotic Networks
Robotic fleets are transitioning from isolated units to globally networked agents, and reliable cross‑border connectivity is now a prerequisite. International eSIM technology embeds cellular profiles directly in machines, allowing robots to switch carriers without physical SIM changes. Companies such as...
Vegvisir Selected by DOK-ING to Integrate Immersive Interface Into Unmanned Systems
Vegvisir has been chosen as the winning bidder in a Croatian public tender to integrate its immersive interface solutions with DOK‑ING’s unmanned ground vehicles. The partnership will embed Vegvisir Remote and the Vegvisir Virtual Command Station into DOK‑ING’s robotic platforms,...
1X Launches World Model Enabling NEO Robot to Learn Tasks by Watching Videos
1X Technologies unveiled a new World Model that lets its humanoid robot NEO learn tasks by watching internet‑scale videos. The AI update translates any voice or text prompt into visualized actions, using an inverse dynamics engine to execute movements even...
US Aviation Authorities Issue ‘National Security’ Warning over Drone Flights Near Sensitive Sites
The FAA issued a sweeping advisory (FDC 6/4375) that bans unmanned aircraft from flying within 3,000 ft laterally and 1,000 ft vertically of designated national‑security sites, including both fixed facilities and mobile assets such as Coast Guard vessels and military convoys. The notice...
Tekever – UAS Remote Pilot
Tekever, a European leader in unmanned technology, is hiring a Remote Pilot to support its surveillance‑as‑a‑service missions across maritime, defence, space and cyber domains. The role involves flight monitoring, safety compliance, operator training and frequent travel to customer sites in...
Google Deepmind's D4RT Model Aims to Give Robots and AR Devices More Human-Like Spatial Awareness
Google DeepMind unveiled D4RT, a Dynamic 4D Reconstruction and Tracking model that builds a unified scene representation from video and answers spatiotemporal queries with a single lightweight decoder. The architecture collapses depth estimation, motion tracking, and camera pose into one...
What Are the 5 Key Components of a Robot and How Do They Work?
Robots operate through five core components—power system, sensors, control unit, actuators, and end effectors—each performing a distinct function from energy delivery to task execution. The power system stores and regulates energy, while sensors feed real‑time data to the control unit,...
Registration Opens for Robotics Summit & Expo 2026
Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit & Expo 2026, scheduled for May 27-28 in Boston’s Thomas M. Menino Convention Center. The two‑day event, produced by The Robot Report and WTWH Media, will feature more than 50 technical sessions...
The Essential Reading Series: Mars Exploration
The Essential Reading Series curates a selection of non‑fiction titles that chronicle Mars exploration from early telescopic observations to the latest rover missions. Highlights include insider accounts of Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Pathfinder, as well as broader histories and forward‑looking...
Shapeshifting Materials Could Power Next Generation of Soft Robots
McGill University engineers have created ultra‑thin graphene oxide (GO) sheets that can be programmed to fold, move and sense themselves, mimicking origami. The films are strong, flexible and can be manufactured at scale, with shape changes triggered by humidity or...
China’s Drone War in Ukraine
The Russia‑Ukraine war has become a drone‑centric conflict, with low‑cost UAVs driving artillery spotting, surveillance and strike missions. China, while officially neutral, dominates the global commercial drone market and supplies the majority of components used by both sides. Chinese firms...
Robot Talk Episode 141 – Our Relationship with Robot Swarms, with Razanne Abu-Aisheh
Claire interviews Razanne Abu‑Aisheh, a senior researcher at the University of Bristol, about how people perceive and interact with robot swarms. Abu‑Aisheh explains that collective robot behaviours heavily influence human attitudes, and she advocates for community‑centred, inclusive design to shape...
New Data Reveals Why Manufacturers Can't Compete for Robotics Talent: A 2x Salary Gap
New salary data from CareersInRobotics.com shows industrial manufacturers pay a median $102,000 for robotics engineers, roughly half what transportation, autonomous‑vehicle and AI software firms offer—about $200,000. The analysis of 907 positions reveals the gap is consistent across roles, from controls...
Milestone Reached in Cell and Gene Therapy Robotic Automation and Manufacturing Collaboration
Cellular Origins has completed the first phase of its partnership with Fresenius Kabi, integrating the CueR Cell Processing System into the ConstellationR CGT robotic manufacturing platform. The combined solution delivers end‑to‑end automation and markedly reduces manual intervention, as confirmed by...
Robo.ai Partners with The Ghazi Group to Power AI Compute Infrastructure Growth in MENA and Southeast Asia
Robo.ai Inc. has signed a three‑year Gold Reseller agreement with The Ghazi Group to distribute edge inference servers, CPU/GPU systems and AI infrastructure across MENA and selected Southeast Asian markets. The partnership targets the fast‑growing edge AI markets, which analysts...
KraneShares Cross-Lists KOID Humanoid Robotics ETF on Deutsche Börse Xetra Under Ticker KBOT
KraneShares announced the cross‑listing of its Global Humanoid & Embodied Intelligence Index UCITS ETF on Deutsche Börse Xetra under the ticker KBOT, joining existing listings on Nasdaq, LSE and Borsa Italiana. The ETF offers equal‑weight exposure to companies developing humanoid robots...
Introducing V-Line Pro for DJI M400
sUAS News announced V‑Line Pro, a tethered system for the DJI M400 that draws power from the ground, dramatically extending flight time and enabling continuous payload operation. The solution is officially DJI‑approved and part of the DJI Ecosystem Partner program,...