At a Silicon Valley Summit, Robots Fold Laundry—And Investors Open Their Wallets
At the Humanoids Summit in Mountain View, startups showcased robots that can fold laundry, highlighting a rapid escalation of capital into humanoid robotics. Venture capital invested nearly $2.8 billion in U.S. humanoid firms in 2025, up from $42.6 million in 2020, with California receiving $1.6 billion. Figure secured $1 billion in funding, reaching a $39 billion valuation, while Weave Robotics began deploying low‑cost laundry‑folding robots in laundromats. Analysts note the market could hit $5 trillion by 2050, but practical autonomy remains limited.
Aptiv and Vecna Robotics to Develop Next Generation Autonomous Mobile Robots
Aptiv and Vecna Robotics announced a strategic collaboration to co‑develop next‑generation autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for warehouses and factories. The partnership merges Aptiv's PULSE™ sensor suite, machine‑learning perception, and high‑performance compute platform with Vecna's AI‑driven autonomy and CaseFlow™ workflow orchestration....
Industrial Robotics in 2025: Trends, Figures and Global Outlook
Industrial robot installations surged to 542,076 units in 2024, more than doubling the volume from a decade ago and pushing the global operational stock to roughly 4.66 million. Multipurpose, AI‑enabled robots and collaborative cobots are expanding beyond traditional manufacturing into sectors...
Skunk Works® and XTEND Expand Joint All Domain Command and Control for Advanced Mission Execution
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and XTEND have integrated XTEND's Operating System (XOS) into the Skunk Works MDCX™ autonomy platform, creating a Multi‑Class MDCX (MC‑MDCX) workstation that lets a single operator control both large and small unmanned aircraft. The joint demo...
A Quick Look at Multirotor Drone Maneuverability
Multirotor drone maneuverability hinges on thrust‑to‑weight ratio, frame dynamics, propeller choice, motor characteristics, and control electronics. High thrust‑to‑weight ratios (up to 5:1) enable rapid attitude changes but sacrifice efficiency and flight time. Smaller, stiffer, and lighter frames reduce inertia, delivering...
Ground Robots Teaming with Soldiers in the Battlefield
Modern militaries are rapidly fielding ground robots, known as robotic combat vehicles or autonomous ground systems, to act as force multipliers for infantry units. Ukraine’s deployment of more than 150 Milrem THeMIS unmanned ground vehicles demonstrates the technology’s transition from...
Robotic Arm Successfully Learns 1,000 Manipulation Tasks in One Day
Researchers at Imperial College London introduced MT3, an imitation‑learning system that taught a Sawyer robotic arm 1,000 distinct manipulation tasks in less than 24 hours. The method uses trajectory decomposition and a retrieval‑based memory to learn from a single human demonstration...
Former Rivian Exec Says ‘Every Car Company Will Become a Robotics Company’
Former Rivian chief growth officer Jiten Behl, now a partner at Eclipse, argues that every automaker will evolve into a robotics company as AI‑driven factories replace low‑cost overseas labor. He highlighted Rivian’s strategy of spinning out startups like Also and...
Into the Omniverse: OpenUSD and NVIDIA Halos Accelerate Safety for Robotaxis, Physical AI Systems
NVIDIA announced that the OpenUSD Core Specification 1.0 is now public, establishing a unified data model for high‑fidelity simulation pipelines. Powered by this standard, Omniverse libraries deliver SimReady assets that integrate seamlessly with Isaac Sim for robot and autonomous‑vehicle testing....
AI-Powered Robotic Hands Learn Dexterity by Mimicking Human Movements and Anatomy
ETH Zurich’s Soft Robotics Lab unveiled an AI‑driven robotic hand that mimics human anatomy using artificial tendons instead of joint motors. The 21‑degree‑of‑freedom hand learns dexterous tasks through a blend of reinforcement and imitation learning powered by transformer models. Data...
UPS Buys Hundreds of Robots to Unload Trucks in Automation Push
United Parcel Service is spending $120 million to acquire 400 Pickle Robot units that can unload trucks in about two hours each. The purchase is part of UPS’s broader $9 billion automation program aimed at cutting labor costs and boosting margins. Pickle’s...
Bay Area Robotics Association Launches to Connect Capital and Industry Between Silicon Valley and the World
The Bay Area Robotics Association (BARA) launched as a member‑driven platform linking Silicon Valley robotics firms with leading ecosystems in Japan, China, and the U.S. East Coast. It brings together corporates, investors, and startups across humanoid, industrial, service and mobility...
How iRobot Lost Its Way Home
iRobot, the pioneer of consumer robotics and creator of the Roomba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, ending a 35‑year journey from MIT lab to household staple. A $1.7 billion Amazon acquisition collapsed after EU regulators blocked the deal, triggering a leadership shake‑up...
Beyond Mimicry: Fiber-Type Artificial Muscles Outperform Biological Muscles
The December 2025 npj Robotics review highlights fiber‑type artificial muscles that now outperform natural muscle in speed, strain and stress. Torsional actuation has been recorded at over 11,000 rpm, tensile strains reach 8600 %, and isometric stresses exceed 28 MPa—more than a hundred...
Cheers to AI: ADAM Robot Bartender Makes Drinks at Vegas Golden Knights Game
Richtech Robotics has deployed ADAM, an Automated Dual‑Arm Mixologist, at the T‑Mobile Arena during Vegas Golden Knights games. The robot, powered by NVIDIA’s Isaac simulation suite and Jetson AGX Orin edge AI, was trained in virtual environments before serving drinks...
Ghost Robotics’ Arm Brings Manipulation to Military Quadrupeds
Ghost Robotics unveiled a six‑degree‑of‑freedom arm for its Vision 60 quadruped, turning the rugged robot into a mobile manipulator and sensor platform. The arm, engineered as a fifth leg, survives the robot’s 50 kg roll‑overs and enables tasks such as door...
How to Optimize Warehouse Space with Robotics and High-Density Automation
Warehouse space costs have surged to $8.31 per square foot, pressuring margins for e‑commerce and grocery fulfillment. Traditional static shelving and wide aisles waste valuable cubic space and limit scalability. Geek+ offers high‑density automation with AMRs and ultra‑compact storage, delivering...
Vine-Inspired Robotic Gripper Gently Lifts Heavy and Fragile Objects
MIT and Stanford engineers unveiled a vine‑inspired soft robotic gripper that inflates pneumatic tubes to snake around and gently lift objects ranging from a glass vase to a watermelon, and even a human subject in a bed. The device switches...
The Science of Human Touch, and Why It's so Hard to Replicate in Robots
Robots excel at visual perception but still struggle to replicate the nuanced human sense of touch. Human skin contains multiple mechanoreceptors that detect vibration, stretch, texture, and pressure, and our touch is an active, dynamic process. Soft‑robotics researchers are embedding...