Robotics news
Short summaries of what matters in robotics, each linking to its original source, plus our own interviews and features. Have a story?
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Shanghai-based ZS Robotics has brought its H125 four-way pallet shuttle to the Americas, a warehouse storage and retrieval vehicle with a 125 mm chassis, 13 safety sensors and CE, UL and CSA compliance. The company, which reports over 1,000 shuttles deployed worldwide, is also opening a demonstration and training space in Houston with partner Kingmore.
· Robotics Tomorrow
Edge AI chipmaker SiMa.ai closed a $150 million Series C co-led by Fidelity and Amplify, bringing total funding to $500 million. The company plans to use the money for its Palette Neat software and next-generation chips aimed at humanoid robots, drones and driver assistance, with new hardware rated at 1,000 dense TOPS due in the first half of 2028.
· Robotics Tomorrow
Researchers from EPFL and NYU built ScaFi, a tendon-driven robotic fish produced in three lengths from 0.6 m to 2.9 m that swims with the same motion at every size by changing only the tail rod diameter. Described in npj Robotics, the approach could simplify fielding quiet underwater robots that avoid disturbing sediment and wildlife, though energy efficiency across sizes remains an open problem.
· Robohub
Amazon will invest more than $100 million in a 585,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Greenwood, Indiana, expected by 2028 with 300 jobs. It will make components for the company's fulfillment and robotics systems using robotic welding and automated powder coating. Amazon says it has built over 1 million robots in the US so far.
· The Robot Report
Agility Robotics CEO Jonathan Hurst confirmed the company is evaluating other form factors, including wheels, for sites where legs are not needed, without saying whether this means a wheeled Digit or a new platform. The move comes as Agility prepares a SPAC listing at a $2.5 billion valuation and reports a Digit 5 backlog above $300 million from one customer.
· The Robot Report
Utah-based Autonomous Solutions Inc. and SoftBank Group are creating a joint venture to develop and sell autonomous systems for large infrastructure construction, with mixed fleets of haul trucks, dozers, loaders and compactors working together. SoftBank is funding the venture and has also invested $225 million in ASI, whose Mobius platform coordinates vehicles from different manufacturers.
· Robotics Tomorrow
Intrinsic, the Google AI robotics group, has published Intrinsic Core on GitHub, a set of ROS-compatible tools covering real-time control, 6D pose estimation, motion and grasp planning, simulation and camera calibration. It also released an open machine tending reference design, giving developers building blocks previously locked inside its commercial platform.
· Robohub
The International Federation of Robotics World Robotics 2026 report puts the global operational stock at 5 million industrial robots, up 9%, after more than 600,000 installations in 2025. China took 59% of new units, while the US passed Japan to become the second-largest market with about 38,500 installations. The IFR expects 655,000 installations in 2026.
· The Robot Report
Feather, founded by former 1X engineer Hoa Mai and former Tesla engineer Parsa Bakhtiari, is building a customizable humanoid that software developers can adapt to jobs such as kitchen work or lab cleaning. The startup raised a $7.6 million pre-seed led by Gradient Ventures, says it has already passed $1 million in revenue, and is field testing ahead of a wider launch.
· TechCrunch
Tokyo startup O-ID, founded in 2025, raised $1.2 million led by TAWANI Ventures with Hustle Fund and Techstars to build humanoids whose joints, limbs and compute units can be exchanged on site. It aims to bring its first robot from prototype into production for Japanese factories, and has filed a provisional US patent for its modular connector.
· Robotics Tomorrow
Epson Robots has added the AX6 to its lineup, a carbon fiber cobot with 6 kg payload and 900 mm reach that uses power and force limiting to work near people after a risk assessment. It can be programmed without code or in Python through the RC-A1010 controller, meets ISO Class 5 cleanroom requirements, and is sold through Epson distributors.
· The Robot Report
ANYbotics has worked with dormakaba and LEGIC to let its ANYmal quadruped open automatic doors and request entry through secured ones with a digital credential, logging each access. Tested at GE Vernova's Whitegate power station in Ireland, the add-on is due later in 2026 and targets equipment often located behind fire doors that limited inspection routes.
· The Robot Report · Photo: Cvoellmy, CC BY-SA 4.0
Dryad Networks won $800,000 in the XPRIZE Wildfire competition after final trials in Alaska. Its system pairs a network of solar-powered gas sensors with an observation drone and a suppression drone carrying up to 100 liters, both operating without a human pilot. Dryad plans real-world pilots in 2027 and commercial sales in 2028.
· Robotics Tomorrow
According to the International Federation of Robotics, the 27 EU countries now run about 700,000 industrial robots, even though installations fell 11% in 2025 to 60,500 units. Germany accounted for 41% of EU installations, followed by Italy, France and Spain, while Asia and the Americas both grew 14%.
· Robotics Tomorrow
TrinaTracker, part of Trina Solar, launched two robots for solar plants: BUILDEX, which autonomously picks and places PV modules at up to 90 per hour using AI vision and 3D cameras, and AURORA, a self-powered cleaning robot that crosses height offsets up to 50mm. The launch extends robotics into utility-scale solar construction and maintenance.
· Robotics Tomorrow
At its first robotics supply chain partner conference on September 22, carmaker XPENG said the production line for its IRON humanoid is running, with mass production to begin before the end of 2026. The robots will first work in XPENG stores and campuses, with market launch and deliveries in China and abroad planned for 2027.
· Robotics Tomorrow
AGIBOT and Chimelong have opened a first phase with more than 300 robots at Chimelong Spaceship Park in Zhuhai, China, used for shows, guest guidance, retail, education and hotel services. The deployment included AGIBOT's 20,000th production robot, and the partners are setting up a joint institute on robots in tourism.
· Robotics Tomorrow
Arduino has opened pre-orders for VENTUNO Q, its first board aimed squarely at robotics, combining a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-8275 processor rated at up to 40 dense TOPS with an STM32H5 microcontroller for real-time control. It ships with Ubuntu, 16 GB of memory and MoveIt integration from PickNik, targeting mobile robots, inspection and education. Pricing was not disclosed.
· The Robot Report
Robotics software company Viam presented BoxBot at IROS 2026, a robot that cuts tape with visual servoing and opens flaps using a fine-tuned open source SmolVLA policy. Engineers gathered the 125 teleoperated demonstrations in about five hours, and the model runs on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano. Code and data are published on Hugging Face.
· Robotics Tomorrow
San Francisco startup PitPro Automation has installed its first system at a Kal Tire location in Calgary, Canada, using two robots that find lug nuts, remove wheels and fit replacements. The company says four tires can be changed in less than 15 minutes, and it is targeting tire chains facing staff shortages after starting with commercial fleets.
· TechCrunch
