Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

Image created using ChatGPT. | Credit: The Robot Report While many in robotics saw this outcome coming, iRobot filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy has nonetheless sent shockwaves through the industry. Founded in 1990, iRobot is an iconic brand and a true category creator. It has defined consumer robotics since the launch of the first Roomba robot vacuum in September 2002. The reaction has been deeply polarized. Some point to tariffs and regulatory intervention that led to the collapse of the proposed Amazon acquisition as the decisive blow. Others argue that longer-running issues played a larger role, including slowing innovation, structural challenges around scale and manufacturing, financial decisions, and intensifying global competition. Regardless of where responsibility ultimately lies, iRobot’s decision to enter Chapter 11 and transfer control to its Chinese contract manufacturer marks a sobering moment for the robotics industry. In recent days, we’ve heard reactions from across ...

Panel at the 2025 Humanoids Summit featuring (l to r) James Wells, Sanctuary AI CEO; Modar Alaoui, ALM Ventures general partner and Humanoids Summit founder and chair; and Rafe Rosner-Uddin, Financial Times San Francisco correspondent. Credit: The Robot Report The Bay Area Robotics Association, or BARA, has officially launched as a member-driven industry platform connecting corporates, roboticists, investors, and startups. The organization said its vision is to help shape robotics and embodied AI in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and beyond. BARA was unveiled last week at the Humanoids Summit Silicon Valley , an industry event that convened thought leaders from humanoid robotics, embodied AI, and physical AI . “BARA was formed in response to industry demand for a member-based, capital-focused organization in the greater San Francisco Bay Area—one that connects innovation with the investment and commercialization partners needed to scale,” said Modar Alaoui, chairman of BARA, and...

iREX 2025 was held in Tokyo from Dec. 3 to 6. Credit: Georg Stieler The International Robot Exhibition, or iREX 2025, earlier this month set new records: 673 exhibitors and 156,110 visitors — even with parts of the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition ground under renovation. The mood at the event was good, as market order intake is recovering after two years of decline (particularly driven by exports). What did I see there that I haven’t seen somewhere else before? 1. Practical AI: From lab to factory floor While there were plenty of dancing humanoid robots, primarily of Chinese origin, what caught my eye were AI -enabled industrial robots to handle the slight variations and complexities previously reserved for human dexterity. For example, Yaskawa showed the MOTOMAN NEXT-NHC 10DE, an autonomous dual-arm robot that packs items into a box with human-like delicacy. According to Yaskawa, the robot’s motions were learned by imitation of a human demonstration. Engineers first had a perso...

iRobot said it will continue support through bankruptcy proceedings. Credit: Adobe Stock As expected, iRobot Corp. yesterday announced that it has entered into a restructuring support agreement with its creditor Santrum Hong Kong Co. and primary contract manufacturer Shenzhen Picea Robotics Co. The Chinese companies plan to acquire the robotic vacuum cleaner maker through a court-supervised Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. “Today’s announcement marks a pivotal milestone in securing iRobot’s long-term future,” stated Gary Cohen, CEO of iRobot. “The transaction will strengthen our financial position and will help deliver continuity for our consumers, customers, and partners.” “Together, we will work to continue advancing the industry-leading Roomba robots and smart home technologies that have defined the iRobot brand for more than three decades,” he added. “By combining iRobot’s innovation, consumer-driven design, and R&D with Picea’s history of innovation, manufacturing, and tech...

Generations in Dialogue: Bridging Perspectives in AI is a podcast from AAAI featuring thought-provoking discussions between AI experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts from different age groups and backgrounds. Each episode delves into how generational experiences shape views on AI, exploring the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations that come with the advancement of this transformative technology. Human-robot interactions and social robotics with Professor Marynel Vázquez In the fourth episode of this new series from AAAI, host Ella Lan chats to Professor Marynel Vázquez about what inspired her research direction, how her perspective on human-robot interactions has changed over time, robots navigating the social world, potential for using robots in education, modeling interactions as graphs, addressing misunderstandings with regards to robots in society, getting input from target users, the challenge of recognising when errors happen, making robots that adapt, and m...

A robotic arm builds a lattice-like stool after hearing the prompt ‘I want a simple stool,’ translating speech into real-time assembly. | Source: Alexander Kyaw, MIT Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week announced they developed a “speech-to-reality” system. This AI-driven workflow allows the MIT team to provide input to a robotic arm and “speak objects into existence,” creating things like furniture in as little as five minutes. The system uses a robotic arm mounted on a table that can understand spoken input from a human. For example, a person could tell the robot, “I want a simple stool,” and the robot would then construct the stool out of the modular components. So far, the university researchers have used the speech-to-reality system to create stools, shelves, chairs, a small table, and even decorative items such as a dog statue. MIT project focuses on bits and atoms “We’re connecting natural language processing, 3D generative AI , and robotic ...