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Iván Hernández Dalas: A national robotics strategy is necessary to reshore manufacturing, says the Congressional Robotics Caucus

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Rep. Jay Obernolte, co-chair of the Congressional Robotics Caucus, addresses a meeting in the Rayburn House Office Building. Credit: DLA Piper WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. needs robots and workforce development to successfully reshore production, said members of the Congressional Robotics Caucus at an event organized by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) and law firm DLA Piper this week. The U.S. needs a unified federal approach to robotics and skills development to be competitive, asserted Jeff Burnstein, president of A3 . He also introduced a panel on “The Key to Reshoring Manufacturing: A Skilled Workforce, Advanced Robotics, and a National Strategy.” Exhibitors at the event included ABB Robotics , Boston Dynamics , FANUC , General Robotics , Intrinsic , Path Robotics , and Standard Bots , as well as Lorain County Community College (LCCC). Attendees included representatives of robotics vendors and staffers from other congresspeople ‘s offices. Sector needs nation...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Zebra Technologies winding down Fetch-based mobile robot group

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Zebra Technologies is winding down its autonomous mobile robot (AMR) division. The group was built around Zebra’s $290 million acquisition of AMR maker Fetch Robotics in 2021 . The move marks a strategic retreat from the robotics push Zebra launched to expand its warehouse automation capabilities. It’s unclear exactly how this story will end. According to multiple sources, Zebra is looking to sell its robotics division or ultimately shut it down. According to the sources, most of the robotics staff will be let go by the end of 2025. About 25% of the staff will stay on until March 2026 to manage current deployments. Multiple former employees of Zebra’s AMR group posted yesterday on LinkedIn that they are looking for new roles. The future of the robots in customer sites now likely appears tied to whether Zebra can sell the group to a new owner. Zebra didn’t break out the AMR group’s revenue separately in earnings reports, so it’s unclear how many robots are in the field or how much ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Robot Talk Episode 137 – Getting two-legged robots moving, with Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi

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Claire chatted to Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi from Ohio Northern University about bipedal robots that can walk and even climb stairs. Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi (Wami) is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Ohio Northern University. Her research focuses on controls with applications in bipedal locomotion and engineering education. She is the first Black woman to receive a PhD in Robotics at the University of Michigan. During her Ph.D., she developed the Biped Bootcamp technical document, which she is transforming into an undergraduate curriculum —introducing students to bipedal robotics while providing advanced coursework for juniors and seniors. View Source
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Helm.ai releases new architectural framework for autonomous vehicles

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Helm.ai said its new architectural framework can enable autonomous operations with less data than typical systems. | Source: Helm.ai Typically, in the autonomous driving industry, developers create massive black-box, end-to-end models for autonomy that require petabytes of data to learn driving physics from scratch. Helm.ai today unveiled its Factored Embodied AI architectural framework, which it says offers a different approach. With the framework, the company released a benchmark demonstration of its vision-only AI Driver steering the streets of Torrance, CA, with zero-shot success without ever having seen those specific streets before. This included handling lane keeping, lane changes, and turns at urban intersections. Helm.ai said it achieved this autonomous steering capability by training the AI using simulation and only 1,000 hours of real-world driving data. “The autonomous driving industry is hitting a point of diminishing returns. As models get better, the data requir...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Ghost Robotics releases manipulator arm for Vision 60 quadruped

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Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 Q-UGV is equipped with the company’s new arm. | Source: Ghost Robotics Ghost Robotics today launched its new manipulator arm for its Vision 60 Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV). The company said the arm expands the Vision 60’s mission capabilities by adding precise, robust manipulation.  Designed as a lightweight, modular, top-mounted system, the manipulator arm enables the Vision 60 to perform complex tasks, such as opening doors, retrieving objects, handling equipment, and interacting with the environment. The arm’s six degrees of freedom (DoF) and fully backdrivable design provide smooth, force-sensitive control that mirrors the durability of the robot’s legs, Ghost said. “At Ghost Robotics, our mission is to keep people out of harm’s way,” said Gavin Kenneally, Co-Founder and CEO of Ghost Robotics. “We already build legged robots for some of the world’s most demanding customers operating in the toughest environments. Now, those same robots...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: MMI earns FDA clearance for robotic soft tissue dissection tools

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Medical Microinstruments (MMI) has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance for its NanoWrist Scissors and Forceps. These instruments are used for soft tissue dissection, allowing MMI’s Symani Surgical System to handle critical steps in complex surgeries.  Surgeons at Tampa General Hospital, which has an established microsurgical robotics program, completed the first U.S. clinical case of the cleared instruments. Surgeons used MMI’s instruments to complete a lymphovenous bypass (LVB) procedure. Symani assisted in the procedure from initial incision to skin closure.  “As we continue to evolve Symani, the first dissection instruments are a critical step in that mission,” said Mark Toland, CEO of MMI. “The addition of these capabilities to our platform is game-changing in supermicrosurgical procedures where extreme precision for the smallest vessels is essential. We will continue to develop technologies that advance the future of microsurgery with Symani an...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Digit humanoid joins Mercado Libre warehouse

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Mercado Libre, a leading commerce and fintech ecosystem in Latin America, has signed an agreement to integrate Agility Robotics ’ Digit humanoid into its facility in San Antonio, Texas. Mercado Libre uses other types of warehouse robots at other facilities, but this appears to be its first foray into humanoids. Unfortunately, the companies didn’t say much about what Digit will actually be doing. We also don’t know how many robots are being deployed or whether this is a temporary pilot or actual deployment. Agility and Mercado Libre only said that Digit will initially focus on tasks that support commerce fulfillment and that they plan to explore additional use cases for how humanoids can augment logistics operations in Latin America. Digit Skill Library focuses on tote handling Chances are Digit will be moving totes for Mercado Libre. The robot’s Skill Library is focused entirely on tote handling, which is also how it has been used by customers like GXO Logistics and Schaeffler...
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