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Iván Hernández Dalas: Basler and Orbbec partner for 3D vision systems for mobile robots

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Mike McSweeney, VP of sales at Orbbec, with Sebastian von Holdt, head of 3D product systems and software at Basler, at LogiMAT 2026. Source: Orbbec Today at the LogiMAT trade show, Orbbec Inc. said it is collaborating with Basler AG, a leading manufacturer of industrial cameras and a long-standing reference in machine vision. The partners said they aim to provide customers worldwide with integrated and scalable industrial 3D vision systems for demanding tasks in robotics and logistics. “Basler’s industrial expertise and global reach make them the right partner for scaling 3D vision in demanding automation markets,” stated Mike McSweeney, vice president of sales at Orbbec. “Our vertically integrated manufacturing and on-chip depth sensing enable us to deliver industrial-grade stereo solutions with the price-performance and long-term availability that Basler’s customers require.” Shenzhen, China-based Orbbec said it is a leading provider of robotics and AI vision. The publicly list...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: NORD Drivesystems to show modular systems for intelligent automation at MODEX

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NORD will show its latest advances in drives and controls in Atlanta. Source: NORD Drivesystems Among the exhibitors at MODEX next month in Atlanta will be leading robotics and component suppliers. NORD Drivesystems plans to show its latest advancements in high-efficiency gear motors, intelligent electronic control products, and modular automation. The Bargteheide, Germany-based  company  said it designed them to optimize throughput and reduce total cost of ownership, or TCO. NORD said  MODEX  2026 attendees can visit Booth 14136 at the Georgia World Congress Center to speak with experts and learn how its decentralized technology is “redefining reliability” in modern warehousing and distribution centers. The company will showcase these specialized systems: IE5+ synchronous motors NORD Drivesystems claimed that its  IE5+ permanent magnet synchronous motors  deliver an extremely high efficiency of up to 95%, high power density, and significant en...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Russ Tedrake to unveil stealth AI startup at Robotics Summit

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Artificial intelligence has been dominating conversations at every technology event for the past few years, and the robotics industry continues to look for ways to apply the technology to robots. At the Robotics Summit & Expo , Russ Tedrake, a professor at MIT and former senior vice president of large behavior models (LBMs) at the Toyota Research Institute , will unveil his new stealth AI startup focused on deploying LBMs for robotics. Drawing on his deep experience in robotics and AI , Tedrake will share his vision for how physical AI can unlock more capable, adaptable robots across industries. The keynote, “Building Large Behavior Models for Industry,” will examine the motivations behind the technology, early breakthroughs, and the potential impact of LBMs on next‑generation robots. More about Russ Tedrake Tedrake is the Toyota Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Mechanical Engineering at MIT , the director of the Cen...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: TI partners with NVIDIA to accelerate robot deployments

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TI says its technologies, combined with NVIDIA AI infrastructure, enable humanoids to operate safely and efficiently in complex environments. | Source: Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Inc., or TI, recently announced a partnership with NVIDIA Corp. around last week’s GTC event. The company said that by combining its real-time motor control, sensing, radar, and power technologies with NVIDIA’s advanced robotics compute, Ethernet-based sensing, and simulation technologies, robotics developers can validate perception, actuation, and safety earlier and more accurately. “We can address literally every subsystem in the robots,” Giovanni Campanella, the general manager of industrial automation and robotics at TI, told The Robot Report at GTC . “ Our technologies today power already a lot of OEM systems in the humanoid, mobile robot, and industrial robot spaces.” TI connects NVIDIA physical AI compute to real-world applications with deterministic control, sensing, power, and safety ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: A history of RoboCup with Manuela Veloso

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RoboCup is an international competition that promotes and advances robotics and AI through the challenges presented by its various leagues. We got the chance to sit down with Professor Manuela Veloso , one of RoboCup’s founders, to find out more about how it all started, how the community has grown over the years, and the vision for the future. I think it would be very interesting to go right back to the beginning and hear how RoboCup got started. What was the initial idea, and how did it get set up? So we are talking about the mid-90s. In terms of the research in those days, it was the beginning of the internet and many AI and computer science researchers were focused on the internet, first on sophisticated search algorithms, on natural language understanding, on information retrieval, and then on software agents and machine learning applied to digital information. From what I recall, there was a smaller group of researchers who were interested in actual, physical robots, and in p...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: FANUC America to invest $90M in U.S. robot manufacturing

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FANUC plans to build a new facility to expand U.S. robot manufacturing capability. Source: FANUC America While the U.S. is a major market for robotics, none of the major industrial automation providers are headquartered in the U.S. However, production is shifting. FANUC America Corp. yesterday said it plans to invest $90 million to acquire property and construct a new 840,000 sq. ft. (78,038.5 sq. m) facility in Pontiac, Mich. The Rochester Hills, Minn.-based subsidiary of Japan-based FANUC Corp. noted that the “production-ready space” could expand its U.S.-based robot manufacturing capabilities. “This investment builds on FANUC America’s Michigan manufacturing footprint, which has included producing robots for paint application domestically for more than four decades,” stated Mike Cicco, president and CEO of FANUC America. “By expanding its U.S. presence, FANUC America will strengthen domestic manufacturing, improve responsiveness to customer needs, and support industries that r...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Vention releases Rapid Operator AI to automate deep bin picking

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Rapid Operator AI autonomously identifies and grasps randomly oriented parts from dense containers using AI-powered perception and motion planning. | Source: Vention Vention Inc. has developed Rapid Operator AI to automate complex, unstructured tasks, beginning with deep bin picking. The company announced the system’s commercial launch at NVIDIA GTC 2026 last week. “Rapid Operator AI is a productized, physical AI solution for unstructured manufacturing tasks. I’m not talking about warehousing here; I’m talking about manufacturing,” Etienne Lacroix, the founder and CEO of Vention, told The Robot Report . “The world of manufacturing is significantly more demanding.” Lacroix said the new product is built on the company ‘s Generalized Robotic Industrial Intelligence Pipeline ( GRIIP ). GRIIP delivers a unified pipeline from perception to motion by integrating Vention’s proprietary models with NVIDIA Isaac open models. Vention is targeting midmarket and enterprise manufacturers oper...
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