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Iván Hernández Dalas: 6 lessons I learned watching a robotics startup die from the inside

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The K-Bot open-source humanoid robots. | Credit: K-Scale Labs Editor’s Note: Rui Xu is the former chief operating officer of K-Scale Labs , a San Francisco-based startup that tried to build low-cost humanoid robots. The company shut down in late 2025 and recently open-sourced its intellectual property. Xu first published this article on LinkedIn. It was reprinted with his permission. I spent a year as COO of a YC-backed robotics startup trying to build affordable humanoid robots. I was forty, had 15 years of hardware experience shipping products at Intel, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Amazon and ByteDance, and joined to run supply chain and product operations. The company didn’t make it. We never closed our Series A. By late 2025, it was over. I’ve written about the good parts before. The hackathons, the garage energy, the first time the robot walked. This time I want to write down what I actually learned. Some of these are industry-wide traps. Some we walked into ourselves. 1. Large Model ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: BMW piloting Hexagon’s wheeled humanoid in Germany

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BMW Group last week announced a pilot project to deploy wheeled humanoids from Hexagon Robotics at its Leipzig plant in Germany. With the project, BMW wants to integrate humanoids into existing car production and explore future applications for humanoids in battery and component production. “Digitalisation improves the competitiveness of our production – here in Europe and worldwide. The symbiosis of engineering expertise and artificial intelligence opens up entirely new possibilities in production,” said Milan Nedeljković, a member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Production. Hexagon Robotics  released its semi-humanoid robot AEON in June 2025. Following an initial theoretical evaluation phase and successful laboratory tests, BMW launched an initial test deployment at its Group Plant Leipzig in December 2025. The company plans to do another test deployment from April 2026 to ensure full integration for the actual pilot phase starting in summer 2026. While AEON does fe...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: SDI offers ASUT drone operations certificate program

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The ASUT program at Sonoran Desert Institute offers education for those passionate about the rapidly growing UAS field. | Credit: SDI As part of an ongoing STEM education series, this week we look at opportunities in the drone space. The Sonoran Desert Institute’s Associate of Science in Uncrewed Technology, or ASUT, program offers a 100% distance-learning curriculum where students build their own drones and master technical flight skills to prepare for immediate hire in the expanding uncrewed aircraft systems industry. From soldering components to preparing for FAA Part 107 certification, the program provides a comprehensive path for students to enter high-demand roles in drone maintenance, infrastructure inspection, and public safety. By blending 100% distance learning with a hands-on “build and fly” curriculum, SDI ’s ASUT program addresses a surging demand for skilled technicians in fields ranging from precision agriculture to public safety . For $24,400, the 60-credit de...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Inside the peripheral motion systems that complement robotics

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In a previous article, we detailed  example integrations of motion control and robotics . So, what about the workcells and systems surrounding the robotics in their workcells? Various automated systems can serve, move, and enhance a robot to maximize its usefulness. There are various complexity levels with these peripheral motion systems. The act of machine tending is simpler than assembly — and most assembly tasks are in turn simpler than operations involving conveyance. The latter represents material handling in the form of pick-and-place functions (as seen below) needing the coordination of all the robot axes and end effector with the conveyor. For such setups, the location of the robot relative to the conveyor, along with a whole host of other parameters, can be optimized in simulation software for minimized arm travel. Of course, no discussion of peripheral motion systems that complement robotics would be complete without mentioning seventh-axis systems — also called ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: How to integrate collaborative robots into existing production lines without disruption

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Kassow says its collaborative robots bring accuracy, efficiency, and customization to dispensing tasks. | Source: Kassow Robots Collaborative robots are being adopted across manufacturing floors as a practical way to automate specific tasks within existing production constraints. Manufacturers need to improve their processes across several dimensions, such as making them more consistent, reducing strain on employees, and maximizing the space they are working with. At the same time, manufacturers want to avoid pausing production or redesigning entire lines to achieve those goals. In those situations, cobots offer a practical path forward when they are integrated with a clear understanding of how the line already operates. Adding a force- and power-limited robot to an established production line is rarely as simple as placing a robot at a station and pressing “Start.” Existing lines have a rhythm shaped by operator routines, physical layouts, and upstream and downstream dependenci...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Vision-language-action models are the next leap in autonomous robotics

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GR00T N1 is an example of a vision-language-action model. Source: NVIDIA Robotics has traditionally used modular pipelines. Perception, planning, and control sit in separate systems and connect through hand-tuned interfaces. This approach works for simple, well-defined tasks. It struggles when environments change or when robots must follow flexible instructions. Vision-language-action, or VLA, models offer a different path. Systems such as Figure AI ’s Helix, NVIDIA ’s GR00T N1, and Google DeepMind ’s RT-1, introduced last year, combine vision, language understanding, and motor control into a single model. These systems operate end-to-end and act directly on real robots. This shift matters now because recent work shows practical, on-device deployments. These can reduce latency, improve dexterity, and allow faster task changes. VLAs point toward robots that understand natural instructions, carry out multi-step tasks, and move smoothly without fragile, hand-built pipelines. Let’s l...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Robot Talk Episode 146 – Embodied AI on the ISS, with Jamie Palmer

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Claire chatted to Jamie Palmer from Icarus Robotics about building a robotic labour force to perform routine and risky tasks in orbit. Jamie Palmer is co-founder and CTO of Icarus Robotics . He earned a Master’s in Robotics from Columbia University on a full scholarship, researching intelligent, dexterous manipulation in the ROAM lab. Jamie developed and deployed autonomous hospital robots during the pandemic and worked as a race-winning engineer for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team.   View Source
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