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Iván Hernández Dalas: Gatik brings in $200M to continue expanding autonomous trucking operations

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Gatik automates regional transformation for a range of customers, including PepsiCo, Kroger, Tyson Foods, and Georgia-Pacific. | Source: Gatik Gatik AI Inc. yesterday said it has raised $200 million in Series D funding. The company said it plans to use the investment to accelerate driverless commercial freight across Fortune 50 retail, consumer packaged goods, and grocery supply chains. Mountain View, Calif.-based Gatik said its AI -first autonomous vehicle ( AV ) technology is purpose-built for use across highways and surface streets. Its autonomous trucks use dynamic routes to help customers respond to changing demand, distribution center activity, and pickup and drop-off needs across commercial networks. “This round, led by some of the world’s leading financial institutions, is a clear validation of Gatik’s commercial leadership in autonomous freight,” stated Gautam Narang, co-founder and CEO of Gatik. “We have built Gatik with real revenue, deep customer demand, and AI-driven a...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: IDS Imaging adds Nion ToF sensor to its portfolio of 3D cameras

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The Nion iToF sensor combines a global shutter, pixel-internal memory and a fast readout structure. | Source: IDS Imaging IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH this week expanded its 3D sensor portfolio with Nion. The new product is an industrial time-of-flight, or ToF, camera that features 1.2-megapixel resolution and integrated depth processing. The Nion 3D camera is now available in series production. The company said the new camera provides high resolution and temporally stable depth information at 30 fps. It continues to work during rapid movements and under changing lighting conditions. IDS said Nion is suitable for applications where precise 3D data is required at real-world process speeds, such as logistics, automation, and robotics. “The Nion provides stable depth data even under variable lighting conditions,” said Patrick Schick, the product manager for 3D vision and imaging software at IDS. “This provides a solid foundation for automation processes that...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Bedrock Robotics’ first operator-free excavator deployments take off

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Bedrock is automating earth-moving equipment to improve site safety and fill skilled labor shortages. | Credit: Bedrock Robotics Bedrock Robotics Inc. has deployed fully autonomous, retrofitted heavy excavators onto active infrastructure projects in Texas and Nevada. These AI-driven heavy equipment projects directly address the construction industry’s severe labor shortages, safety hazards, and cost overruns. As the U.S. faces a looming labor crisis—with over 40% of the construction workforce expected to retire within five years—Bedrock said its technology comes at a pivotal moment for national infrastructure ambitions. Backed by $350 million in venture capital and led by former Waymo autonomy veterans, the startup’s plug-and-play retrofit system turns complex, high-risk earthwork into software-driven operations. The San Francisco-based company asserted that it is helping the physical economy transition from digital AI concepts to self-orchestrating machine fleets on live job si...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: How green is your robot? And other awkward questions

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Deborah Lupton / Servers in a Landscape / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0 By Emmet Cole Robots clean rivers and sort waste , monitor ecosystems , and inspect renewable-energy infrastructure . But even the greenest robot has an environmental footprint. If robotics is going to help build a more sustainable world, the robotics community has to answer some potentially awkward questions, starting with this one: How sustainable are robots themselves? Across a full lifecycle, from rare earth mineral extraction and manufacturing to operation and end-of-life, robots have an environmental impact. But the robotics community has, until now, lacked dedicated tools for calculating it. The Robotics Eco-Label project, led by Bram Vanderborght at Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is an attempt to address that gap with a lightweight, web-based Toolkit that provides roboticists with a way to quantify robot sustainability. Separating a robot’s core technologies into materials, energy sources, sensors...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Early bird pricing for RoboBusiness 2026 ends August 31

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Your chance to get discounted passes to RoboBusiness 2026, the leading event for commercial robotics developers, will come to an end next week. Early bird pricing for the show, which saves attendees $200 on full conference passes, will end Aug. 31, 2026 . For expo-only passes, early bird pricing will save attendees $40. A full conference pass at RoboBusiness will give attendees access to all keynote and breakout sessions, post-show access to speaker presentations, all networking breaks, the engineering theater sessions, and the expo floor. This year, we’ll be celebrating 20 years of RoboBusiness. The show will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center on  Oct. 20 and 21 . The event is produced by  The Robot Report  and parent company  Arrowfly . Attendees will learn from experts in robotics and AI on cutting-edge research and industry trends, as well as innovative applications in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, logistics, and more. MassRobotics ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Jetson Orin Nano 2 doubles inference performance for robotics on the edge, says NVIDIA

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Jetson Orin Nano 2 consumes less power at the same performance level of its predecessor. Source: NVIDIA As AI models become more efficient, more devices can become autonomous, but developers need compact, energy-efficient computers built for edge AI, asserted NVIDIA Corp. The company today introduced NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 2, a new entry-level computer for edge AI that it said enables millions of developers worldwide to build systems for physical AI applications. “Today’s small and medium frontier models have reached the accuracy of last year’s largest frontier models, unlocking real time intelligence for edge devices,” stated Deepu Talla, vice president of robotics and edge AI at NVIDIA. “The Jetson Orin Nano 2 computer puts that breakthrough within reach of millions of developers, delivering the performance and energy efficiency needed for real-time reasoning in smart drones, robots, and vision AI systems.” “Over the past three months, we’ve seen the evolution of open ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: The next big AI play isn’t apps or humanoids; it’s machines with brains and brawn

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Kubota unveiled the integrated, autonomous M5 Narrow diesel specialty tractor at CES 2026. | Credit: Kubota Humanoid robots and AI are chasing a powerful promise: replacing repetitive manufacturing tasks for lower cost, easing caregiver shortages, taking people out of dangerous work, and helping more of us live better, fuller lives in environments built for humans. That’s important, and it’s coming. On rural farms or urban construction sites, the problem looks different. The urgent question isn’t “Can a robot live with us?” It’s “can intelligent machines help us keep producing food and building infrastructure when skilled operators are disappearing and margins are razor‑thin?” That’s where embedding physical AI into heavy equipment comes in—and agriculture , especially permanent crops, is where it’s being pushed the hardest. In a vineyard or orchard, a machine operates inches from high‑value plants with almost no room for error. It threads through trellises and under canopies, aro...
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