Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

From left to right: Rodney Brooks, Jonathan Hurst, and Ken Goldberg. Robotics has evolved from a promising technology into a critical business tool across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, agriculture, defense, and beyond. At RoboBusiness 2026, which takes place Oct. 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, Calif., industry leaders will reflect on the breakthroughs that defined the past two decades. In the show’s opening keynote session, as RoboBusiness marks its 20th anniversary, leaders in robotics will explore the technologies, markets, opportunities, and challenges that will shape the next 20 years. The session, which will start at 9:15 a.m. PT, will feature insights from Rodney Brooks, co-founder and chief technology officer of Robust AI; Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robot officer of Agility Robotics; and Ken Goldberg, William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley. Steve Crowe, the executive editor of The Robot Report , will moderate the talk. Meet ...

Tacta’s robotic hand comes in three- and five-finger configurations. | Source: Tacta Systems Tacta Systems last week launched the TactaBot, which includes the company’s Tacta Hand, Skill Capture system, and a Dexterous Intelligence AI model. These three components work together to create capable, scalable, and adaptable robotic hands for high-value work. “We have vison-only robots and a variety of different robots that do really good work today, which is moving objects and so on, but the holy grail is to be able to augment, complement, and expand the potential to use robots to do high value work,” Vikram Pavate, co-founder and CEO of Tacta Systems, told The Robot Report . Pavate said some of the biggest workforce shortages in the world have to do with skilled labor, particularly in manufacturing environments. “Humans have amazing brains, but AI is catching up,” he noted. “We have decent eyes, and that’s an area where computer vision, arguably, has caught up....

The leadership team at Avatar Robotics: Hamid Farzaneh, founding engineer (l); Colin Webb, founder/CEO (m); and Nenye Anagbogu, chief screwdriver (r). | Credit: Avatar Robotics Avatar Robotics this week said it has raised $6.5 million in a seed financing round. AlleyCorp led the investment, which followed a pre-seed round led by defy.vc. Additional participants included Headline, Henry Ford III, Refashiond, Paul Vogel, Jack Huffard, and Samuel Udotong. The funding aims to support the deployment of Avatar Robotics’ semi-humanoid robots across logistics , manufacturing , and warehousing operations. The San Francisco-based startup said it plans to allocate capital toward scaling robot fleets, expanding customer deployments, advancing its autonomy software, and expanding engineering and operations teams. Founding team has autonomous vehicle experience Avatar Robotics was founded in 2024 by Colin Webb and Nenye Anagbogu, both graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog...

A new system developed at MIT uses three agents to piece together the objects, walls, and overall look of a 3D scene. Its realistic recreations of indoor spaces help robots practice skills and try out different ways of doing tasks before they’re powered on. Image: Tim Malieckal/MIT CSAIL using assets from the researchers. By Alex Shipps Robots walking down the street, surrounded by astounded onlookers, is an increasingly common sight. But these machines aren’t yet the do-it-all assistants you’d want working in a kitchen or factory, and a major bottleneck is data. Much like humans, robots learn best by experience. The challenge is that it’s labor-intensive and time-consuming to physically teach these machines so many actions across different settings. “One natural idea is to use simulation as a training ground. While there has been significant progress over the last few years in the physics engines that power robotics simulators, one of the remaining challenges has been creating suff...

Robin is designed to support healthcare teams and patients. | Source: Expper Technologies Every day, staffers in pediatrics hospitals and nursing home are doing everything they can to keep their patients calm and cooperative. In around 30 hospitals, dental clinics, and adult care facilities, this work is aided by Robin, a mobile robot from Expper Technologies. Robin is a socially assistive robot that aims to enhance the emotional well-being of the people it interacts with. The robot is kid-sized, with a friendly face and a simply designed body. It moves around using a wheeled base and doesn’t have any arms or manipulators. The system does all of its interaction with the world through its speech. Glendale, Calif.-based Expper has developed a fictional backstory and distinct personality behind Robin. Davit Martirosyan, the co-founder and head of engineering at Expper, described the robot as a kid who’s very interested in doing different things and very open to learning new things...

  Global demand for autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, is again on the rise, propelled by labor costs and shortages, as well as the need for greater operational flexibility and speed. At the same time, the technology continues to evolve, as AMRs become smarter and more nimble. The global market for autonomous mobile robots will grow from nearly $5 billion in 2024 to $14 billion in 2030, predicted Interact Analysis. While the market slowed immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, it shows signs of a strong recovery. Similarly, ABI Research has forecast that the mobile robot market could expand from $33 billion in 2026 to $68.9 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2%. It said that AMRs account for half of that total. Automated and semi-automated forklifts can be easily integrated into existing warehouse and factory workflows, say suppliers. For those more willing to invest in infrastructure, the shuttles in automated storage and retrieval systems ( AS...