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Iván Hernández Dalas: Designing long-travel axes: When rack and pinion outperforms ball screws and linear motors

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Sponsored by GAM . A gearbox, pinion, and rack system provide the 7th axis, or lateral movement, for an articulated robot. (Image: GAM.) Pull a tape measure out a few inches and the blade is rigid. Keep pulling and at some point it starts to flex and wobble, then eventually buckles. It is a problem engineers know well when designing long-travel axes. There are three main ways to create precise straight-line motion in machines: rack and pinion, ball screws, and linear motors. In this article, we’ll explore when rack and pinion is the best choice—and when others might be better. Understanding the three technologies A rack and pinion works by engaging a rotating gear called the pinion against a toothed bar called the rack. Depending on the setup, either the rack moves while the pinion stays fixed, or the pinion assembly travels along a fixed rack. A ball screw works on a similar idea. It is essentially a precise threaded rod with a nut that rides along it. Spin the rod and the nut t...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Robotics investments reach $4.9B in August 2026

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Robotics companies raised $4.87 billion in disclosed funding and other capital in August 2026, according to 162 financial transactions tracked by The Robot Report . The overall funding total is much higher as many of the funding totals are not made public. China accounted for the largest share of disclosed capital, raising approximately $2.44 billion, or roughly half of all disclosed funding. U.S. companies accounted for another $1.27 billion. August’s five largest disclosed transactions alone accounted for more than $3.3 billion. Unitree Robotics led the month with a $905 million IPO, while XPENG Robotics followed with a $900 million Series A. Both companies are based in China, putting nearly $1.8 billion into the sector from just two transactions. Humanoid companies attracted approximately $943.8 million in disclosed capital, or 19.4% of the month’s total disclosed funding. XPENG’s Series A accounted for the overwhelming majority of that total. To unlock full de...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Arm Total Design for Physical AI brings more than 80 developers together

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Autonomous vehicles and robotics are tackling similar challenges across perception, AI, real-time control, safety, and efficient computing. | Source: Arm Arm Holdings PLC recently released Arm Total Design for Physical AI, a program that brings together more than 80 companies spanning the physical AI technology stack. The company also introduced a Robotics Capability Framework as a starting point for a common language to define and advance robotic capabilities. “The goal with Arm Total Design for Physical AI is to bring together those companies that are participating in the physical AI space, but are maybe looking at ways to work better together,” Dermot O’Driscoll, vice president of go-to-market and customer solutions for physical AI at Arm, told  The Robot Report . Already, the program’s members include AWS , ECARX, Hugging Face , Liquid AI , NXP , PlusAI , Psyonic , QNX , Qwen, Siemens , Unitree Robotics , and others. O’Driscoll said Arm drew on its experience from bui...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: OLogic to share how robots can learn from human demonstrations at RoboBusiness

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Some of the robots OLogic has helped to build, Bear Robotics’ AMR, Locus Robotics’ AMR, Zoetic’s KiKi social robot, Simbe Robotics’ Tally, and Misty Robotics’ personal robot. | Source: OLogic Egocentric robot learning is emerging as a powerful approach for developing more capable, adaptable, and scalable robotic systems. By learning from first-person human demonstrations captured through wearable cameras, teleoperation systems, and embodied AI platforms, robots can acquire complex manipulation and decision-making skills in ways that more closely mirror human learning. This paradigm has gained significant momentum through advances from organizations such as NVIDIA , Google DeepMind , Meta , and a growing ecosystem of robotics startups focused on foundation models, imitation learning, and embodied intelligence. As labor shortages, increasing customization demands, and operational complexity continue to challenge industries, egocentric learning offers a pa...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: The evolution of Digit: Agility Robotics’ journey from Cassie to Digit 5

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From left to right: Cassie and Digit through the years. | Source: Agility Robotics Agility Robotics has been operating for over 10 years, and in that time it’s created five different versions of its Digit humanoid. The company has grown from its roots in the Dynamic Robotics Lab at OSU, to having three offices across the country, over 400 employees, and a factory that can build up to 10,000 robots annually. With the release of Digit 5, we’re looking back at how Agility’s technology has evolved over the years. The latest versions of Digit, Agility’s Co-Founder and Chief Robot Officer Jonathan Hurst told  The Robot Report , are built around the realities that come with doing actual work in partners’ facilities. https://www.therobotreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-Evolution-of-Digit-3.mp4 Agility’s story starts with Cassie Before Agility built Digit, it created Cassie, a bipedal robot optimized to run fast. Hurst said Cassie represents...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Watch the ICRA keynote and plenary talks

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The 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA) was held in Vienna from the 1 – 5 June. The event brought together researchers and industry professionals with expertise spanning many different aspects of robotics. IEEE have made the keynote and plenary talk recordings available to watch . You can also catch the panel discussions and keynote tutorials. Watch here . Available to watch are the following: Plenary talks Ken Goldberg – A Tale of Two Cultures: Can Agentic Coding Close the Gap? Barbara Mazzolai – Natural Revolution: Biological Principles for Frugal and Sustainable Robotics Roland Siegwart – Aerial Robots – From Omnidirectional Flight to Physical Interaction at Height Keynote sessions Autonomous Vehicles & Navigation Medical & Healthcare Robotics Robot Perception & Spatial AI Manipulation, Humanoids, Embodied Design Robot Learning, Planning & Foundation Models Human-Robot Interaction ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: InOrbit.AI releases OpenRobOps ISO 21423 reference implementation

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OpenRobOps, or ORO as shown here, is designed to enable easier fleet orchestration. Source: InOrbit Orchestrating fleets of mobile robots could be getting easier. InOrbit Inc. has been working to make the core operations layer of its software more accessible to developers. The company today released OpenRobOps, which it described as “an open-source robot operations and fleet management software designed to support scaled deployments.” “OpenRobOps gives robotics developers a production-grade, open-source foundation to escape the build trap, delivering the industry’s first ISO 21423 reference implementation and bridging the interoperability gap,” asserted Florian Pestoni, founder and CEO of InOrbit.AI. Founded in 2017, InOrbit said it is a leader in enterprise robot orchestration software and spatial intelligence. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company claimed that it pioneered federated orchestration, enabling organizations running heterogeneous fleets to bri...
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