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Iván Hernández Dalas: The Convergence in Perception Systems from Cars to Robots

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Image courtesy of ADI Robots are no longer confined to factory cells or fencedoff environments. Autonomous mobile robots now operate continuously in warehouses and hospitals. Drones are flying longer, farther, and with greater autonomy. Humanoid robots are beginning to work in close proximity to people, navigating shared spaces and responding to unstructured behavior in real time. This new generation of machines shares a common shift: mobility systems are becoming perceptiondriven, computeintensive, and safetycritical. This means the “hard part” is no longer designing a single sensor or a single model in isolation. The real challenge is system-level: ensuring sensing, connectivity, compute, power, and safety operate together reliably under realworld conditions. To address this, the automotive industry shifted toward treating vehicles as distributed nervous systems integrated networks of sensors, edge processors, communications links, and control elements built to behave predictably u...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Developing active and flexible microrobots

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By C Huygelen Leiden researchers Professor Daniela Kraft and Mengshi Wei have created microscopic robots that move without sensors, software, or external control. Instead, their behaviour emerges entirely from their shape and the way they interact with their environment. This class of robots opens up entirely new possibilities for biomedical applications. Close-up of the microrobot. Inspired by nature Inspiration to build these robots came from nature. Kraft: “Animals like worms and snakes constantly adapt their shape as they move, which helps them to navigate their environments. Macroscopic robots similarly use flexibility for their function. However, until now, microrobots were either small and rigid, or large and flexible. We wondered if we could realize small and flexible microrobots in our lab.” Tiny, flexible, and surprisingly capable To find out, they designed a soft, chain-like structure made up of flexibly connected segments, and printed it using a 3D micro...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Comau and OMRON Robotics partner to offer robotics for more industries

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Olivier Welker, CEO of OMRON Robotics, with Pietro Gorlier, CEO of Comau. Source: Comau Two established robot providers are teaming up. Comau SpA and OMRON Robotics yesterday said they have agreed to jointly accelerate the adoption of industrial automation for manufacturer worldwide. The strategic collaboration will focus on high-growth sectors including electronics , semiconductors, medical manufacturing, and light industrial intralogistics . The companies said these markets are continuing to experience strong demand for flexible, easily deployable automation. “Through this collaboration, we are bringing together two complementary portfolios with a shared focus on customer success,” stated Olivier Welker, CEO of OMRON Robotics. “By aligning our expertise in robotics, applications, advanced control, and intelligent automation technologies, we can help manufacturers respond faster to changing market demands. Together, this new collaboration will allow us to deliver more flexible, co...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: 2026 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards

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For 15 years, the RBR50 awards have recognized the world’s leading robotics organizations in terms of technology and business innovation. This year’s cohort includes several repeat winners, as well as first-time honorees, and it is a prestigious list of the leading commercial robotics developers and suppliers from around the world. This download provides profiles of the 2026 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award honorees, as well as a look at past and repeat winners. The Robot Report received numerous nominations, but these 50 businesses, associations, and academic institutions stood out for their new products, use cases, and influence over the wider robotics ecosystem. Organizations that represent and lead that ecosystem are among this year’s honorees. The Association for Advancing Automation is helping Congress recognize the need for a national robotics strategy, and MassRobotics is helping global startups get into the U.S. market. From increasing AI advances to mobile manipulators an...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: RLWRLD releases RLDX-1, a dexterity-first foundation model for robot hands

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RLWRLD said real-world interaction requires recognizing what to do, maintaining relevant state over time, and grounding decisions in physically meaningful signals. | Source: RLWRLD RLWRLD last week presented RLDX-1, a new dexterity-first foundation model. The company built the model to tackle complex tasks in the real-world industry using high degree-of-freedom (DoF) robotic hands. Existing foundation models often lack essential capabilities, such as context memorization or force sensing, required for seamless real-world deployment, according to RLWRLD. To address this, RLDX-1 encompasses the complete robotics lifecycle. It integrates a scalable data-collection pipeline, a versatile architecture design, robust training methodologies, and optimized deployment strategies, said the company . As a result, RLDX-1 achieves state-of-the-art performance, claimed RLWRLD. The model showcases precision and generalization across both simulated environments and physical industrial applications...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: How to teach the same skill to different robots

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The assembly line task setup. Credit: 2026 LASA EPFL CC-BY-SA. By Celia Luterbacher In today’s manufacturing environments, upgrading a robot fleet often means starting from scratch – not only replacing hardware, but also reprogramming tasks. Even when two robots are built to perform similar jobs, different joint arrangements or movement limits mean that a task programmed for one robot often can’t be used on another. Enabling skills to transfer directly between robots could make these systems more sustainable and cost-efficient. To meet this challenge, researchers in the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory ( LASA ) in EPFL’s School of Engineering have developed a new robotic control framework called Kinematic Intelligence . The method takes a human-demonstrated task, mathematically converts it into a general movement strategy, and then adapts it so that different robots can perform it based on their physical design. The research has been published in Science Robotics . “This ...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: How to engineer robot tracks and 7th axis systems for real-world environments

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Robot tracks and 7th-axis systems are often the most exposed components in an automation cell. Problems arise if they are designed for clean and controlled environments. In real-world robotics applications, linear motion systems are routinely subjected to debris, abrasive dust, moisture, chemicals, overspray, and extreme temperatures, all of which accelerate wear and drive unplanned downtime if not addressed early in the design process. Join us for the upcoming webinar , “Harsh and Dirty by Design: Engineering Robot Tracks and 7th Axis Systems for Real-World Environments.” The webinar will take place at 2:00 p.m. ET on   Tuesday, May 12. During the session, experts will focus specifically on how harsh and dirty environments impact robot tracks and long-axis linear motion systems, why traditional guide technologies struggle under contamination, and what design strategies improve reliability and uptime in demanding applications. Topics of focus for the webinar will includ...
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