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Iván Hernández Dalas: Zoox begins testing its purpose-built robotaxis in Phoenix and Dallas

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Zoox said its testing in Dallas and Phoenix will collect data about sprawling environments, differentiating it from testing in dense metro areas such as San Francisco. | Source: Zoox Zoox Inc. this week said it plans to bring its robotaxi operations to Phoenix, Ariz., and Dallas, Texas. The Amazon subsidiary is opening new depots in the two cities, as well as a new Fusion Center facility in Scottsdale, Ariz. In addition, the company has announced a new partnership with Uber. With Dallas and Phoenix, Zoox is now operating test fleets across 10 distinct markets: the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. Following its standard protocol, the company plans to deploy a small number of its testing vehicles , which are retrofitted SUVs. Zoox will initially focus on manual mapping before progressing to autonomous vehicle ( AV ) testing. There is always a safety driver behind the wheel who can take over at any time, disengagin...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: TRACO Power releases TMR 8WI converters for industrial applications

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The TMR 8WI series of converters is designed for industrial use. Source: TRACO Power TRACO Power yesterday released the TMR 8WI series of 8 Watt wide-input converters. The products deliver isolated DC/DC conversion in a space-saving SIP-8 package, offering versatility with a wide input range of 4.5 to 75 VDC, said the company. Baar, Switzerland-based TRACO Power has more than 25 years of experience in power supplies . The company said it is dedicated to the design and manufacture of high-quality DC/DC and AC/DC power conversion products. TRACO Power’s stated mission is to provide customers with the optimal systems in terms of performance, quality, and price. It added that its commitment to quality is supported by a three- or five-year product warranty on all products. TMR 8WI converters designed for efficiency, reliability Designed for efficiency, the new converters can achieve up to 89% power conversion while maintaining a compact footprint – without sacrificing thermal perfor...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Teradyne sues Chinese cobot maker over UR software

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With advanced motion control, the UR8 Long can conduct automotive quality inspection. Source: Universal Robots Teradyne Robotics A/S, the Denmark-based subsidiary of Teradyne and parent company of Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), is suing the German subsidiary of Elite Robots. Teradyne Robotics is accusing the Chinese collaborative robot maker of infringing on UR’s proprietary software. Teradyne Robotics said it has “irrefutable evidence” of copyright infringement, though the specifics of Elite Robots’ alleged software violations were unclear at press time. The company previously issued a cease-and-desist letter to Elite Robots’ German affiliate and has now escalated the matter to German courts. Framing the lawsuit as more than a standard IP dispute, Teradyne Robotics called on European policymakers and industry leaders to take a stronger stance against IP violations. It warned that unchecked infringement effectively subsidizes non-European rivals at the...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Restoring surgeons’ sense of touch with robotic fingertips

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By Anthony King Modern surgery has gone from long incisions to tiny cuts guided by robots and AI. In the process, however, surgeons have lost something vital: the chance to feel inside the body directly. Without palpation, it becomes harder to detect tissue abnormalities during an operation. A group of surgeons and engineers across Europe is now trying to bring back this vital aspect of surgery. Working within an EU-funded research collaboration called  PALPABLE , they are developing a soft robotic “fingertip” that can sense how firm or soft tissue is during minimally invasive and robotic surgery. The research runs until the end of 2026, with a first prototype expected to be tested by surgeons around March 2026. By combining optical sensing, soft robotics and AI, the team is designing a probe that mimics the way a fingertip presses and feels during surgery. It would gently probe organs and create a visual map of tissue stiffness, displayed on a screen to guide surgeons as they...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: Robotics Medal and Rising Star winners reflect on their work, advancing women in robotics

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From left to right, Tom Ryden, Joyce Sidopoulos, Maja Matarić, Tania Morimoto, Daniela Rus, and Tye Brady at the 2025 Women in Robotics Gala. | Source: MassRobotics Late last year, Dr. Maja Matarić and Dr. Tania Morimoto were named MassRobotics’ Robotics Medal and Rising Star winners. Now, during Women’s History Month, The Robot Report spoke with both women about their current work and how to advance women in robotics. In her almost 30 years working on robotics in academia, Matarić has pioneered the field of socially assistive robotics (SARs) and conducted foundational work in multi-robot coordination and human-robot interaction. She earned the Robotics Medal for her work with SARs and for making advancements to the field of distributed robots and learning in human-robot systems. Matarić is currently the Chaired and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California ( USC ). Moritomo is an associate professor...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: AMD expands Ryzen AI processor product line

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AMD’s Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processor. | Source: AMD AMD today expanded its Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processor portfolio. The company said the expanded line will better suit the rapidly evolving computing needs of factory automation, mobile robots, and other AI-driven edge applications.  The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said its new processors feature up to two times higher CPU core units, eight times higher graphics processing unit (GPU) compute, and an estimated 36% higher system tera operations. On a single chip, the processors feature: Eight to 12 “Zen 5” cores Up to 80 system TOPS for physical AI acceleration AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics for real-time visualization A neural processing unit (NPU) based on the AMD XDNA 2 architecture for low-latency, power-efficient AI inference AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processors featuring eight to 12 cores are currently sampling, with production shipments expected to begin in July 2026.  P100 Series four-...
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Iván Hernández Dalas: PlusAI launches its upgraded autonomous driver for freight operations

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SuperDrive is an SAE Level 4 autonomous driving system that can be deployed on a range of vehicles. | Source: PlusAI PlusAI last week released SuperDrive 6.0, the latest version of its autonomous driving software engineered for commercial-scale deployment. This announcement comes as PlusAI plans to become publicly listed after being acquired by the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Churchill Capital Corp IX. The upgraded driver can handle night driving and construction zone handling, PlusAI said, which are crucial for commercial freight operations.  “SuperDrive 6.0 isn’t an incremental update; it’s a major advancement of what an autonomous ‘brain’ can do,” said David Liu, the CEO and co-founder of PlusAI. “By adding night driving and construction zone handling, autonomous trucks with SuperDrive could achieve 24/7 commercial operations. By doubling our predictive accuracy and supercharging our AI development pipeline, we have the potential to accelerate our devel...
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