Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

For humanoid robots to operate in the real world, they’ll need more than a sense of sight. | Source: Adobe Stock At recent major tech events, humanoid robots were everywhere. Some of them walked, navigated, and manipulated objects with a level of dexterity that would have seemed unrealistic just a few years ago. And yet, despite all of this progress, I find myself consistently underwhelmed when I try to communicate with them at Treble. Supporting the development of advanced audio and voice technologies has been Treble’s bread and butter for a long time. We’ve already grown used to building powerful audio AI for world-leading products. So, naturally, my perspective is shaped by that. Still, I find it striking how underdeveloped communication and auditory perception remain in robotics. We’re building astonishing machines that can move like us and, in many cases, see better than us. But these machines can’t interact with us in a natural way yet. In my opinion, this i...

The Robot Report Podcast · How Protolabs turns CAD files into parts in under 24 hours Marc Kermisch, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Protolabs. Marc Kermisch is the chief technology and AI officer at Protolabs. He leads the Maple Plain, Minn.-based company ‘s global technology organization, overseeing its software product development, digital manufacturing platform evolution, and enterprise-wide artificial intelligence and research & development strategies. Kermisch also focuses on advancing Protolabs’ automated quoting, AI-driven design for manufacturability, and pricing strategy. He supervises end-to-end prototyping-to-production solutions across core service lines, including CNC machining, injection molding, 3D printing, and sheet metal. With over 25 years of executive experience driving digital transformation, Kermisch specializes in integrating software, cloud solutions, and automation into traditional manufacturing and industrial operational environments. ...

Neros Archer is a FPV drone built for modular payloads and resilient communications. | Source: Neros Neros Inc. this week announced it raised $250 million in a Series C round. This brought the drone defense contractor to a $2.5 billion valuation. “This newest round of funding accelerates Neros into a multi-capability drone manufacturer,” stated Soren Monroe-Anderson, co-founder and CEO of Neros. “Our mission to produce 1 million drones per year hasn’t changed, but the span of drones and mission sets we can support are multiplying. Our core business has seen explosive growth since our last financing round in November, and this added capital gets our systems into war-fighter hands faster, and at the scale needed for decisive outcomes on the battlefield.” Founded in 2023, Neros has major contracts with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, as well as contracts with every component of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and half a dozen allied countries. The ...

The Digit humanoid robot from Agility, which is an example of a SPAC acquisition. Source: Agility On June 24, Agility Robotics Inc., a leading humanoid robotics and physical AI company, announced it had entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Churchill Capital Corp XI, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company or SPAC. The deal values Agility at a $2.5 billion pre-money equity valuation. The Agility transaction comes at an inflection point for robotics companies seeking to scale their businesses during a time of technological disruption, increased visibility, and public acceptance, as well as labor shortages and onshoring pressures that are accelerating the need for deployment of robotics systems. While the traditional IPO path remains challenging, de-SPAC transactions and varieties of reverse-merger transactions may prove to be the optimal approach for many robotics companies seeking additional capital and access to public markets. Agility deal f...

By Umar Farooq That was one of the questions at the heart of my last week (20th-24th July) at the Imperial Robotics Summer School, hosted at Imperial College, London; a week that sharpened my thinking and pushed me to look at robotics problems from angles I don’t usually get to in my day-to-day work. The summer school brought together emerging researchers, academics, and industry professionals from across the robotics community for an intensive, hands-on programme. I came away having learned a huge amount, from expert-led lectures on robot kinematics, dynamics, sensing and control, and robot learning, through to specialised sessions on aerial robotics, robot intelligence, surgical robot vision, bio-inspired sensing and control, and personal assistive robotics. One of the standout parts of the week was getting into Imperial’s robotics labs themselves, seeing research up close across adaptive and intelligent robotics, aerial robotics, robotic surgery, manipulation and touc...

Humanoid robot developers are trying to replicate the human hand. Source: Adobe Stock Human hands are dexterous, versatile machines. Roboticists have tried to copy the biological structures of the hand for humanoid grippers. This, however, typically results in complex and difficult-to-control structures. Researchers proposed an alternative end-effector solution in a new study published by Wiley in Advanced Science . They created the BioflexBot, a novel robot that mimics and even exceeds core motions of the hand with a simple design. Instead of creating a robotic hand with the intricate anatomy of a human hand, the researchers aimed to capture fundamental hand motions with a coiled spring, constraining shell, and basic pneumatic system, using compressed air to control mechanical action. Optimized for precision and range of mobility, the BioflexBot can pinch, rotate, hook, and grasp with just two pneumatic inputs. “By harnessing structural and physical intelligence, we pursued a si...