Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

Allient will exhibit its new drives for mobile robots next week in Germany. Source: Allient Allient Inc. is a global designer and manufacturer of specialty motion, controls, and power products and solutions for targeted industries and applications. The company yesterday said it will show its latest generation of drives engineered specifically for automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, or AGVs and AMRs, at LogiMAT 2026. “We are excited to showcase our latest drive solutions at LogiMAT 2026 and highlight how our integrated motor and gearbox technologies support the evolving demands of intralogistics automation,” stated Helmut Pirthauer, vice president and group president at Allient. “These systems are engineered to deliver high performance, compact design, and seamless integration for AGVs and AMRs, helping our customers advance next-generation mobile robotics.” Founded in 1962 as Allied Motion, Allient develops and manufactures technologies for industries including...

ElliQ is designed to help people age in place. Source: Intuition Robotics Social isolation can be harmful to seniors and people with disabilities, but the technologies to address it raise questions about availability and affordability. Intuition Robotics yesterday said that its ElliQ AI-powered system will be available as a “Smart Care Device” to eligible Washington state Medicaid recipients. “Our mission is to empower older adults with technology that fosters well-being and connection,” stated Dor Skuler, co-founder and CEO of Intuition Robotics. “Washington’s leadership in making ElliQ available through Medicaid sets a national precedent. We are confident that residents across the state will build meaningful connections with ElliQ and experience the benefits of remaining at home with confidence and dignity.” “ElliQ is already deployed with thousands of older adults across the U.S., with the majority of users accessing the system through healthcare providers, aging agencies, and ...

MISUMI and Oishii are collaborating on R&D and equipment for vertical farms. Source: MISUMI MISUMI Group Inc. yesterday said it has entered a strategic partnership with Oishii Farm Corp. to support Oishii’s vertical farm in the U.S. with mechanical components through its Fictiv Inc. subsidiary. The companies said they expect to create products that will support the global agricultural technology sector, which faces numerous challenges. “The global food market represents approximately ¥100 trillion (about $630 billion U.S.) and is increasingly exposed to a range of risks, including extreme weather events, geopolitical instability, and shortages of land and water resources,” noted MISUMI. “In developed economies, these challenges are further compounded by chronic labor shortages, making improvements in supply stability and productivity an urgent priority. Against this backdrop, the adoption of advanced technologies in agriculture has begun to accelerate, particularly in developed...

Ottobot will be trialed by Sodexo Australia at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri village in Australia. | Credit: Ottonomy Residents and guests at a remote mining village in Western Australia’s Pilbara region may soon be served by a new apprentice – an Ottobot robot delivering food and other items directly to their accommodations. Rio Tinto wanted to reduce the number of support staffers onsite while improving overhead and logistics. Sodexo Australia, which has 5,000 employees across more than 100 sites, plans to trial the system at the mining company ’s Gudai-Darri village, north-east of Newman in Pilbara . The residents live in a secluded village while working at the mining site. Food service for the residents is provided onsite by Sodexo, including several restaurants and a general store. On-site delivery for mining village residents Mine employees are categorized as “fly in, fly out” (FIFO), meaning that they can only bring their personal possessions that fit in their luggage. The sit...

Mikell Taylor of GM will speak about the importance of trust at the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo. Source: MIT For the robotics industry to continue growing, it must move past excitement around novel technologies and earn the market’s trust, according to Mikell Taylor, director of robotics strategy at General Motors Co. She will deliver a keynote on “What Makes a Robot Worthy?” at the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo , which will be in Boston on May 27 and 28. Because they operate in the physical world, robots must demonstrate that they are worthy adoption into environments with very high bars for safety, performance, uptime, and return on investment, noted Taylor. She will give examples based on her experience at startups developing technology for customers of all sizes, as well as in leadership roles at companies including Amazon and GM. At the Robotics Summit, Taylor will also explain why the industry needs to avoid stagnation in “pilot purgatory.” Her keynote will be at 10:00...

Humans often use one hand to grasp the branch for better accessibility, while the other hand is used to perform primary tasks like (a) branch pruning and (b) hand pollination of the flower. (c) An overview of the approach used by Madhav and colleagues, where one robot manipulates the branch to move the flower to the field of view of another robot by planning a force-aware path. Figure from Force Aware Branch Manipulation To Assist Agricultural Tasks . In their paper Force Aware Branch Manipulation To Assist Agricultural Tasks , which was presented at IROS 2025, Madhav Rijal, Rashik Shrestha, Trevor Smith , and Yu Gu proposed a methodology to safely manipulate branches to aid various agricultural tasks. We interviewed Madhav to find out more. Could you give us an overview of the problem you were addressing in the paper? Madhav Rijal (MR): Our work is motivated by StickBug [1], a multi-armed robotic system for precision pollination in greenhouse environments. One of the main challen...