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Iván Hernández Dalas: AES Maximo robot installs 100 megawatts of solar capacity

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Maximo integrates into existing construction workflows and can double the rate of solar panel installation. Source: AES As electricity demand grows, robot fleets must rapidly scale to help meet that need. Maximo last week said it has successfully installed 100 megawatts of utility-scale solar capacity at The AES Corp.’s Bellefield complex in Kern County, Calif. The robotics company was incubated by Arlington, Va.-based AES . Data center expansion and the rising cost of fossil fuels are driving electrification, while the solar industry faces labor constraints, compressed project timelines, and cost volatility, according to Maximo. The startup said its 100 MW achievement marked the transition of robotic module installation from early deployment validation to sustained commercial production. “Solar installation is one of the most repeatable construction tasks, but also physically demanding as panels get bigger,” Deise Yumi Asami , founder of Maximo, told  The Robot Report . “Ac...

Iván Hernández Dalas: The future of RealSense 3D vision with Chris Matthieu

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The Robot Report Podcast · The future of Real Sense 3D vision with Chris Matthieu Episode 238 of The Robot Report Podcast features Chris Matthieu, VP of Developer Ecosystem for RealSense . Chris Matthieu, VP of Developer Ecosystem for RealSense. Credit: RealSense Chris Matthieu is a serial entrepreneur and active developer who has built and sold five emerging tech companies in the areas of communications, IoT, and decentralized supercomputing. He currently serves as the VP, Developer Ecosystem for RealSense, where he focuses on AI, robotics, and stereo depth technologies. Chris is a frequent speaker at robotics and emerging technology conferences and is speaking at the 2026 Robotics Summit and Expo . Show timeline 8:08 – News of the week 23:25 – Chris Matthieu, VP of Developer Ecosystem for RealSense News of the week AGIBOT rolls out 10,000th humanoid robot AGIBOT has officially hit a major industry milestone, celebrating the shipment of its 10,000th humanoid robot ...

Iván Hernández Dalas: Generalist introduces GEN-1 general-purpose model for physical AI

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To create GEN-1, Generalist said it improved training stability, built custom kernels, invented new forms of paged attention to enable real-time inference, honed post-training techniques, and hardened controls to be even smoother and more precise. | Source: Generalist AI Generalist AI Inc. yesterday announced its GEN-1 general-purpose AI model for robotics. The company said the system improves average success rates to 99% on tasks where previous models achieved 64%. The model also completes tasks roughly three times faster than current approaches, and it requires only one hour of robot data for each of these results, Generalist claimed. Founded in 2024, the company is building embodied foundation models for general-purpose robots. San Mateo, Calif.-based Generalist asserted that GEN-1 “unlocks commercial viability across a broad range of applications.” This latest release came just five months after the company released its GEN-0 model, which it said demonstrated that scaling law...

Iván Hernández Dalas: Qualcomm joins MassRobotics, to support startups with Dragonwing Robotics Hub

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A humanoid robot demonstrates grasping using the Dragonwing IQ10 series platform. Source: Qualcomm MassRobotics today said that Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has joined the organization as its newest sponsor, expanding collaboration within the MassRobotics ecosystem and providing new resources such as the Dragonwing platform to support resident startups. “We’re excited to join MassRobotics and collaborate with one of the world’s most dynamic robotics ecosystems,” stated Ahmed Sadek, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm. “MassRobotics plays a critical role in supporting startups and advancing robotics innovation. We look forward to working with the community to help accelerate the development of next-generation robotics solutions.” San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm offers edge AI, connectivity, and high-performance, low-power computing. In January, the company introduced a robotics architecture stack, which integrates its Dragonwing IQ10 processor and software for perception and...

Iván Hernández Dalas: Sanctuary AI’s robotic hand demonstrates zero-shot in-hand manipulation

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Sanctuary AI this week demonstrated its approach to training dexterous manipulation policies for its robotic hands. In its latest video, the company’s hydraulic hand autonomously manipulated a lettered cube, continuously reorienting it to match a specified goal. The system successfully achieved the target orientation 10 consecutive times without dropping the cube, highlighting robust in-hand manipulation capabilities. The manipulation takes place entirely at the fingertips without the support of the palm, requiring the hand to simultaneously and stably grasp the object, while making progress towards the orientation goal. Such capabilities form the foundation for precise insertion, tool use, and other real-world dexterous tasks, said Sanctuary AI. Degrees of freedom, hydraulic actuation make a difference Sanctuary AI claimed that the high number of degrees of freedom in its proprietary robotic hands enable finger abduction and sophisticated in-hand manipulation that most current ro...

Iván Hernández Dalas: PickNik Robotics gives MoveIt Pro 9.0 enhanced perception-to-motion, teleop capabilities

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MoveIt Pro 9.0 enables robots to operate effectively in environments where geometry changes and surfaces vary, PickNik says. | Source: PickNik Robotics PickNik Inc. today released MoveIt Pro 9.0, the latest update for its platform for developing robotic arm applications. The latest version of MoveIt comes with enhanced perception-to-motion capabilities and a redesigned teleoperation and training data collection system. With these improvements, the Boulder, Colo.-based company said its platform will help developers tackle high-mix, low-volume applications that robotics traditionally struggles with. “We’re recognizing a couple of trends in the industry. One is agentic coding. It’s getting faster and easier to do robotic demos,” Dave Grant, the CEO of PickNik, told The Robot Report . “If you want to create a bad demo that will never see the light of day, you can do that faster than ever today. So, we’re really shifting our focus to the reliability of the platform, and executing with...

Iván Hernández Dalas: Back to school: robots learn from factory workers

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By Anthony King What if training a robot to handle dirty, dangerous work on the factory floor was as simple as showing it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing exactly that, helping factory workers teach robots new skills by demonstration. Instead of writing complex code, workers perform the job once and RoboTwin’s technology turns those movements into a robot programme – opening the door to automation for smaller manufacturers. Founded in Prague in 2021, RoboTwin builds handheld devices and no-code software that capture human movements and translate them into instructions for industrial robots. The aim is to make automation faster, simpler and more accessible to manufacturers that do not have specialist robotics programmers. “The robot basically copies the human demonstration,” said Megi Mejdrechová, RoboTwin’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “People with no coding skills can transfer their know-how and experience to robots.” Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer trained ...