Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

October 2026 was a whirlwind month for the robotics industry. Last month, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of RoboBusiness and announced that next year, the show will be rebranded to Robotics Summit & Expo West. In addition, prominent humanoid robot companies, such as Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics, announced some major updates. Here are the 10 most popular articles on  The Robot Report  in the past month. Subscribe to  The Robot Report  newsletter  and listen to  The Robot Report  Podcast  to stay up to date on the latest robotics news. 10. AGCO to deploy Agility Digit humanoid in Kansas factory In October 2026, AGCO and Agility Robotics signed a commercial agreement to deploy Agility’s Digit humanoid in AGCO’s manufacturing facility. The U.S. pilot, expected to begin in 2027, will support AGCO’s efforts to create more flexible, intelligent factories, beginning at its site in Hesston, Kan. Read more . 9. Will ‘boring’ robots win in the real world? Why ro...

The Robot Report Podcast · What AgTech founders get wrong about ROI Connie Bowen, founding general partner of Farmhand Ventures. In Episode 268 of The Robot Report Podcast, our guest is Connie Bowen, the founding general partner of Farmhand Ventures, a venture fund with a focus on AgTech investments. Farmhand Ventures is an impact-first investment firm shaping the future of work in agriculture . It enables strategic programs and innovation to make farm work more attractive, productive, profitable, and resilient — improving the lives and livelihoods of farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities. A lifelong ag leader and engineer, Bowen has planted orchards, harvested hemp, and managed farm crews. That experience grounds her investment lens in the realities of the field. Over the past decade, Bowen has built a career connecting agricultural technology with practical farming needs, holding roles at The Yield Lab, AgLaunch, Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners, and Grape Arbor Ventures...

By Hermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha , University of Bristol People often take their muscles for granted. They pick up a bag, tighten a grip, climb a hill, hold a cup of coffee and the body quietly adjusts force, speed and position without the person ever thinking about it. Muscle turns chemical energy into movement . It is able to produce force smoothly and reliably, even though it is built from huge numbers of tiny molecular components. When the load changes, muscles don’t simply wobble or fail. They adapt. But the way that muscle works on a molecular level isn’t a settled issue. With colleagues, our team at the University of Bristol built a physical model using ordinary electric motors to try and simulate how muscles may perform its tasks. The results, published in the Royal Society journal Interface , show that the coordination we see in real muscle may simply emerge as a property of their setup. It’s not something you have to programme and police continuously. The findings could eve...

VicOne identified an initial set of 28 zero-day findings in less than two days using AI-assisted research across software and tools supporting the Physical AI ecosystem. These include projects developed or maintained by Google, NVIDIA, and Meta, among others. Based on initial validation, all 28 findings are classified as zero-day vulnerabilities. The count may change following vendor and vulnerability-authority review, and some findings do not yet have CVE tracking numbers. Many of these tools help teams train, simulate, test, and operate robots. Weaknesses in them could influence the models teams build, the test results they trust, and the instructions sent to robots. These findings create two demands for robotics teams: responding as AI helps uncover weaknesses faster , and assessing how each one could affect robot safety and operations . What AI changes about vulnerability discovery Vulnerability discovery involves examining code, tracing how systems communicate, and testing w...

By Heilind Electronics As robotics systems grow more capable — faster, more precise, and increasingly reliant on AI-driven vision and control — the humble interconnect is being asked to do more than ever. Signal integrity, mechanical durability, and board real estate are no longer secondary considerations in robotics design; they’re often the limiting factor. 3M has built out a portfolio of connectors, cables, and cable assemblies aimed squarely at these pressure points, and the company’s interconnect strategy for robotics offers a useful lens into where the industry’s hardware challenges are heading. Flex Life Is the New Uptime Metric Robotic joints, arms, and end effectors don’t sit still — they twist, bend, and cycle continuously, often for years without a maintenance window. Cabling that fatigues or fails under that mechanical stress is one of the more common causes of unplanned downtime in automated systems. 3M’s answer is a family of high-flex ca...

Korean researchers have developed a beetle-like soft robot. Source: KAIST When we hear the word “robot,” we still conjure up images of mechanical figures from old science fiction films. However, reality has long since evolved: We’re surrounded by smart vacuum cleaners, voice assistants, and even four-legged machines that mimic dogs. But what are these robotic animals? They’re not just battery-powered toys. They’re complex electronic devices, infused with elements of artificial intelligence, that replicate the appearance and behavior of real or imaginary creatures. These devices contain sensors , speakers, motors , and processor modules that analyze external signals. They’re controlled via mobile apps. Digital pets can make distinctive sounds, respond to signs of affection, answer to their names, and display a range of emotions—from delight to fear, from satisfaction to fatigue. Manufacturers employ a variety of engineering approaches when creatin...