Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

The leadership team at Avatar Robotics: Hamid Farzaneh, founding engineer (l); Colin Webb, founder/CEO (m); and Nenye Anagbogu, chief screwdriver (r). | Credit: Avatar Robotics Avatar Robotics this week said it has raised $6.5 million in a seed financing round. AlleyCorp led the investment, which followed a pre-seed round led by defy.vc. Additional participants included Headline, Henry Ford III, Refashiond, Paul Vogel, Jack Huffard, and Samuel Udotong. The funding aims to support the deployment of Avatar Robotics’ semi-humanoid robots across logistics , manufacturing , and warehousing operations. The San Francisco-based startup said it plans to allocate capital toward scaling robot fleets, expanding customer deployments, advancing its autonomy software, and expanding engineering and operations teams. Founding team has autonomous vehicle experience Avatar Robotics was founded in 2024 by Colin Webb and Nenye Anagbogu, both graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog...

A new system developed at MIT uses three agents to piece together the objects, walls, and overall look of a 3D scene. Its realistic recreations of indoor spaces help robots practice skills and try out different ways of doing tasks before they’re powered on. Image: Tim Malieckal/MIT CSAIL using assets from the researchers. By Alex Shipps Robots walking down the street, surrounded by astounded onlookers, is an increasingly common sight. But these machines aren’t yet the do-it-all assistants you’d want working in a kitchen or factory, and a major bottleneck is data. Much like humans, robots learn best by experience. The challenge is that it’s labor-intensive and time-consuming to physically teach these machines so many actions across different settings. “One natural idea is to use simulation as a training ground. While there has been significant progress over the last few years in the physics engines that power robotics simulators, one of the remaining challenges has been creating suff...

Robin is designed to support healthcare teams and patients. | Source: Expper Technologies Every day, staffers in pediatrics hospitals and nursing home are doing everything they can to keep their patients calm and cooperative. In around 30 hospitals, dental clinics, and adult care facilities, this work is aided by Robin, a mobile robot from Expper Technologies. Robin is a socially assistive robot that aims to enhance the emotional well-being of the people it interacts with. The robot is kid-sized, with a friendly face and a simply designed body. It moves around using a wheeled base and doesn’t have any arms or manipulators. The system does all of its interaction with the world through its speech. Glendale, Calif.-based Expper has developed a fictional backstory and distinct personality behind Robin. Davit Martirosyan, the co-founder and head of engineering at Expper, described the robot as a kid who’s very interested in doing different things and very open to learning new things...

  Global demand for autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, is again on the rise, propelled by labor costs and shortages, as well as the need for greater operational flexibility and speed. At the same time, the technology continues to evolve, as AMRs become smarter and more nimble. The global market for autonomous mobile robots will grow from nearly $5 billion in 2024 to $14 billion in 2030, predicted Interact Analysis. While the market slowed immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, it shows signs of a strong recovery. Similarly, ABI Research has forecast that the mobile robot market could expand from $33 billion in 2026 to $68.9 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2%. It said that AMRs account for half of that total. Automated and semi-automated forklifts can be easily integrated into existing warehouse and factory workflows, say suppliers. For those more willing to invest in infrastructure, the shuttles in automated storage and retrieval systems ( AS...

Rove pairs Path Robotics’ Obsidian physical AI model with legged robot for autonomous welding beyond fixed cells. | Source: Path Robotics Huntington Ingalls Industries, or HII, today announced long-term performance-based production agreements with GrayMatter Robotics and Path Robotics. Under the agreements, HII intends to award up to $900 million in total shipbuilding work to Path Robotics and GrayMatter  across seven years. Path Robotics provides robotic welding technology, while GrayMatter offers robotic sanding systems. “We are committed to making generational investments to develop new shipbuilding capability and to expand capacity,” said Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII . “Together, we are defining a new approach to robotics in shipbuilding: automation that can adapt to extreme levels of complexity, mix, and size.” GrayMatter, Path Robotics participate in HYPR program Both companies are part of the High-Yi...

By Emmet Cole This new monthly series from IEEE RAS showcases a selection of robotics stories from society, business, research, and culture, as we track the field’s ongoing journey from specialized industrial machines to an increasingly visible social phenomenon. Technological isolationism or prudence? On July 28, the United States’ Federal Communications Commission blocked new foreign-made “ advanced robotic devices ” from receiving the equipment authorization needed for sale in the United States, citing supply-chain vulnerabilities and cybersecurity risks . The block applies to networked humanoids, quadrupeds, other qualifying mobile robots weighing more than 4.4 lb. In a parallel action, the FCC also restricted foreign-produced connected power inverters. Existing authorized models are unaffected for now, and exemptions or conditional approvals may be available. Reaction is predictably mixed. Georg Stieler , a global robotics advisor and managing director for Asia at STM, ...