Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

The Robot Report Podcast · Road to Rail: Slashing Costs and Carbon with Automation In Episode 229 of The Robot Report Podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman recap the major robotics news of the week. Kevin Damoa, cofounder and CEO of Glid Technologies. | Credit: Glid Our guest on this show is Kevin Damoa, founder and CEO of Glid Technologies . He is a mechanical engineer, operations executive, inventor, and veteran of the U.S. military. He has developed technologies that have enabled space exploration and the deployment of clean mobility solutions such as hydrogen-powered airplanes. Damoa’s career began in the U.S. Army at age 17, when he served in South Korea for two years before being forward-deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. After leaving the U.S. Army after his second tour in Iraq, he joined the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a logistics officer and firefighter, supporting California’s Mobile Air Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) unit for 12 yea...

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the largest trade events in the world. Every year, thousands of companies showcase their state-of-the-art technologies to over 100k attendees.  It brings together global industry leaders, startups, and media, and is used to launch products and signal future tech trends.    Henry Hickson, a Research Associate at the Hauert Lab , attended CES 2026. In this article he reports on the highlights of the show, exploring how physical AI is moving from experimental labs into consumer technology, and what this shift reveals about the future of robotics, autonomy, and real-world deployment.     All photos and videos in this article are credited to Henry Hickson.   CES 2026: Consumer Electronics Meets Physical AI   It doesn’t take long after landing in Las Vegas to see the signs of CES 2026. Within minutes, gleaming LE...

Waymo is expanding robotaxi service to San Francisco International Airport and more cities. Source: Waymo Even as developers of humanoid robots and artificial intelligence benefit from investor interest, autonomous vehicles show little sign of slowing down. Waymo LLC yesterday said it has raised $16 billion, bringing its valuation to $126 billion. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it plans to use the funding to bring its Waymo Driver to more cities across the U.S. and the world. Waymo recently announced autonomous ride-hailing service to San Francisco International Airport . In the past year, Waymo has rolled out robotaxis in Austin , Detroit, Las Vegas, and San Diego . It began testing in Atlanta , Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis , Miami , New Orleans, Minneapolis, Tampa , New York , Tokyo , and Washington, D.C. , and it mapped Boston . The company also said it plans to bring self-driving cars to London , as well as Dallas, Houston, Orlando, and San Ant...

RobCo Studio software simplifies robot workcell configuration and operations. | Credit: RobCo Roman Hölzl, cofounder and CEO of RobCo. | Credit: LinkedIn Munich-based modular robotics company RobCo recently opened its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco and commissioned Sapio Research to survey 400 U.S. industrial decision-makers across manufacturing, construction, engineering, and healthcare. The Automation Readiness Index survey examines how warehouses and factories are paying for automation and existing roadblocks for the next wave of robots. The company also recently closed a Series C funding of $100 million  to advance its physical AI roadmap, expand enterprise deployments, and deepen its presence in the U.S. market. “With $100 million of additional funding, we will become the dominant AI robotics company for manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe,” stated Roman Hölzl, founder and CEO of RobCo . “This will allow us to execute on our purpose of automating the ordinary, ...

The Perseverance Rover taking a selfie on a rock named Cheyava Falls. | Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars for nearly five years now. However, the space agency’s team is still finding ways to push the boundaries with the robot. NASA recently shared that Perseverance completed its first drive planned by artificial intelligence. During the demonstration, NASA engineers used vision-language models (VLMs) to create waypoints for Perseverance. This is typically a complex decision-making task performed manually by the mission’s human rover planners. The demo took place Dec. 8 to 10, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California led the mission. “This demonstration shows how far our capabilities have advanced and broadens how we will explore other worlds,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Autonomous technologies like this can help missions to operate more efficiently, respond to challenging terrain, and increase ...

New standards for force- and power-limited robots are intended to improve safety. Source: IDEC Industrial automation continues as a fast-growing market, with manufacturers and end users of all types eager to reap the benefits of reliable and rapid execution for many types of tasks. Some people think of autonomous vehicles, remote-controlled drones, and software “bots” as robots, but industrial robots and cobots are characterized as programmable manipulators of three or more axes. Many industries use traditional robots, which have experienced a 7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past five years, according to the International Federation of Robotics ( IFR ). However, the market for force- and power-limited robots — commonly referred to as collaborative robots or cobots — in its infancy, and the IFR predicted that its growth rate could be much stronger. While both robots and cobot arms include provisions to protect workers, cobots are designed to work side-by-side with ...