Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

This weekend saw the finale of the league competitions at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon, South Korea, with the winners in the small, middle, and large humanoid divisions decided. Congratulations to the following teams, who finished in the top three positions in each size class: Small division Invic , Wuhan University, China Hamburg Bit-Bots , Universität Hamburg, Germany GeoHBots , School of Artificial Intelligence, China University of Geosciences, China Middle division B-Human , Universität Bremen and German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Germany HTWK Robots , Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Germany Rhoban , University of Bordeaux, France Large division Tsinghua Hephaestus , Tsinghua University, China CAU Mountain&Sea , China Agricultural University, China Water , Beijing Information Science & Technology University, China You can watch the action from one of the semi-finals in the middle division, which saw HTWK take on Rhoban. I...

Arm drift after long reinforcement training caused by action prefix drift. Source: Humanoid Robotic manipulation is making progress with artificial intelligence. London-based Humanoid last week introduced KinetIQ Ascend, its reinforcement learning, or RL, approach designed to reach 99.9% manipulation reliability at human speed and beyond. “The humanoid race is becoming a question of scale, and real-world RL can be a core part of the answer,” stated Jarad Cannon, chief technology officer at Humanoid. “Robots that once required months of manual tuning are now outperforming human demonstrations within days.” Humanoid is building humanoid robots with the goal of becoming the No. 1 general-purpose industrial humanoid robotics company within two years. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, it has more than 250 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, Vancouver, and San Diego, Humanoid said it is building c...

Avride has integrated vision-language models into its delivery robots. Source: Avride Avride Inc. has built its delivery robots for high level of autonomy. Every single day, hundreds of them navigate busy city streets entirely on their own, processing complex sensor data locally on their onboard compute units. Our sidewalk robots run with minimal human involvement, reliably handling standard urban maneuvers, pedestrians, and traffic lights on their own. However, efficiently managing the mechanics of navigation – even in challenging conditions like narrow pathways or bad weather – is only one part of the equation. Ensuring a robot behaves appropriately in unusual, sensitive, or high-stakes real-world environments requires a different kind of intelligence. To add a proactive layer of environmental awareness, we have integrated heavy, cloud-based vision-language models (VLMs) into its system as an automated “VLM-watcher.” From object detection to holistic scene understandi...

The second day’s play at RoboCup 2026 has drawn to a close with another bumper set of matches. Teams have come from far and wide to take part in the humanoid soccer competition this year, with 17 different countries represented. China is the most represented country, boasting 15 teams across the three divisions. Other countries taking part are geographically widespread, ranging from Colombia to Malaysia, from Germany to Australia. In advance of the competition, all applying teams provided a video, team description paper, and information about the robots and software that they use. You can see the complete set of these here . As a taster, here is the qualification video from team CAU Mountain&Sea (from China Agricultural University) who are currently leading the small division competition, and are in fourth place in the large division. Yesterday’s play saw the first issuing of a red card. The robot received two yellow cards for unsafe challenges and was removed f...

The National Highway System. Source: Mark Sarmiento, U.S. Department of Transportation, ArcGIS Online On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act. It authorized the creation of a network that today carries nearly 25% of U.S. automotive traffic and moves trillions of dollars of freight annually. Quarterhill Inc. is among the companies now working to digitize that transport infrastructure. Seventy years after the 41,000-mi. (65,983.1 km) interstate network was launched, 72.2 million Americans will travel around Independence Day this week, according to AAA. Concerns include aging roads and bridges, securing and managing freight, and improving safety as fleets of autonomous vehicles ( AVs ) grow. Founded in 1992 as a wireless technology company, Quarterhill said it is a leader in the intelligent transportation system (ITS) industry, advancing mobility through smart infrastructure systems to reduce congestion, improve roadway safety, and create m...

The Robot Report Podcast · Automate 2026 Show Recap In Episode 251 of The Robot Report Podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman are joined by special guest Sarah Wynn , senior editor at sibling site Packaging OEM , to chat about their experiences on the show floor at Automate last month. They describe the robotics industry’s shift away from early-stage humanoid hype toward the practical, real-world deployment of physical AI and edge computing. The editors also discuss how software orchestration, digital twins, and advanced kinematics are solving labor shortages and preserving vital manufacturing knowledge. Featured companies and individuals from Automate 2026 The following innovators, executives, and organizations are highlighted or featured via interview vignettes from Automate 2026: Boston Dynamics and Agility : Discussed regarding the static floor displays of their respective industrial humanoids, Atlas and Digit. ABB Robotics : Craig McDonald, general manager ...