Ivan Hernandez Dalas - Mechatronics

The Autodesk Design and Make Laboratory will be housed within the University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning’s Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory. | Credit: Autodesk The University of Florida (UF) has opened a robotics lab dedicated to industrialized construction, funded by a $1 million donation from Autodesk. The lab will aim to address Florida’s housing shortage and an impending surge in retirements among the construction workforce. The donation follows Autodesk’s $1.5 million investment in 2024, which helped launch UF’s Industrialized Construction Engineering (ICon) degree program, which will welcome its first student cohort this fall. UF offers the nation’s first Bachelor of Science in Industrialized Construction Engineering. The core focus of the degree is applying advanced manufacturing principles to building construction, shifting from traditional jobsite methods to precision, technology-driven, and sustainable processes. A new d...

Moove said its expects autonomous mobility to become a foundational layer of future urban ecosystems, but first, the industry needs infrastructure. | Source: Moove Moove today announced it raised $250 million in Series C funding. This latest round brings the company’s valuation to $2.1 billion. The funding will support Moove’s expansion of its autonomous vehicle business, including autonomous fleet ownership and robotics-first depot infrastructure “Nests.” At these Nests, Moove will charge, service, maintain, and orchestrate autonomous fleets for continuous operation. Additionally, Moove plans to use the funds to support new market launches around the world. As part of this expansion, Moove expects to grow its autonomous vehicle workforce by more than 220% by the end of the year, increasing from around 150 employees today to 500. “Every major technology revolution becomes an infrastructure race,” Ladi Delano, the co-founder, co-CEO and advisory board chairman of M...

Editor’s Note: Mel Torrie, co-founder and CEO of Autonomous Solutions Inc., will be speaking at RoboBusiness . Learn more about the ideas shaping the future of robotics and hear directly from industry leaders at RoboBusiness, October 20–21 in Santa Clara, Calif. The era of simple automation is over. For decades, the promise of autonomy was judged by one question: Can a machine operate safely without continuous human input? Today, that question has been answered. The defining question for the next generation of industrial technology is now: How intelligently can machines perceive the world around them, make complex decisions, and respond in real time? This shift is significant because autonomy is no longer just about robotic motor skills. It encompasses machine awareness, dynamic decision-making, multi-vehicle coordination, and spatial precision at a large scale. In industrial settings where every operational decision carries financial and safety implications, advanced vision s...

Blue Water Autonomy’s Liberty Class is a 190-foot steel autonomous ship. | Source: Blue Water Autonomy Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston-based technology and shipbuilding company, has been selected for a multiple-award contract with the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). Blue Water Autonomy will provide high-resolution ocean floor mapping using long-endurance uncrewed surface vessels. “Mapping the open ocean is exactly the kind of long, high-endurance work that autonomous vessels are built for,” said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy. “This selection puts our autonomy to work across the Indian and Pacific oceans, well beyond the range of a crewed survey ship, and it shows the technology we are building serves many different missions.” The award is a multi year, multiple-award, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, with a $40 million ceiling, which Blue Water Autonomy will compete for alongside the other selected companies. Ocean surveys provid...

Following a successful pilot with Figure 02 at its plant in Spartanburg, S.C., BMW said it will deploy the new Figure 03 humanoid. | Source: BMW Group While the tech industry thinks AI is the main barrier for robots joining the manufacturing workforce, the real issue has less to do with intelligence and more to do with robotic unit economics and financial viability. AI has come a long way, vision systems have matured, foundation models keep getting better and the hardware has significantly improved. But for most manufacturers, the cost of automating using humanoids at today’s prices just isn’t feasible. The technology is mostly ready Physical AI has evolved quickly and robots now handle manipulation tasks that seemed out of reach only a few years ago. Several vendors have shown machines running real warehouse operations. The hardware has advanced with stronger actuators, better mobility and effectors that keep improving. Even the hands, which have been a sticking point for years, ...

The new power chain is designed for industrial applications such as palletizing. Source: igus Motion plastics leader igus GmbH has announced a new self-supporting twisterchain energy chain that it said delivers reliable cable management through rotation angles of more than 600° on compact industrial robots. This rotary module sits in a sag around the robot base. As the robot rotates, it lifts step by step to a new level, enabling full 360° rotation without colliding with the connector plate, igus explained. Cologne, Germany-based igus develops and produces motion plastics. These lubrication-free, high-performance polymers improve technology and reduce costs wherever things move. igus said it is the worldwide market leader in energy supplies , highly flexible cables, and plain and linear bearings, as well as lead-screw technology made of tribo-polymers. The company is represented in 31 countries and employs 4,600 people across the globe. In 2022, igus generated a turnover of €1.15...

Clockwise from top left: HEBI’s T-Series, R-Series, and H-Series actuators. | Source: HEBI Robotics HEBI Robotics today said it has obtained a new NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract. With the contract, HEBI will fast-track its miniaturized high torque density modular actuators for SmallSats and challenging environments. “With space becoming increasingly commercialized, there is real demand for affordable, versatile, and scalable mass-production of robotic systems that can function in difficult environments,” said Andrew Willig, HEBI’s director of hardware. “We’re looking to bring the price point down on rugged hardware without compromising the reliability that a critical industry such as aerospace relies on.” NASA wants more flexibility in harsh environments In this latest SBIR award to HEBI Robotics, NASA called for research into proposed miniaturized actuators suitable for rugged applications. The award stated that these actuators are of interest t...