🤖 Knots Learn to Leap
Good Morning, Roboticists!
The body is becoming standardized, the warehouse is becoming choreographed, the safety cage is becoming invisible, and even knots are learning to jump.
Knots Learn to Leap
TL;DR: Penn Engineering researchers built tiny soft robots from opposable materials that can snap, jump meters into the air, fly, and even plant seeds. The work turns knots into programmable mechanical actuators, showing how small, lightweight robots might use stored elastic energy for movement without relying on conventional motors. Read more →
Machine Economy Gets Funded
TL;DR: NEURA Robotics secured up to $1.4 billion in Series C funding led by Tether, with investors including Amazon, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Bosch, Schaeffler, and the European Investment Bank. The German company plans to scale its Neuraverse platform, cognitive humanoids, and multi-million robot production ambitions by 2030. Read more →
Wristbands Teach Robot Hands
TL;DR: MIT researchers developed a 256-channel ultrasound wristband that tracks muscles, tendons, and ligaments beneath the skin to reconstruct all 22 hand movements. The wearable could help humanoid robots learn dexterous human manipulation from richer biological motion data, giving robotic hands a clearer map of how people actually move. Read more →
Humanoids Get a Reference Body
TL;DR: NVIDIA unveiled the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot, an open research platform combining a Unitree H2 Plus body, Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands, Jetson Thor compute, and the Isaac GR00T software stack. The system is meant to give researchers a shared hardware and software base for physical AI development. Read more →
Warehouse Robots Take Venlo
TL;DR: DSV partnered with Exotec to equip its Venlo logistics center in the Netherlands with about 100 Skypod robots. The system supports fulfillment for retail brands, manages roughly 90,000 bins and trays, and includes return processing plus automatic box opening, closing, and labeling for high-demand warehouse operations. Read more →
Force Control Takes the Stage
TL;DR: Agile Robots is showcasing force-control systems, collaborative robots, humanoid platforms, and physical AI at Robot Technology Japan 2026 in Nagoya. The Munich-based company says its robots use force sensing, joint-level torque sensing, and 1 kHz control cycles to handle precision insertion, electronics work, and other contact-heavy automation tasks. Read more →
Pallets Meet Smarter Cobots
TL;DR: Applied Manufacturing Technologies and FANUC will show a mixed-load palletizing and depalletizing demo at Automate 2026 in Chicago. The system uses a FANUC CRX collaborative robot, AI-enabled vision, and MujinOS control software to handle changing box sizes, pallet patterns, and material flows in warehouse and logistics environments. Read more →
Robot Cages Start Disappearing
TL;DR: Sensory Robotics launched SR-1, a UL-certified 3D virtual robot safety system that uses time-of-flight sensing to create an invisible live safety zone around industrial robots. The system lets robots run at full speed when clear, slow as people approach, and stop when someone gets too close. Read more →
Drones Plan for Jamming
TL;DR: Orqa unveiled the MRM2-10AI tactical drone for contested electronic warfare environments at Eurosatory 2026. The platform combines IRONghost radio control, native fiber-optic integration, automatic communications failover, onboard compute, vision-based terminal guidance for GNSS-denied operations, and support for third-party AI models and multi-drone missions. Read more →
Atlanta Tests Driverless Transit
TL;DR: Beep and Atlanta Beltline launched ATL Spoke, Atlanta's first autonomous public transit pilot, now open to the public. The service uses Karsan vehicles, ADASTEC Level 4 automation, and Beep's AutonomOS supervision platform to test first-mile and last-mile mobility around the Beltline network. Read more →
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