Robotics news & what's new on Robolist

Pickle Robot adds Tesla veteran as first CFO

Jeff Evanson recently joined Pickle Robot as the company's first CFO as the startup has allegedly expanded its partnership with UPS.

Artificial tendons give muscle-powered robots a boost

The new design from MIT engineers could pump up many biohybrid builds.

Generations in Dialogue: Human-robot interactions and social robotics with Professor Marynel Vasquez

Generations in Dialogue: Bridging Perspectives in AI is a podcast from AAAI featuring thought-provoking discussions between AI experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts from different age groups and backgrounds. Each episode delves into how generational experiences shape views on AI, exploring the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations that come with the advancement of this transformative technology. Human-robot […]

Robot Talk Episode 137 – Getting two-legged robots moving, with Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi

Claire chatted to Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi from Ohio Northern University about bipedal robots that can walk and even climb stairs. Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi (Wami) is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Ohio Northern University. Her research focuses on controls with applications in bipedal locomotion and engineering education. She is the first Black woman to […]

1X struck a deal to send its ‘home’ humanoids to factories and warehouses

Despite launching as a humanoid robot designed to help consumers around the house, 1X's Neo robots are heading to industrial use cases.

Radboud chemists are working with companies and robots on the transition from oil-based to bio-based materials

Chemical products such as medicines, plastics, soap, and paint are still often based on fossil raw materials. This is not sustainable, so there is an urgent need for ways to make a ‘materials transition’ to products made from bio-based raw materials. To achieve results more quickly and efficiently, researchers at Radboud University in the Big […]

Generations in Dialogue: Embodied AI, robotics, perception, and action with Professor Roberto Martín-Martín

Generations in Dialogue: Bridging Perspectives in AI is a podcast from AAAI featuring thought-provoking discussions between AI experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts from different age groups and backgrounds. Each episode delves into how generational experiences shape views on AI, exploring the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations that come with the advancement of this transformative technology. Embodied […]

Robot Talk Episode 136 – Making driverless vehicles smarter, with Shimon Whiteson

Claire chatted to Shimon Whiteson from Waymo about machine learning for autonomous vehicles. Shimon Whiteson is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Waymo UK. His research focuses on deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning, with applications in robotics and video games. He completed his […]

Teaching robot policies without new demonstrations: interview with Jiahui Zhang and Jesse Zhang

The ReWiND method, which consists of three phases: learning a reward function, pre-training, and using the reward function and pre-trained policy to learn a new language-specified task online. In their paper ReWiND: Language-Guided Rewards Teach Robot Policies without New Demonstrations, which was presented at CoRL 2025, Jiahui Zhang, Yusen Luo, Abrar Anwar, Sumedh A. Sontakke, […]

Why companies don’t share AV crash data – and how they could

Anton Grabolle / Autonomous Driving / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0 By Susan Kelley Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been tested as taxis for decades in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and around the world, and trucking companies have enormous incentives to adopt them. But AV companies rarely share the crash- and safety-related data that is crucial to improving […]

Robot Talk Episode 135 – Robot anatomy and design, with Chapa Sirithunge

Claire chatted to Chapa Sirithunge from University of Cambridge about what robots can teach us about human anatomy, and vice versa. Chapa Sirithunge is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow in robotics at the University of Cambridge. She has an undergraduate degree and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa. Before joining the University of […]

Learning robust controllers that work across many partially observable environments

In intelligent systems, applications range from autonomous robotics to predictive maintenance problems. To control these systems, the essential aspects are captured with a model. When we design controllers for these models, we almost always face the same challenge: uncertainty. We’re rarely able to see the whole picture. Sensors are noisy, models of the system are […]

Human-robot interaction design retreat

Rick Payne and team / Ai is… Banner / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0. Earlier this year, the HRI Design Retreat brought together experts from academia and industry in the field of design for human-robot interaction (HRI). During the two-day event, which featured hands-on interactive activities, participants explored the future of design for HRI, how this […]

Robot Talk Episode 134 – Robotics as a hobby, with Kevin McAleer

Claire chatted to Kevin McAleer from kevsrobots about how to get started building robots at home. Kevin McAleer is a hobbyist robotics fanatic who likes to build robots, share videos about them on YouTube and teach people how to do the same. Kev has been building robots since 2019, when he got his first 3d […]

This Khosla-backed startup can track drones, trucks, and robotaxis, inch by inch

Point One Navigation, now valued at $230 million, is building out well beyond automotive.

ACM SIGAI Autonomous Agents Award 2026 open for nominations

Nominations are solicited for the 2026 ACM SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award. This award is made for excellence in research in the area of autonomous agents. It is intended to recognize researchers in autonomous agents whose current work is an important influence on the field. The award is an official ACM award, funded by an […]

Generations in Dialogue: Multi-agent systems and human-AI interaction with Professor Manuela Veloso

Generations in Dialogue: Bridging Perspectives in AI is a new podcast from AAAI featuring thought-provoking discussions between AI experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts from different age groups and backgrounds. Each episode delves into how generational experiences shape views on AI, exploring the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations that come with the advancement of this transformative technology. […]

Robot Talk Episode 133 – Creating sociable robot collaborators, with Heather Knight

Claire chatted to Heather Knight from Oregon State University about applying methods from the performing arts to robotics. Heather Knight runs the CHARISMA Robotics research group. Her education includes a PhD on Expressive Motion for Low Degree of Freedom Robots from Carnegie Mellon University, and M.S. and B.S. degrees in EECS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. […]

Why a researcher is building robots that look and act like bats

These palm-sized robots use ultrasound signals to navigate harsh conditions in search and rescue missions.

CoRL2025 – RobustDexGrasp: dexterous robot hand grasping of nearly any object

The dexterity gap: from human hand to robot hand Observe your own hand. As you read this, it’s holding your phone or clicking your mouse with seemingly effortless grace. With over 20 degrees of freedom, human hands possess extraordinary dexterity, which can grip a heavy hammer, rotate a screwdriver, or instantly adjust when something slips. […]

AI researchers ’embodied’ an LLM into a robot – and it started channeling Robin Williams

AI researchers at Andon Labs embedded various LLMs in a vacuum robot to test how ready they were to be embodied. And hilarity ensued.

Coco Robotics taps UCLA professor to lead new physical AI research lab

Coco Robotics is working toward automating its fleet of delivery robots using its millions of miles of collected data.

The world is just not quite ready for humanoids yet

Despite the amount of money being injected into the industry, humanoids won't be able to learn dexterity -- or the fine motor movements with hands -- rendering them essentially useless.

SoftBank bulks up its robotics portfolio with ABB Group’s robotics unit

SoftBank says this acquisition will help it dive deeper into robotics as it considers physical AI to be the next frontier.

Former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers raise whopping $300M seed to automate science

Periodic Labs has raised from a tech industry who's who, including Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos.

Live demo fails, AI safety wins, and the golden age of robotics

This week on Equity, Anthony Ha, Kirsten Korosec, and Max Zeff unpack the biggest moves in AI, robotics, and regulation. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Equity will be back next week. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. […]

Why Runway is eyeing the robotics industry for future revenue growth

Runway is building up a robotics-focused team and fine-tuning its existing models for robotics and self-driving car customers.

Tesla is reportedly behind on its pledge to build 5,000 Optimus bots this year

Tesla is behind on its goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots by the end of 2025.

How TRIC Robotics is reducing pesticide use on strawberries using UV light

TRIC Robotics just raised a $5.5 million seed round for its tractor-sized robots that help eliminate bacteria and pests on strawberry plants.