The Week in Robotics
This week in robotics — sourced, verified, and put in context against our index of 3,727 robots.
New Iron
TECH
Via The Robot ReportSkild AI unveils S1 robot foundation model with in-context learning
Skild AI unveiled S1, its flagship robot foundation model, which the company says enables robots to learn new, complex tasks from watching a single video via in-context learning.
CEO Deepak Pathak said S1 combines multiple types of robot training data, including human videos, glove and teleoperation data, and works across different robot embodiments including quadrupeds, humanoids, and static arms.
The company said it has more releases coming to show S1 helping in production, and plans to prioritize deployments, aided by its recent acquisition of Fetch Robotics.
Via CNBCHugging Face's Microduck robot sells 10,000+ units, runs on Chinese Rockchip chip
Hugging Face's French subsidiary Pollen Robotics has sold more than 10,000 units of its new 'Microduck' programmable robot since launch, with sales surpassing $5 million, according to Hugging Face.
The $399 duck-shaped robot runs on Shanghai-listed Rockchip's RK3566 chip, which uses licensed technology from Britain's ARM. A Pollen Robotics representative said the chip was chosen for its on-board 1 TOPS NPU.
Strong demand has pushed delivery times for new orders past the initial Christmas 2026 target. Hugging Face's first robot with Pollen Robotics, launched last spring, also sold more than 10,000 units.
Boots on the Ground
DEPLOYMENT
Via Interesting EngineeringAeroVironment wins $464.8M Army contract to produce LOCUST laser weapons
The U.S. Army awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million contract under its Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program to produce LOCUST X3 counter-drone laser systems, with deliveries of dozens of units over the next few years.
AeroVironment describes the award as the first U.S. production contract for a directed-energy weapon, moving the 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 from prototype testing at White Sands Missile Range toward fielded systems on platforms such as the Army's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
The company is separately investing $30 million in its Albuquerque, New Mexico facility to expand production capacity to support the ramp-up.
Via The VergeUber launches Wayve-powered robotaxi service in London, ahead of Waymo
Uber has launched a paid robotaxi service in London using autonomous driving technology from UK startup Wayve, beating Waymo to become the first to offer driverless-style paid rides in the city.
The vehicles, currently Ford Mustang Mach-Es with Nissan Leafs to follow, will initially carry human safety drivers licensed by Transport for London, though Uber says these drivers won't control the car and will eventually be phased out.
Wayve's system has no geofence and relies on cameras and radar rather than lidar, and the company says it expects to serve nearly all of London except the airports, though it currently has only around 15 vehicles registered with TfL.
Follow the Money
INVESTMENT
Via TimesTechMedtronic to make ~$700M strategic investment in Cornerstone Robotics
Cornerstone Robotics, a Hong Kong-based surgical robotics company, announced a strategic partnership with Medtronic under which Medtronic will make an approximately $700 million strategic investment in the company.
Medtronic also gains rights to distribute Cornerstone Robotics' Sentire surgical system in select markets outside the U.S. where the system is approved. Sentire has received approvals in China (2024), and in the EU and Singapore (May 2026) for minimally invasive general, gynecologic, thoracic, and urologic procedures.
Morgan Stanley is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Medtronic, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as lead legal counsel; Kirkland & Ellis and Global Law Office are acting as legal counsel to Cornerstone Robotics.
Via KrASIASharpa raises RMB 4.5B ($668M) at $3.3B valuation, deploys robot at Dairy Queen
Sharpa has raised more than RMB 4.5 billion (USD 668 million) in a funding round that values the robotics startup at RMB 22 billion (USD 3.3 billion) post-money.
Investors include Alibaba Group, Meituan, Tencent, JD.com, Transsion, HSG, Qiming Venture Partners, DragonBall Capital, and Luminous Ventures. The company said it will use the funding for R&D, talent, and moving its general-purpose robots toward commercial deployment.
Separately, Sharpa and Dairy Queen opened a Shanghai store where a robot autonomously completes a 55-step workflow to prepare and hand over a 'Blizzard Treat' order, using the same equipment and tools designed for human employees.
Via Unite.AIFigure and Nscale sign $3.5B compute deal for up to 100,000 Vera Rubin GPUs
Figure announced a strategic partnership with AI infrastructure provider Nscale to deploy NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform across up to 100,000 GPUs, with an initial compute commitment of $3.5 billion, targeted to begin in the second half of 2027 at a site in Barstow, Texas.
The companies said they intend to scale the arrangement to over $6 billion, and Nscale is also making a strategic investment in Figure, with plans to explore scaling Nscale's supply chain with humanoid robots.
Figure framed the deal as the compute runway needed to train its Helix AI model for humanoid robots, citing its Index effort generating 35 minutes of training data every second and its BotQ facility, which had delivered over 350 Figure 03 robots and increased production from one robot per day to one per hour.
On the Calendar
AHEADRobotics shows, conferences and competitions opening in the next eight weeks. Dates confirmed against each organiser’s own page.
- Sep 14–19IMTS 2026 — International Manufacturing Technology Show
- Sep 22–24ROSCon Global 2026
- Sep 27 – Oct 1IROS 2026 — IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robots and Systems
- Oct 6–8Motek 2026
- Oct 12–16CIIF 2026 — China International Industry Fair
- Oct 20–21RoboBusiness 2026
The Number
DATAHalf the month’s rounds were under $15M; its three largest took 67% of the capital. Biggest: Hadrian at $1.37B.
Full capital index →This is funding we have recorded, not all robotics funding — we find more rounds partly because we read more news than we used to. Amounts are the disclosed round size, not a valuation. Months run to the last complete one.
42 percent of the robots we track will tell you what they cost. 1,567 of 3,727 active robots publish a price. The rest quote on request. Counted from the live index on the day this issue was assembled.