Robotics
Industry moves, humanoids, drones and research robotics — what's shipping and what's next.
From our newsroom
OriginalHome Robots in 2026: What You Can Actually Buy vs. What's Still Hype
The week's robotics news splits cleanly into shippable home devices and long-horizon humanoids. Here is what belongs on a shopping list and what belongs on a watch list.
Home Robots in 2026: Buy the Budget Vacuum Now, Watch the Humanoids
Comparative testing still favours cheap, proven appliances over the first household humanoids. Here is what to buy today and what to leave on the watch list.
Buying an Outdoor Robot? Judge How It Navigates, Not Just How It Cleans
For robot mowers and pool cleaners, the spec that separates a good unit from a frustrating one is increasingly navigation, not raw suction or cutting power. Here is what to check before you buy.
Prime Day Robotics Deals: Which Drone and Robot Discounts Are Actually Worth It
Prime Day has cut prices across drones, robot mowers and home gadgets. Here is which discounts hit genuine lows and which are routine.
Prime Day Robot Deals: Which Home Robot Is Actually Worth Buying?
Prime Day is cutting prices on robot mowers, pool cleaners and vacuum-mops by roughly 12% to 15%, with one model down 500 euros. The deal only matters if the category fits your home.
The 2026 robotics boom is real — but for your home, it still means vacuums and mowers
The industry's growth charts point up, yet the machines that work unsupervised in an ordinary home remain narrow. Buy on what a robot reliably does today, not on the keynote.
Touch, not walking, is the robotics story this week
A cluster of independent announcements this week converged on tactile sensing and dexterous manipulation. For anyone weighing a "coming soon" home robot, this is the capability that still gates everything.
Humanoid robots in mid-2026: from demo videos to delivery dates
This spring the humanoid story changed. Unitree is shipping in volume, 1X is taking $20,000 pre-orders, and Boston Dynamics' Atlas is on factory floors. Here's what you can actually buy right now, and why none of it is a home helper yet.
The state of home robotics in 2026
Vacuums that map your home in 3D, mowers that skip the boundary wire, and the first humanoids creeping toward the living room. Here's where consumer robotics actually stands this year — and what's still marketing.
Humanoid robots in 2026: hype vs. reality
Every month brings a new humanoid demo and a bold timeline. We separate the real engineering progress from the staged videos — and explain what would actually have to be true for one to land in your home.
More headlines
SyndicatedHelogen plans to manufacture medical materials in orbit with autonomous factories in space
Helogen is preparing two missions in October 2026 that it says will advance commercial manufacturing...
Read at sourceA Solar Superstorm Caused a GPS Glitch Bad Enough to Crash Self-Driving Cars
The massive eruption threw GPS readings off by more than 33 feet (10 meters).
Read at sourceNexCOBOT discusses physical AI market hurdles and acceleration
NexCOBOT, which provides functional safety and motion controllers, discusses how physical AI benefits from 'Big Tech' and where it will grow. The post NexCOBOT discusses physical AI market hurdles and acceleration appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceHumanoid robot fights back after man pushes it in store — is this the beginning of the uprising?
Captured CCTV footage of a robot defending itself in a store raises questions about anxiety over robots entering daily life.
Read at sourceLearn why food is physical AI’s hardest problem at RoboBusiness
Rajat Bhageria, the founder and CEO of Chef Robotics, will explore what makes food such a demanding benchmark for physical AI. The post Learn why food is physical AI’s hardest problem at RoboBusiness appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceAIR to use Elmo Motion Control technology in uncrewed cargo aircraft
The partnership brings together Elmo's compact, high-power density servo drives and AIR's electric aviation design. The post AIR to use Elmo Motion Control technology in uncrewed cargo aircraft appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceIl utilise son robot aspirateur pour prouver l’adultère de sa femme et finit en prison
À Taïwan, un mari a utilisé la caméra de son robot aspirateur pour filmer l'adultère de sa femme. Malgré une victoire au civil, il a été condamné à 5 mois de prison pour atteinte à la vie privée.
Read at sourceiRobot dévoile le Roomba Max 875 Combo, son robot-laveur « le plus avancé à ce jour »
iRobot a dévoilé le Roomba Max 875 Combo, son nouveau robot-laveur présenté comme « le plus avancé à ce jour ». Celui-ci intègre trois technologies : SealForce, ThermaMist et DriLift. On vous explique tout.
Read at sourceiRobot's new $1,199 Roomba Max 875 Combo is its most powerful robot yet
iRobot has launched the $1,199 Roomba Max 875 Combo and the $899 Roomba Plus 678 Combo at IFA 2026.
Read at sourceThe Cybercab Is Almost Here. Now Comes the Hard Part
The electric-auto maker will officially debut its steering-wheel-free robotaxi on Thursday. But building the vehicle is the easy part.
Read at sourceSurviving the paper deluge: Notes from an ICRA panel on publishing, LLMs, and the future of peer review
A recent ICRA panel titled “Surviving the Paper Deluge” brought together leading robotics researchers who have grappled with the overwhelming number of robotics papers being published today. The discussion ranged from hard numbers on publication growth, through the promises and…
Read at sourceTop 10 robotics stories of August 2026
August 2026's top 10 stories included large funding rounds, updates in the humanoid robot industry, and the latest physical AI models. The post Top 10 robotics stories of August 2026 appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceLearn how physical AI is being used to do real work at RoboBusiness
Leaders at Amazon Robotics, Teradyne Robotics, and Cobot will discuss how they're applying physical AI to robots operating in customer environments. The post Learn how physical AI is being used to do real work at RoboBusiness appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceVisko launches Orbis live model and closes pre-seed funding round
Visko says Orbis streams 4K video at 24 frames per second, responds to user intervention, and sustains hour-scale generation without drift. The post Visko launches Orbis live model and closes pre-seed funding round appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceThe Missing Layer in Robot Safety Assurance
Why robot safety assurance must account for attacks that can change how a machine sees, decides, and acts. The post The Missing Layer in Robot Safety Assurance appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceHowToRobot and Robotics Australia Group partner on platform to encourage robot adoption
The initiative is intended to help businesses in Australia identify automation opportunities, test them, and connect with local suppliers. The post HowToRobot and Robotics Australia Group partner on platform to encourage robot adoption appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceAdorable waddling robot can pick up stuff and learn new tricks
This cute little robot duck isn't actually a toy. It's actually a platform for budding roboticists to train on and develop skills. But heck, this might be the most fun design for a hackable machine we've seen yet. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags: Robot ,…
Read at sourceWhen expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash. By Hasan Ayaz, Drexel University; Ewart J. de Visser, United States Air Force Academy; Frank Krueger, George Mason University, and Yigit Topoglu, United States Air Force Academy People become more suspicious of a humanoid robot that makes…
Read at sourceMaking a Robot to Serve Some Mean Badminton Shuttlecocks
Sometimes regarded as a less violent form of tennis, badminton is still a pretty challenging sport. One which suffers like so many sports from requiring at least two players since …read more
Read at sourceThe US is building barriers around drones and robots, but China has scale to get around them
The U.S. is shutting out more foreign-made drones and robots. China’s scale means the global competition may simply move elsewhere.
Read at sourceLow(er)-Cost Humanoid Robot Leverages DIY Actuators
Humanoid robots, even scaled-down ones, tend to be expensive. The Berkeley Humanoid Lite offers a more accessible and economical option by centering the design around 3D printed actuators that make …read more
Read at sourceInside Meta’s push to put robots to work in data centers
The company is testing robots on tasks that can performed by technicians.
Read at sourceThis Library Needs to Be At Least… Three Times Bigger
Many of us have noted a tremendous price increase in many computer components for some mysterious reason. Whatever this cause is will be debated among the various modern philosophers and …read more
Read at sourceChinese automakers are following Tesla’s bet that robots are the next big profit machine
Technical progress has encouraged a new batch of companies to jump in on the promise of profits from humanoid robots. And they're all Chinese automakers.
Read at sourceVideo Friday: Meet Microduck
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Humanoids Summit Seoul : 22–23…
Read at sourceFirst 11 vs 11 humanoid soccer game played at RoboCup 2026
Action from the 11 vs 11 humanoid match at RoboCup 2026. Photo credit: RoboCup Federation. RoboCup 2026 saw history made, as two teams of 11 humanoids took to the soccer field, the first time a full complement of robots has competed. The game saw B-Human (Bremen, Germany) take…
Read at sourceWheel-legged robot dog dumps packages – and ads
Today, you can buy almost anything with a few clicks on your phone. Online shopping has created millions of small deliveries, and a lot of them could be handled more efficiently if humans had a little mechanical help. That’s where delivery robots come in. Continue Reading…
Read at sourceEnterprise AI's real risk isn't autonomous agents. It's the complexity between them.
Presented by Gravitee Agent complexity is the insidious shadow lurking inside enterprises right now that needs a light shone on it. That’s because enterprises don't deploy a single agent and watch it run, they deploy fleets, each one calling APIs, calling other agents,…
Read at sourceAI searched 100 million possibilities and found a cheaper way to 3D-print a NASA rocket alloy
Researchers used AI to search through more than 100 million possible settings for 3D-printing a high-performance NASA alloy. After only 40 experiments, the system identified six successful configurations, including one that worked at a record-low 500 watts. That could allow…
Read at sourceEx-Meta scientists want to bring visual AI to the factory floor
Perceptron offers an AI model that it says can help machines navigate the world while also providing in-depth visual intelligence.
Read at sourceOrchestration is the new challenge for CX in the age of AI agents
Presented by Tata Communications Enterprises are deploying AI agents, voice AI, and automation across messaging, voice, and digital channels faster than the architecture meant to support it. Most of that deployment has involved attaching conversational AI to legacy systems never…
Read at sourceRobot brain builders are pushing out of their GPT-2 era
Robot bodies are waiting for their AI brains to catch up.
Read at sourceHow green is your robot? And other awkward questions
Deborah Lupton / Servers in a Landscape / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0 By Emmet Cole Robots clean rivers and sort waste, monitor ecosystems, and inspect renewable-energy infrastructure. But even the greenest robot has an environmental footprint. If robotics is going to help build a…
Read at sourceRobotics startup Generalist reaches $3B valuation, sources say
The $200 million extension comes just months after the physical AI startup reached a $2 billion valuation.
Read at sourceSub-$1,700 household robot promises to handle chores and more
Are household humanoid robots getting cheaper already? We've only just begun seeing companies start to make promises and accept pre-orders for machines that can do your laundry and tidy up the living room. A San Francisco-based startup is now making one that you can bring home…
Read at sourceAI Companion Robots Are Closing the Human Connection in Modern Homes
This article is brought to you by Ollobot . From about 2017, individuals began to truly connect with the initial wave of companion robots. These devices had personality, moved around, joked, and answered when you spoke to them. Most early companion robots, however, were still…
Read at sourceI spent a day at a robot “carnival” in Shanghai. Here’s what I saw.
Humanoid robots are having a moment in China. The popular machines are part of the country’s strategy to bring artificial intelligence into daily life. Embedding the technology into physical systems—an idea called embodied AI—was a key facet of China’s latest five-year plan, and…
Read at source3D-Printed Skin Gives Robots the Sensation of Touch
Hypoesthesia, more commonly referred to as numbness, is one of the more distressing ailments that can affect us humans, primarily because it reminds us of just how much we rely …read more
Read at sourceSelf-Driving Cars Could Someday Take Requests
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. The idea of letting a machine do the driving for you may put a lot of people off autonomous vehicles . But research could make it possible to backseat-drive an autonomous vehicle…
Read at sourceThese tiny drones are powered by sound
The MICROBS Lab’s microfliers. 2026 EPFL/MICROBS – CC-BY-SA 4.0. By Celia Luterbacher When you blow air across the neck of a bottle, you’re not just producing a pleasant tone: you’re also demonstrating a phenomenon called Helmholtz resonance. This occurs when airflow passing…
Read at sourceA hidden “on switch” in human DNA has finally been decoded
Researchers have used AI to uncover the DNA signature of a key genetic “switch” involved in turning genes on. After analyzing about 500,000 DNA sequences, the model identified the initiator in roughly 60% of human genes. The breakthrough could help predict the effects of harmful…
Read at sourceVideo Friday: Do We Need Superhuman Humanoid Robots?
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Humanoids Summit Seoul : 22–23…
Read at sourceWaymo doubles spending on lobbying in robotaxi battle with Uber
Alphabet-owned company is seeking to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services.
Read at sourceNew controller makes operating an excavator almost instinctive
Watching skilled excavator operators work is almost hypnotic. They make it look so easy that the machine seems to move like an extension of the operator's own arm. That intuition usually takes years to build, but a new controller from MIT engineers compresses that learning curve…
Read at source#AAMAS2026 blue sky award winner: Foundation world models for agents in changing environments
Florent Delgrange won the Best Blue Sky Paper Award at AAMAS 2026 for his work Foundation World Models for Agents that Learn, Verify, and Adapt Reliably Beyond Static Environments. We caught up with him to find out more about his vision for agent learning. What is the topic of…
Read at sourceRobotics roadmaps from around the world spotlight of the month: Japan
Robots have been a prolific theme in Japanese pop culture and media since the 1950s, which includes global icons like the Transformers, Astro Boy, and Doraemon (1). Perhaps not coincidentally, Japanese citizens have a positive outlook on robotic technologies and their use in the…
Read at sourceTiny robots powered by light can hunt down and collect bacteria
Researchers have built microscopic, light-driven robots that can rapidly navigate through liquid, collect bacteria, and deposit them in chosen locations. These tiny “cleaners” could open new possibilities for manipulating cells and microbes with remarkable precision.
Read at sourceDrones With Claws Perch on Arctic Icebergs
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Microspines are one of many ways to enable robots to latch onto surfaces like walls and ceilings . Now roboticists in Canada are using the mini spikes to get drones to land on a more…
Read at sourceUsing Acoustic Resonators as Thrusters for Small Robots
There are quite a few rather unconventional methods of propulsion, but perhaps one of the more curious approaches involved Helmholtz resonance, as demonstrated by [Junsun Hwang] et al. with a …read more
Read at sourceIs Shipyard Welding the Right First Job for Humanoid Robots?
Humanoids desperately need to stop making YouTube videos and get a job already, and Persona AI is one of the few humanoid companies that seems to be entirely focused on making that happen. Persona AI’s approach has been to carefully select a job that is economically viable for…
Read at sourceIntermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements
Image credits: Xiangxiao Liu, Francois A. Longchamp, and Louis GeverBiorobotics Laboratory, EPFL Improving energy performance can effectively extend the time a robot can operate and reduce battery load, enabling lighter, more flexible, and more durable robotic systems. Nature…
Read at sourceBuilding an Actuator for a Walking Robot
Unlike biological systems, which can use muscles, robots that try to imitate them don’t have particularly fast, powerful, compact linear actuators available. This puts walking robots at a particular disadvantage, …read more
Read at sourceTwin Guitar-Playing Robots Will Work for Tab
Remember Animusic? They were these incredible animated music videos with original tunes being played by computer-generated robots. Well, the MegCell Pulse might be the coolest robots-playing-music thing we’ve seen since …read more
Read at sourceVideo Friday: Lift Happens
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. Actuate 2026 : 18–19 August 2026,…
Read at sourceRobotic tiles autonomously Lego-snap into floating smart structures
You don’t have to watch Kevin Costner’s Waterworld to know that for much of the world, the future will be increasingly flooded. As climate chaos causes oceans to swallow coastlands, and as surging water displaces and devastates communities, social survival will demand that…
Read at sourceNorthrop’s robot space mechanic is a new way to keep satellites at work longer
The Mission Robotic Vehicle is making the first attempt to attach a new thruster to an aging satellite.
Read at sourceRobot Recycler Salvages Parts From Broken Machines
Objects constructed by robots are ubiquitous. If you’ve used a car, household appliance, or smartphone today, you’ve used an object constructed at least in part by robots. The more products that manufacturers want to produce (and consumers want to consume) at lower costs, the…
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Robotics sources
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