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
SyndicatedActualité : Un adolescent crée un robot tortue pour détecter les menaces environnementales sous-marines avec 96 % de précision
Âgé de seulement 15 ans, Evan Budz a décidé de protéger les fonds marins grâce à sa création : un robot en forme de tortue.
Read at sourceXDOF, just three months out of stealth, is in talks for a Series B at a $1.2B valuation
The round is being raised just months after the robot data startup exited from stealth.
Read at sourceHow FPGAs become the gatekeepers of physical AI security
Eric Sivertson, vice president of security business at Lattice Semiconductor, explains how FPGAs can act as deterministic guardrails for robotic systems. The post How FPGAs become the gatekeepers of physical AI security appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceCalling robotics startups: Apply now to be part of the 2026 Robotics Startup Radar
Submit now to be part of the Robotics Startup Radar, which brings together some of the most promising robotics startups. The post Calling robotics startups: Apply now to be part of the 2026 Robotics Startup Radar appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceVideo Friday: Digit Redecorates
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 sourceCompanies Have 6 Months to Prepare for Automated Attacks
Frontier AI models have already demonstrated they can autonomously — and in some cases, inadvertently — conduct end-to-end compromises, but the situation will become more urgent very soon.
Read at sourceLyte raises $165M to help robots better sense their surroundings
Lyte AI plans to use its second round of funding this year to scale production of its AI and perception capabilities. The post Lyte raises $165M to help robots better sense their surroundings appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceRobot.com partners with Sodexo to roll out more sidewalk delivery robots
Robot.com says college campuses will continue to be an important part of its strategy as it scales sidewalk delivery robots. The post Robot.com partners with Sodexo to roll out more sidewalk delivery robots appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceLess than 24 hours to apply for your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Side Event
Less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and make your mark in the Silicon Valley scene. Apply before the application closes tonight at midnight PT.
Read at sourceRussian data centers face new security requirements amid Ukraine's drone threats
Russia's data centers are concentrated in areas increasingly exposed to Ukrainian drone attacks. The Kremlin wants them to stiffen their physical defenses.
Read at sourceThe Best Automatic Litter Box of 2026: Petkit and Litter-Robot
With these high-tech automatic litter boxes, gone are the days of scooping and smells. Welcome to the future.
Read at sourceExploring the Moon will require rovers that can think for themselves – an upcoming NASA mission will test whether they can
By Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba, University of Florida NASA is planning to send three small rovers to the Moon with a single instruction: Work out among yourselves how to explore a patch of ground. The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration mission, or CADRE, will…
Read at sourceData from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace
Battlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones, which are now firmly established as a critical weapon of modern warfare. But behind all that wreckage, there’s a new gold mine for the defense sector. The data drones generate will far outlast the wars in which…
Read at sourceMedtronic invests $700M in surgical partner Cornerstone Robotics
Medtronic and Cornerstone Robotics are building a multi-port portfolio anchored by the Hugo surgical system and expanded by Sentire. The post Medtronic invests $700M in surgical partner Cornerstone Robotics appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceJAKA hits Teradyne Robotics back over patent dispute
JAKA is now taking legal action against Teradyne Robotics to end public dissemination of statements it considers "false, misleading and damaging." The post JAKA hits Teradyne Robotics back over patent dispute appeared first on The Robot Report .
Read at sourceProtecting Dynamic Industrial Robot Cable Carriers
This article is brought to you by Tsubaki KabelSchlepp . In modern automated manufacturing, six-axis articulated robots perform high-speed, multidirectional maneuvers under demanding operational cycles. However, as robot arms swivel, rotate, and extend, the electrical cables,…
Read at sourceThe Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball
On a good day, the rock quarry in central Texas is about 370,000 kilometers (230,000 miles) from the moon. But last February, when Rishi Jangale watched his 1.8-meter-wide, 150-kilogram inflatable robot roll effortlessly over rocks, gravel, and wet clay, his imagination turned…
Read at sourceThe Builders Stage brings practical strategies for scaling startups to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt, bringing together founders, startup operators, and investors for practical conversations on what it takes to build and scale.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 sourceIf you planned to buy a Chinese robot in the US, we've got bad news
The US is banning the sale of robots made outside the country. That includes all the cool ones we've covered out of China, which can dance, provide companionship to seniors, fight fires, and carry loads over rocky terrain. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering Tags:…
Read at sourceAI security robot rolls up on one wheel looking quite unserious
Why pay to design and mass-produce a four-wheeled autonomous security robot, when you can make a less costly one with just one wheel? That's the thinking behind the 1Rollo, a monowheel-bot that could soon be patrolling near you. Continue Reading Category: Robotics , Engineering…
Read at sourceHeadlines below are aggregated from independent publishers and link to the original articles. Compare Robots is not affiliated with these sources.
Robotics sources
Independent publishers we aggregate, each linked to the original.