2026 Robotics Handbook spotlights humanoids and AI

The 2026 Robotics Handbook arrives as robotics adoption is growing, driven by labor shortages and easier-to-use systems. According to the International Federation of Robotics and the Association for Advancing Automation, both global and U.S. orders are climbing after a post-pandemic pause. The handbook curates trends in design, engineering, and deployment, highlighting humanoid robots and AI as the two most prominent topics.

Humanoid robots remain in development and commercial trials, but massive funding has led to stiff competition among big tech companies and startups trying different form factors. AI is changing how robots are designed, programmed, and managed, from large language models to vision-language-action models and world models, already starting to make robots more autonomous and safer to interact with. However, concerns around data, cybersecurity, and national sovereignty persist.

The handbook also spotlights dexterous manipulation and construction automation, featuring case studies from Plus One Robotics, Jabil's collaboration with Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, SoftServe, Locus Robotics, and Monumental. Sponsors include DigiKey, All Motion, and others.