Robotics

Today's Stories

1. 1

   Free 10/5 seminar on physical AI in manufacturing

   A free online seminar for manufacturers will be held on Monday, October 5, covering the front lines of physical AI and generative AI built on skilled-worker data from factory floors. The session points to factory floor skills and know-how as source material for these AI systems, suggesting a path by which manufacturers may look to turn hands-on experience into machine capability.

   Because the article describes the event only as a seminar, the practical impact hinges on what vendors and manufacturers actually share on the day. Watch the October 5 date for any concrete deployment examples or results.

2. 2

   Daiwa House fund invests in Persona AI Inc

   The Daiwa House Group Growth Fund, operated by Ignition Point Venture Partners and backed by Daiwa House Ventures, announced an investment in Persona AI Inc, a Houston-based industrial humanoid robot developer founded in 2024. Persona AI's robots are meant to handle skilled tasks such as welding, inspection, maintenance and plate fabrication at shipyards, construction sites and energy infrastructure, which the fund sees as a way to ease labor shortages and improve safety.

   The fund says it was won over by Persona AI's management and its track record in cutting-edge robotics, but the payoff hinges on whether the robots move from planned use to real deployment at industrial sites.

3. 3

   Hitachi and Fanuc form Physical AI partnership, testing starts now

   Hitachi and Fanuc announced a strategic Physical AI partnership on September 30, 2026, with internal testing starting immediately and customer promotion planned for fiscal 2027. The two companies intend to apply the technology in manufacturing and other sectors, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and nursing care.

   The test results will determine how soon the technology is rolled out commercially, with fiscal 2027 as the current target.

4. 4

   Vector, PEM Motion, FMC³ to build industrial embodied AI data standard

   At the Humanoid Robots Summit 2026 in Stuttgart, Vector Informatik, PEM Motion, and FMC³ Robotics signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a standardized data infrastructure for industrial embodied AI. The partners say the agreement combines their strengths in production engineering, standardized industrial data technologies, robotics, and embodied AI, suggesting the trio sees shared data standards as the groundwork for deploying embodied AI in factories.

   A memorandum of understanding is not a completed joint venture, so the plan hinges on whether the three partners turn it into an operating entity. The body does not specify a timeline or further terms.

5. 5

   ALBATROSS robot autorotates to sea, sails on its own wings

   Singapore University of Technology and Design developed ALBATROSS, a hybrid aerial-marine robot that autorotates down to water without a parachute, passively self-rights after landing, and reuses its rigid wings as sails. Using the same wings for autorotation and sailing with minimal actuation may let one platform handle aerial deployment and persistent marine sensing, rather than carrying separate systems for descent, landing, and propulsion.

   It is not yet clear whether such platforms can truly combine rapid aerial deployment with persistent, energy-efficient marine sensing. Watch for the peer-reviewed details behind the Science Robotics paper.

6. 6

   Michelle Lu left NVIDIA in 2022 to found Vsim

   Michelle Lu, co-founder and CEO of Vsim Technology, appeared on Robot Talk Episode 164 to discuss using simulation and artificial intelligence to teach robots new skills. Vsim was founded in 2022 to address what Lu describes as the limitations of simulation-based robotics AI: efficiency, scalability and the sim-to-real gap.

   The test is whether Vsim's approach can close the sim-to-real gap — the difference between simulated training and real-world performance. Lu was previously a Director of Simulation Technology at NVIDIA.