Robotics

Today's Stories

1. 1

   Reservoir, John Deere in $10M AI Ag Partnership

   Reservoir announced a $10 million, three-year R&D partnership with John Deere at its inaugural Ruggedize conference. The collaboration aims to accelerate development of rugged AI for high-value crop agriculture. This partnership brings together John Deere's agricultural expertise with Reservoir's on-farm innovation centers, which have already attracted over 20 startups. It signals growing investment in AI tailored for outdoor, real-world farming conditions.

   Reservoir plans to expand its network of on-farm robotics centers from California to Arizona and other key agricultural regions. This could increase opportunities for startups and engineers to work directly with growers.

2. 2

   AI in Industrial Automation: Honeywell CEO Weighs In

   T. Rowe Price and Honeywell's CEO discussed AI's role in industrial automation, focusing on how AI can improve efficiency and safety in manufacturing and other industrial settings. This matters because industrial automation is a key area where AI can drive significant gains in productivity and operational efficiency, potentially affecting supply chains and manufacturing costs.

   Watch for how Honeywell and similar companies integrate AI into their automation solutions, and whether these discussions lead to concrete deployments or partnerships.

3. 3

   Hitachi charts AI-driven social infrastructure future

   At Physical AI Day, Hitachi's General Session 1 laid out a vision for how physical AI can open up new possibilities for social infrastructure. The presentation frames AI not just as software but as a force that can reshape foundational services that people rely on daily, suggesting a strategic direction for Hitachi's infrastructure business.

   How Hitachi might translate this physical AI concept into concrete products or services for social infrastructure in the coming period, based on its stated direction.

4. 4

   SORA Technology launches malaria elimination drones in Zanzibar

   SORA Technology has officially launched a malaria elimination project in Zanzibar, Tanzania, using satellite data, drones, AI, and a digital management platform. The project is funded by the Japanese government and implemented with WHO, ZAMEP, and IHI. Zanzibar has reduced malaria prevalence to 0.04%, making it one of the closest regions in Africa to eliminating the disease. However, finding and treating mosquito larvae sources in hard-to-reach areas remains a challenge, as traditional surveys take up to three days and require many people.

   The project deploys SORA's custom drone, TSUBASA, for targeted larvicide spraying, and uses the Zzapp Malaria Platform to manage mapping, spraying, progress, and effectiveness. Early operations are focused on the Kati district, with researchers from IHI monitoring mosquito population changes and comparing cost-effectiveness with traditional methods.

5. 5

   Deloitte Taiwan: Physical AI adoption lags expectations

   Deloitte Taiwan said global companies are rushing to discuss physical AI, but only a small share have embedded it into day-to-day operations. The gap between ambition and deployment suggests that despite high expectations, practical integration of physical AI into business operations remains limited.

   Whether the pace of adoption accelerates as companies move from discussion to implementation.

6. 6

   Open-source Codex Micro clone built for $35 by AI scientist

   Iluvatar Labs used its autonomous scientist Marvin to design AgentPad13, an open-source version of the $230 Codex Micro, for around $35 per fully populated board. The project achieved zero unrouted connections and zero design-rule violations within a weekend. Existing tools like KiCad/FreeRouting and Quilter plateaued at roughly 95% completion, leaving 18-19 of 353 connections unfinished and making unacceptable compromises. Marvin treated routing as a research problem, learning from literature and running iterative experiments, which enabled a complete route within the board's 2-layer and 100mm constraints.

   The routing skill Marvin developed is planned to be released as an open-source package. AgentPad13's PCB, case, firmware, and build instructions are available on GitHub with a configurator for customization. A known hardware mistake with two underglow LEDs pointing outward has been corrected in the next revision.