Purdue researcher Sooyeon Jeong is advancing human-robot interaction by developing socially intelligent robots that listen, adapt, and provide personalized support. From study companions to healthcare assistants, her work explores how empathy, conversational cues, and adaptive behavior can make robots more effective collaborators as physical AI increasingly enters everyday human environments.

Montréal-based Haply Robotics is betting that the future of physical AI depends on touch. With new funding and growing enterprise adoption, the company aims to build the “steering wheel” for robots—precision haptic systems that allow machines and humans to feel, adapt, and interact safely across industries from manufacturing to surgery and remote operations.

North American robot orders rebounded in 2025, with companies purchasing 36,766 units valued at $2.25 billion, according to A3. Growth was driven largely by non-automotive industries, while collaborative robots gained momentum. The data signals renewed confidence in automation as manufacturers pursue productivity gains, workforce solutions, and reshoring initiatives heading into 2026.

Humanoid has introduced KinetIQ, an agentic AI framework designed to orchestrate mixed robot fleets across industrial, service, and home environments. Built on a four-layer architecture spanning fleet coordination to real-time control, the system aims to enable scalable, multi-embodiment autonomy—combining reasoning, planning, and reinforcement learning to manage complex robotic operations.

Inside Ohio State’s AIMS Lab, robots don’t just automate — they learn. Blending AI, robotics, and hands-on education, the lab is reimagining manufacturing as an adaptive system while training the next generation of automation engineers to build the future of intelligent production.

Humanoid robot AgiBot A2 just made history, walking 106 kilometers from Suzhou to Shanghai fully autonomously. No remote control, no human guidance—just balance, perception, and endurance over 56 hours. It’s less a stunt than a signal: humanoids are moving from demos toward real-world reliability, step by step, in public space.

LimX Dynamics has raised $200M to accelerate development of embodied intelligence for humanoid robots. Its COSA software and modular Tron 2 platform aim to deliver more adaptive, general-purpose robots capable of learning through real-world interaction.

Phoenix Motor is expanding beyond EVs into commercial robotics with a U.S.-manufactured robotic dog platform from its subsidiary EdisonFuture Motor. Delivered via a Robot Fleet as a Service model, the modular quadruped targets logistics, security, and industrial inspection with recurring, fleet-based deployment.

LG Electronics is betting on robotics as its next growth engine as TVs and appliances slow. Its CLOiD home robot embodies a vision of the “zero labor home,” where AI automates domestic tasks. The move signals a broader shift from hardware products to embodied intelligence—and a new battle to own the future of household automation.

China’s Ant Group has open-sourced its first robotics AI models, signaling a major push into embodied intelligence. With vision-language-action models and world simulations, Ant aims to build scalable robotic “brains.” The move highlights a global shift from flashy robots to practical, general-purpose machine intelligence.

ABB Robotics is leading an effort to create a global standard for measuring industrial robots’ energy consumption, addressing a long-standing gap in automation. With millions of robots operating worldwide, the initiative could transform how efficiency is compared, support sustainability goals, and give manufacturers transparent data to reduce carbon footprints and make smarter automation choices.

New York Robotics has officially launched, uniting a fast-growing ecosystem of 160+ robotics startups, major enterprises, universities, investors, and labs across the Tri-State region. As robotics and embodied AI accelerate into real-world deployment, New York is emerging as a serious global hub where technology, capital, and industry converge.

Scottish researchers have developed a £50 sensor glove that captures ultra-precise hand movements, offering a breakthrough in robot dexterity. With over 99% accuracy, the technology could help robots learn human-like manipulation, accelerating advances in humanoids, surgery, prosthetics, and physical AI by delivering the high-fidelity gesture data robotics has long lacked.

In South Korea, robotic factories are transforming how houses are built, shifting construction from unpredictable job sites to automated production lines. Companies like Gonggan Jaejakso are using robots to assemble modular wooden homes, reigniting debates about speed, cost, quality, and the future of jobs in construction.

Micropolis Robotics unveiled its Autonomous Logistics Platform at UMEX 2026 in Abu Dhabi, showcasing a heavy-duty autonomous system designed for industrial logistics. Built on the M01 platform, the robot targets controlled environments such as factories and logistics corridors, highlighting the growing role of autonomous systems in scalable, high-throughput industrial operations.

NC State researchers are developing Marvel-inspired agricultural robots to automate labor-intensive vegetable farming tasks, from staking plants to harvesting tomatoes. Using AI, sensors, and modular robotic tools, the project aims to reduce labor shortages and improve efficiency in specialty crops—signaling a broader shift toward intelligent, data-driven automation in agriculture.

Argentina has launched Latin America’s first fully robotic parcel sorting hub, tripling throughput with 240 autonomous robots capable of processing 9,000 parcels per hour. Built by Libiao Robotics for Correo Argentino, the facility highlights how AI-driven logistics can modernize national postal systems and accelerate the region’s e-commerce and automation transformation.

Saga Robotics is accelerating its U.S. vineyard expansion with new leadership, fresh funding, and rapid growth in autonomous UV-C crop treatment. Its Thorvald robots helped drive a tenfold increase in treated acreage in 2025, signaling rising demand for chemical-free, data-driven agriculture and the growing maturity of robotics-as-a-service in viticulture.

Beijing has launched a pilot, skills-based credentialing system for robotics engineers, recognizing robotics as a standalone engineering discipline. Focused on real-world outcomes, commercialization, and standards contributions, the policy reflects China’s broader industrial strategy to align workforce governance with fast-moving robotics and AI markets.

DEWALT and August Robotics have launched an autonomous drilling robot designed to accelerate data center construction. Capable of drilling up to 10× faster with near-perfect accuracy, the system has already reduced project timelines by as much as 80 weeks, signaling a major shift in how large-scale infrastructure for AI is built.