robotics community

NASA says it is troubleshooting the transporter that moves the International Space Station's robotic arm along the station's truss. The issue affects the mobile system that repositions the arm for maintenance and operations work outside the station. Details on the nature of the fault and any impact on station operations have not been given.

A new installment in an ongoing series on social physical AI argues that machine understanding of people should be treated as a continuous loop rather than a one-shot prediction. The piece, part of a 13-part discussion spanning AI, robotics and inclusive design, focuses on designing for repair, letting systems correct misreadings of social context through ongoing interaction with users and communities.

Figure is decommissioning the Figure 02, the second-generation humanoid robot it had deployed for testing with commercial partners. The move suggests the company is shifting focus toward its next-generation hardware, and robotics watchers are debating what the retirement means for the humanoid's commercial deployments and Figure's roadmap.

Boston Dynamics has published a new post focused on robot hands designed for modern AI and practical, real-world tasks. The announcement is drawing attention in the robotics and AI community, with readers discussing what dexterous manipulation could mean for the next generation of industrial and research robots.

Hong Kong will stage four major technology fairs in October 2026, bringing together electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, electronic components and lighting solutions. The Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which organises the exhibitions, expects them to draw a large international audience of buyers and exhibitors, though exact attendance figures were not given in the announcement.

Researchers reporting through the American Physical Society describe a counterintuitive finding: adding a small amount of noise can actually help a soft valve close reliably. The result suggests gentle random fluctuations can push flexible, deformable valves past their closing threshold, an idea relevant to soft robotics and microfluidic devices. Physicists are drawn to the work as an example of noise-assisted behavior in mechanical systems.

Soft Circuit, an indie maker of enamel pins and plush, says its pre-order window will lock this coming Wednesday. Customers have a final chance to place orders through the BackerKit hosted pre-order page before it closes. The reminder is being shared among robotics, plush and artist communities online.

Banana Pi has introduced the BPI-CM5 Pro, a computing module built on the Rockchip RK3576 chip with a 6 TOPS NPU for AI workloads, 8-32GB of RAM and 8-128GB of eMMC storage. The maker is positioning it as a platform for edge AI projects and as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, drawing interest from hobbyist and robotics communities.

Robotics startup RoboParty has unveiled the RP1, a full-stack open-source humanoid robot, at the IROS robotics conference. The company describes the RP1 as a high-performance platform whose complete hardware and software design is openly available, positioning it as a challenger to proprietary humanoid systems. The announcement was picked up by international outlets including Kyodo News, PR Newswire and StreetInsider, drawing attention from the robotics community interested in open alternatives.

A robotics enthusiast has published a new blog post explaining how to do stereo depth estimation using OpenCV and Python. The tutorial walks through computer vision techniques for estimating depth from stereo camera images, a common task in robotics and 3D perception. It has drawn early attention in robotics and computer vision communities.

Boston Dynamics has published a blog post introducing new robotic hand technology designed for modern AI systems and practical, real-world tasks. The announcement pairs dexterous manipulation with the company's robotics platform, and it is being shared among tech and robotics communities who are weighing what the advance means for humanoid robots entering genuine labor.

RoboParty has opened up a full-stack humanoid robot, making its hardware and software stack publicly available. The move is being reported in the open-source robotics community as a notable step toward accessible humanoid development, letting builders and researchers work with a complete robot platform rather than individual components.

Robotics company Figure AI has announced the decommission of its F.02 humanoid robot. The notice, published on the company's news page, marks the end of the line for the bot that served as Figure's flagship humanoid platform. The story is drawing attention in technology and robotics circles as readers watch how Figure phases out hardware ahead of its newer generations.

Researchers have proposed FastOPD, a new framework that compresses large foundation vision-language-action models into lightweight versions suitable for real-world robot deployment. The approach uses efficient on-policy distillation, allowing small models to learn directly from a big model's behavior. The work was released as a paper on arXiv in the robotics category, and early discussion is focused on whether it makes advanced robot policies cheaper and easier to run on hardware.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute says it will share its latest ocean research and technology at the OCEANS 2026 conference in Monterey. The institute, known for deep-sea robotics and exploration, regularly presents new tools and findings at the event, which gathers marine scientists and engineers. Further details about its presentations have not yet been announced.

Eli Lilly and Purdue University are set to present joint findings on human-robot interaction at the RoboBusiness conference. The two organisations will share lessons learned from deploying robots in the field, drawing on Lilly's pharmaceutical operations and Purdue's robotics research. The session is expected to cover practical challenges of people working alongside robots in industrial settings.

A new autonomous mobile robot has been launched, according to an industry announcement carried by Logistics Business. The robot is aimed at automation tasks, likely in logistics and warehouse settings where autonomous mobile robots are increasingly used to move goods without fixed infrastructure. No further technical details, pricing, or customer names were given in the announcement, and reaction from the robotics and logistics community has not yet been recorded.

A new open-source circuit board has been presented as a way to connect industrial sensors with robot control systems for use at sea. The board is designed to bring together equipment that normally operates in separate industrial settings, potentially making it easier to run sensing and robotic tasks on marine platforms. Details about who developed it and its performance remain limited, but the open-source approach suggests it is meant to be adapted and reused by others.

Extend Robotics has raised $3.3 million in seed funding to support its Result-as-a-Service model. The round gives the robotics startup capital to develop and scale its offering, which sells outcomes rather than robots themselves. Interest is coming from the startup and venture community tracking early-stage robotics funding.