Robotics & Automation News

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tactile sensing

Flexiv launches new ‘adaptive robots’ for industrial automation

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Flexiv has launched two new adaptive robots designed to bring greater tactile sensing and physical AI capabilities to industrial automation.

The company unveiled its new Enlight robotic arm and Mico dual-arm robotic platform, describing them as a significant step forward in force-controlled robotics and embodied intelligence.

The flagship Enlight is a seven-axis adaptive robot equipped with multi-dimensional force-torque sensors integrated into each of its seven joints. According to Flexiv, this enables whole-body touch sensitivity, allowing the robot to detect single-touch contact, track multiple contact points, and recognize tactile patterns. [Read more…] about Flexiv launches new ‘adaptive robots’ for industrial automation

Interview with Digid’s Nils Könne and Christian Kreil: Nanoscale sensors could help solve robotics’ tactile sensing challenge

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The rapid rise of artificial intelligence and robotics has focused attention on software, large language models, and increasingly powerful processors.

But for robots to operate effectively in the physical world, they also need something much more fundamental: the ability to sense and understand their environment.

That challenge is creating growing interest in advanced sensing technologies capable of providing machines with far richer information about the world around them. [Read more…] about Interview with Digid’s Nils Könne and Christian Kreil: Nanoscale sensors could help solve robotics’ tactile sensing challenge

Interview with Sharpa’s Alicia Veneziani: ‘Dexterous manipulation is the key to useful humanoid robots’

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Much of the recent excitement surrounding humanoid robots has focused on increasingly impressive demonstrations of walking, running, jumping, and balancing. Yet many robotics experts argue that locomotion, while important, is only part of the challenge.

The bigger obstacle to creating genuinely useful humanoid robots may be something far more familiar to humans: the ability to use their hands.

Among the companies focused on solving this problem is Sharpa, a Singapore-based robotics startup developing dexterous robotic hands, tactile sensing systems, and embodied AI technologies designed to enable robots to interact more effectively with the physical world. [Read more…] about Interview with Sharpa’s Alicia Veneziani: ‘Dexterous manipulation is the key to useful humanoid robots’

Sharpa brings dexterous robot hands to Nvidia and Unitree humanoid reference design

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Sharpa has announced that its Wave tactile robot hands have been integrated into the Unitree H2 Plus humanoid robot reference design, making it the first dexterous humanoid platform built on Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T development framework to feature the company’s tactile manipulation technology.

The companies say the configuration is designed to help robotics developers and researchers accelerate the development of humanoid robot skills by providing a validated hardware and software platform that combines dexterous manipulation, tactile sensing, simulation, training, and deployment tools.

The move comes as interest in humanoid robots and physical AI continues to grow, with developers seeking ways to reduce the complexity of integrating hardware, collecting training data, running simulations, and deploying robot capabilities in real-world environments. [Read more…] about Sharpa brings dexterous robot hands to Nvidia and Unitree humanoid reference design

Kirisense wins funding to develop robotic fingertips that can sense touch and slip

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UK robotics startup Kirisense has secured funding from the Henry Royce Institute to develop advanced tactile sensing technology designed to give robots a more human-like sense of touch.

The project, supported through the Henry Royce Institute’s Industrial Collaboration Programme and delivered in partnership with the University of Sheffield, will focus on creating robotic fingertips capable of detecting shear forces and slip in real time.

The funding comes as the robotics industry increasingly turns its attention from perception to manipulation. While advances in artificial intelligence and machine vision have significantly improved what robots can see and understand, handling objects reliably remains one of the sector’s biggest challenges. [Read more…] about Kirisense wins funding to develop robotic fingertips that can sense touch and slip

Pioneering roboticist Rodney Brooks says humanoid robots matching human skills is ‘pure fantasy’

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Rodney Brooks, the renowned roboticist and co-founder of iRobot (maker of the Roomba), has published a lengthy critique of the current humanoid robotics wave, arguing that today’s approaches will not deliver human-level dexterity on useful timelines.

The essay, titled “Why Today’s Humanoids Won’t Learn Dexterity” was posted on his personal blog on September 26, 2025. In it, Brooks says the idea that humanoid robots will be able to do the manual things that humans do any time within decades is “pure fantasy thinking”.

Brooks frames dexterous manipulation as the core requirement for general-purpose humanoids to make economic sense. [Read more…] about Pioneering roboticist Rodney Brooks says humanoid robots matching human skills is ‘pure fantasy’