Big tech FOMO in robotics leads to acquihire investments
Thirst traps from overseas humanoid companies launching in SF/SV Bay Area
[updated] Speaking of launch events…I forgot to mention that ZaiNar also gave their first public demo to Jemima McEvoy from The Information. ZaiNar has quietly spent nine years developing a highly precise RF tracker, more robust and accurate than GPS, which makes it very attractive for most categories of robotics. ZaiNar was valued at $1B earlier this year by major investors including Steve Jurvetson and Jerry Yang.
Latest news this week (and it’s hard to keep up with all the robotics news these days) is that Meta has just acquired ARI, Assured Robot Intelligence to bring “deep expertise in how it can design its models and frontier capabilities for robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid control”.
ARI co-founder Xiaolong Wang said that from the start, they knew achieving his company’s goals meant “training a truly general-purpose physical agent.” He continued that they now believe the agent will be humanoid and that “scaling will come from learning directly from human experience.” Meta, he added, has access to the “key components needed to make this vision possible.” Wang, his co-founders Xuxin Cheng and Lerrel Pinto, and the ARI team will be joining Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. Pinto also co-founded Fauna Robotics but left the company last year before it was acquired by Amazon for its own humanoid robot project. Read more at Engadget or Quartz
Talent and data acquisition, rather than labor deployment, is the driving force behind value creation in the robotics and physical AI industry at the moment but with prices of robot production dropping and AI speeding up the acquisition of robot skills, you can see the very start of a real use case for robots economy emerging.
Simply glance at the News section below to see the wide variety of use cases for robots with hands! Airports, hotels, sidewalk delivery, lab experimentation, food handling, light manufacturing, and package handling. The list keeps growing.
Goldman Sachs has recently revised their humanoid industry forecast upwards by a factor of 6x, from $6B in two years to $38B by 2035. For the next decade or more, the majority of these use cases will be lightweight handling in semistructured and human-rich environments and there is are so many low hanging opportunities here that I believe the pressure to create human-level general purpose robots is a want, not a need.
Of course the sooner robots are in the real world, the faster we can make better robots.
Earlier this year Circuit Launch and Silicon Valley Robotics hosted a showcase for Unitree, which gave us an inside look at their latest humanoids and development/deployment roadmap. Since then a number of new humanoid, brain and hand companies have started holding launch showcases here and some of them are nailing the thirst trap. Last week Dreame took to the Palace of Fine Arts, while their spinout MagicLab was at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and next week, RLWRLD takes over the SF Exploratorium.
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The case against robot hands
Great overview on the hand vs end effector debate from Kyle Vedder, a researcher at Physical Intelligence and HT to Jonathan Hurst from Agility Robotics for the steer.
Copying biological morphology imports biological constraints — small fingers, dense cabling, delicate joints — without preserving the biological advantages that justified them: free self-healing, free compliance, a metabolic budget that penalizes large limbs. Robots should buy dexterity along their substrate’s cheap dimensions instead: more arms, simpler contact geometry, and bigger serviceable actuators.
The conclusion is that robotics needs to do the physics math and that many simple end effectors with robustness and serviceability is the answer. I would add that the ability to have the capability to use many different end effectors automatically makes robots like tool wielding humans, not just humans.
10 years after the DARPA Robotics Challenge, NIST is asking how have humanoids changed
NIST’s new humanoid benchmarking competition will be at the IEEE Humanoids 2026 conference from Dec 6-9 in Silicon Valley, with more opportunities to take part to be determined.
The DRC was the last time humanoid robot performance was rigorously measured between robots. A new benchmark is needed to assess current humanoid robot capabilities across industry and academia, and to help steer future performance.
Outline
The proposed Baseline Performance Benchmark is a low-footprint set of locomotion and manipulation tasks. These tasks are derived mostly from previously standardized NIST test methods with quantifiable and performance metrics. The tasks are intended to represent the minimum capabilities that one would expect commercially-available humanoid robots to be able to do (whether for industrial, home, healthcare, or other applications). The results will establish a comparable measure of capability between current industry-leading robots, as well as a common set of tasks manufacturers and researchers can use for further development of these robots.
Task Options:
This set of tasks establishes a set of common basic tasks as a baseline of performance for humanoids, while exercising:
Domain-agnostic, basic humanoid robot mobility and manipulation/dexterity capabilities,
Coordinated loco-manipulation capabilities combining mobility and manipulation tasks,
Whole-body awareness and control through confined-space manipulation tasks, and
Minimal reasoning, task and scene understanding, and decision making.
Credit: NIST
Benchmarking Process
The design of the baseline benchmark apparatus is being developed in collaboration with industry and the research community. Participation in this process is being sought to help achieve consensus on the tasks that should be included. NIST will fabricate a limited number of apparatuses to be freely distributed to participating U.S. humanoid robot manufacturers and established regional testing facilities. The designs and 3D models of the apparatus will also be published for use as a physical and/or virtual testbed for robot training and control development.
Robot manufacturers who choose to have their robots tested will be able to elect to receive an apparatus (pending availability) and run their own tests, or to have their robots tested at NIST or at a participating facility. Test results will be collected under pre-approved data sharing agreements between NIST and the robot manufacturers in order to protect IP and any attribution if needed. Results will be aggregated to showcase the state-of-the-art of humanoid robot capabilities.
Considerations for Prospective Participating Robot Manufacturers and Collaborators
Do these tasks sufficiently exercise minimum humanoid capabilities?
Are there tasks that would better exercise whole-body-control and/or loco-manipulation?
What additional constraints would you need for testing your robots in such a suite of tasks?
Are you willing to help design the benchmark and/or have your robots tested?
Are you interested in being a participating test facility?
Please contact NIST if you would like to contribute answers to the above questions, to provide suggestions, have questions, or are interested in participating with the project. Points of contact are Dr. Benjamin Beiter (benjamin.beiter@nist.gov) and Dr. Kamel Saidi (kamel.saidi@nist.gov).
IEEE Humanoids 2026 Call for Papers
We are very pleased to invite you to contribute to the 2026 IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots to be held in Santa Clara, California, USA, from December 6 through December 9, 2026. The Calls for Workshops, Tutorials, Competitions and Demos will be released soon.
OVERVIEW: Humanoids 2026 aims at bringing together top researchers from humanoid robotics and related disciplines with leading companies in the field. In light of a year of rapidly evolving humanoid technologies with several new platforms coming onto the market and bringing us closer to a wider real-world deployment. Our community envisions innovative areas in humanoid robotics that lie at the intersection of general-purpose physical, cognitive, and motor capabilities, while also considering the scientific understanding of interactions with humanoid and anthropomorphic systems.
FORMAT: The conference will be organized as a 4-day event opening on December 6th (Sunday) with public panels, seminars, and hackathons, followed by workshops and tutorials on December 7th (Monday), followed by 2 days December 8th-9th (Tuesday-Wednesday) for the main conference with plenaries, keynotes, oral and interactive sessions, and industry events. A centrally located exhibition will feature the latest humanoid technology from both industry and academia.
TOPICS: We invite papers in all areas related to humanoid robotics, including, but not limited to:
Human biomechanics and motor control, human body and behavior modeling
Bionic / human-inspired design principles for humanoids
Human-inspired robot control
Whole-body dynamics and control
Optimization, optimal control, and model predictive control methods
Learning methods for humanoid robots
Robot modeling for locomotion and/or manipulation
Exoskeleton / wearable robot design and control
Prosthesis design and control
Physical and social human-humanoid interaction
Dynamic legged locomotion (bipeds, quadrupeds, etc.)
Loco-manipulation, legged manipulation
Dual arm dexterous manipulation
Design, control, and application of multi-finger hands
Stability and robustness of humanoid and legged robots and humans
Simulation and physics-based animations from computer graphics
Humanoid heads and faces, geminoids
Novel materials, mechanisms, and actuators for humanoids
Perception for humanoids
Human-centered robotic studies and applications
Neuro-robotics and brain-robot interfaces for humanoids and humans
Real-world applications for humanoid robots (industry, healthcare, home, space, disaster response)
Benchmarks, performance indicators for humanoid robots
Ethical and social challenges of humanoid robot deployment
Long-term deployment of humanoid, bipedal, or dual arm manipulation robots
MORE INFORMATION: For more information, please visit the conference contributions webpage (https://2026.ieee-humanoids.org/call-for-papers) or contact the Program Chairs: Luis Sentis, Serena Ivaldi, and Gentiane Venture (humanoids2026-tc@ieee.org).
We look forward to your contributions to Humanoids 2026!
About America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF
America’s Seed Fund powered by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) awards more than $250 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across virtually every discipline of science and technology can receive up to $2 million in non-dilutive funds to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
We invite you to attend a virtual dynamic discussion with NSF-funded companies to kick off America’s Seed Fund Week.
NSF SBIR/STTR Dynamic Discussion: Awardee Lessons from the Translation Journey
Monday, May 11, 2-3 p.m. EDT
REGISTER HERE
Moderated by NSF program directors, this special session will offer insights into moving research and innovation beyond the lab and into practical use.
DARPA wants us to rethink robotics with embedded compute and new materials.
Rethinking robotics with physical intelligence: RFI and workshop to explore embedded compute and multi-functional materials
A focus on materials, not machines
The RFI targets foundational advances at the material, component, and kernel level, with an emphasis on two areas:
Actuation and sensing: DARPA is interested in materials and structures that integrate sensing, actuation, and even elements of control into the same physical substrate, enabling robots to perceive and interact with their environment with greater speed, efficiency, and adaptability.
Dynamic and adaptive closed-loop compute: Rather than relying on centralized processors and large data flows, DARPA is exploring materials that can perform computation directly. Embedding compute within sensors and actuators could enable real-time decision-making with minimal latency, reduced power demands, and the ability to adapt continuously to changing conditions.
Together, these areas point toward a new class of systems where perception, decision, and action are tightly integrated at the hardware level.
DARPA is not seeking incremental improvements or system-level concepts divorced from enabling hardware. Instead, the focus is on breakthroughs that could fundamentally reshape what robotic systems can do.
Additionally, while industry has emphasized human-like form factors designed to operate in human environments, of interest here are systems optimized for mission needs. Depending on the application, this could include designs that are smaller, larger, softer, or structurally unconventional, prioritizing performance and adaptability over familiarity.
From ideas to action
Responses to the RFI are due by May 27, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET. Submissions will help inform future DARPA programs and guide the agenda for the upcoming workshop. Additional information on the RFI, including submission instructions, is available in Special Notice DARPA-SN-26-76.
Silicon Valley Robotics Investor/Startup Database
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More Robotics News
Driverless cars can now get citations; autonomous trucks get testing green light in new CA DMV rules - 7 Eyewitness News
Apptronik Accelerates Commercialization of Humanoid Robots with Key Executive Hires from Top Tech Giants - Apptronik
Autonomous Delivery Moves Into the Mainstream as Starship Technologies Passes 10 Million Deliveries - Starship Technologies
Am I the only one who hates delivery robots? - LA Times
Sidewalk Robots Deliver Burritos, Collect Mobility Data - GovTech
Kodiak AI and Bosch begin hardware deliveries for autonomous trucks - FreightWaves
Pyka’s autonomous cargo plane completes first flight - Defence Blog
Is Tesla’s pivot to robotics coming at the cost of its car business? - USA Today
Who Is Tesla Selling 1 Million Humanoid Robots A Year To? - Clean Technica
BMW Deploys Humanoid Robots on Production Line - LetsDataScience
Japan Airlines trials humanoid robots as ground handlers - BBC
How CVS Uses Robots to Keep Your Deodorant in Stock - WSJ
Want to run an experiment? For $39, robots will do it for you - The Times
My robot concierge: How ‘hybrid hospitality’ is reshaping travel - National Geographic
Soylent founder’s latest bet is on insurance for robots - Pitchbook
SoftBank is creating a robotics company that builds data centers — and already eyeing a $100B IPO - TechCrunch
1X launches expanded NEO factory in Hayward targeting 10,000+ NEOs per year - 1X
DAIMON Robotics Wants to Give Robot Hands a Sense of Touch: A powerful embodied AI dataset will enable robots to perform dexterous manipulation - IEEE Spectrum
I’ve covered robots for years. This one is different - Wired
Robotics Events
Bots, Bevs & Devs
May 5 - 6pm to 8.30pm at Circuit Launch Oakland
Let’s talk about self healing and sustainable robots!
We’ve just opened up some more spots for Tuesday’s Bots, Bevs & Devs because we have some special short robotics talks/demos from our friends at VUB from Belgium!
Constantin Scholz, Coera
Robotics is advancing faster than the safety systems meant to support it, creating a gap that only a new approach can close. coera provides the missing safety intelligence layer that allows any robot to perceive, interpret, and respond appropriately to real-world conditions. Retrofittable, embeddable, controller agnostic, and powered by multi-modal sensing with deterministic guardrails, coera enables true human-robot coexistence without cages, constraints, or compromise.
Pablo Lopez Garcia, Ailos Robotics
AILOS is a Belgian company developing high-performance gearboxes for human centered robotics. Our technology enables lightweight, backdrivable joints that make robots more productive, agile, and safe.
Bram Vanderboght, Sustainable Robotics
Sustainable robotics at the Brubotics research institute turns deep‑tech into impact by moving core robotic technologies as self‑healing materials, energy efficient actuation and 3D touch sensors from lab research to certified products—extending lifetimes, reducing waste, improving human work through spin‑offs and industrial collaborations.
Plus short talks/demos from Thought Forge, Open Mind, Gyropalm and Harmonic Drive and all the best in robotics networking. See you on Tuesday!
More Robotics Events:
Robotics Invest - Boston - May 26-27
ICRA 2026 - Vienna, Austria - Jun 01 - Jun 05
IEEE Hard Tech Venture Summit - Boston - June 10 - June 11
Automate - Chicago - June 22 - Jun 25
Deep Tech Week - SF - Jun 21 - Jun 25
Robot Fringe Festival - London - Jul 2
Robotics: Science and Systems - Sydney, Australia - Jul 13 - Jul 16
Open Sauce - San Francisco - Jul 17 - Jul 19
ROSCon Global - Toronto - Sep 22 - Sep 24
IROS 2026 - Pittsburgh - Sep 27 - Oct 1
IEEE Humanoids 2026 - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9
The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.
Mountain View Technology Showcase 2026
Call for Makers Application
July 30, 2026
11:00AM - 3PM
Mountain View Civic Center Plaza -- 500 Castro Street
The Technology Showcase is a unique opportunity for local Mountain View tech-oriented companies and makers to showcase their ideas and products to a wide audience. Whether you are an entrepreneur, startup, or established business, this wildly popular annual event attracts hundreds of potential customers, influencers, and investors. For no cost to you, you can have a booth at the event and showcase your technology.
The one day outdoor event takes place in Downtown Mountain View and is free to the public.
- Exhibitor Booth Includes: 10x10 space, 6ft table, white table cover, 2 chairs
Application deadline is June 22, 2026
Questions please reach out to marisol@chambermv.org
Send me your 2026 progress, plans or posts for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups. Or join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org
