Mechanical Design & Robotics Boston Dynamics’ “48-Hour Task” Standard for Factory Humanoids Jonathan BarrettJanuary 12, 2026January 12, 20260 How quickly can a six-foot humanoid become useful on a factory floor without becoming a constant engineering project? Boston Dynamics…
Mechanical Design & Robotics CES 2026’s surprise theme: machines that listen, watch, decide Jonathan BarrettJanuary 9, 2026January 9, 20260 “At Nvidia we built three computers and open software stacks for developers to build physical AI, and now Caterpillar is…
Mechanical Design & Robotics CES Robots Fold Laundry, Snap Photos, and Chase the “Zero Labor” Home Jonathan BarrettJanuary 9, 2026January 9, 20260 “Making housework a thing of the past” is a line that sounds like it belongs on a detergent bottle, not…
Mechanical Design & Robotics Georgia will soon see humanoid robots reshape EV factory work Jonathan BarrettJanuary 9, 2026January 9, 20260 “This generation of Atlas significantly reduces the amount of unique parts in the robot, and every component has been designed…
Mechanical Design & Robotics Boston Dynamics vs Tesla: Atlas Beats Optimus to the Factory Punch Jonathan BarrettJanuary 8, 2026January 8, 20260 When a humanoid robot shows up at a trade show, the real performance is whether it can show up again…
Mechanical Design & Robotics CES 2026: Boston Dynamics Atlas Claimed Production-Ready Jonathan BarrettJanuary 8, 2026January 8, 20260 “This is the best robot we have ever built,” Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter said, describing Atlas as a machine…
Mechanical Design & Robotics Octopus-inspired skin that shifts feel and color, for robots Jonathan BarrettJanuary 8, 2026January 8, 20260 How often does a material shift its color and surface texture on demand, then return to baseline as if nothing…
Mechanical Design & Robotics Mobileye’s $900 Million Deal Targets Humanoid Robotics Scale Jonathan BarrettJanuary 8, 2026January 8, 20260 Mobileye’s agreement to spend $900 million on humanoid-robotics startup Mentee Robotics is less about novelty than about leverage: moving an…
Mechanical Design & Robotics Google Gemini Takes the Wheel in Humanoid Factory Robots Jonathan BarrettJanuary 7, 2026January 7, 20260 Who is going to be in charge when a humanoid robot gets on a factory floor: the actuators, the safety…