Today in Robotics — Sunday, October 4, 2026
Sunday's lineup runs the gamut from the factory floor to the living room, with humanoids crowding into Tesla's neighborhood and household bots suddenly wearing friendlier price tags. There's plenty for the research-minded too: a soft gripper proving its dexterity, custom silicon shaking up Nvidia's reign, and a candid look at the people actually building and using these machines.
- 01 How robotics and physical AI can responsibly tackle key physical security challenges
A columnist argues robotics and physical AI can keep pace with fast-evolving cyber and physical threats, with 'responsibly' doing some important heavy lifting.
Read at source ↗ - 02 Rubber ducks and screwdrivers put dexterous new soft robotic gripper to the test
Spanish researchers built a soft gripper that doesn't just grab objects but manipulates them, a meaningful step beyond the usual pick-and-place routine.
Read at source ↗ - 03 Agility Robotics plants its flag in Tesla’s backyard
Agility's new Fremont training center for Digit stakes out turf in Tesla's own backyard, a pointed move in the humanoid race.
Read at source ↗ - 04 Why everyone from OpenAI to SpaceX is building their own chips (and turning up the heat on Nvidia)
With OpenAI's custom Jalapeño inference chip and others following, the era of total Nvidia dependence may finally be loosening—relevant to anyone running robot inference.
Read at source ↗ - 05 Sub-$1,700 household robot promises to handle chores and more
A sub-$1,700 household robot promising laundry and tidying suggests the price war on chore bots is starting earlier than expected—pre-orders and promises aside.
Read at source ↗ - 06 Eli Lilly, Purdue to share field learnings on human robot interaction at RoboBusiness
Eli Lilly and Purdue will share real findings on how factory workers perceive robots, a refreshingly human-centered topic for RoboBusiness.
Read at source ↗ - 07 A Day in the Life of a Roboticist: Charlie Kemp
Hello Robot's Charlie Kemp makes the case that useful assistive robots start with truly understanding the people who'll use them.
Read at source ↗ - 08 Mexican EPICS in IEEE Team Builds Portable Educational Platform
An IEEE team in Guadalajara is building a portable robotics platform to put advanced tools within reach of under-resourced high schools.
Read at source ↗
The RobotCafe digest — five minutes, the whole field.