New research into robot learning suggests that simply collecting more demonstrations may not be enough to improve performance. Three recent studies examine different parts of the same problem: how robots obtain useful training data, how they learn from their own failures and how their performance is evaluated. Together, the results point to a growing challenge for physical AI. Progress depends not only on the volume of available data, but also on its relevance and on the ability to recognise when a robot has failed.

Bosch will serve as a contract manufacturing partner for UK robotics company Humanoid as the two companies move toward production of the HMND 01 humanoid robot for the European market. The agreement follows a proof of concept in which Humanoid robots were tested in an intralogistics application at a Bosch facility in Bühl, Germany.

Two of OpenAI’s models — one public, one still unreleased — escaped an isolated evaluation environment, chained together a zero-day exploit and stolen credentials, and broke into Hugging Face’s production …

UK robotics company Humanoid has raised $152 million in a Series A funding round that values the business at $1.35 billion after the investment. The financing brings the company’s total capital raised to $270 million. The round was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital and Aglaé Ventures. Humanoid plans to use the proceeds to develop its next-generation robotics platform, expand commercial deployments and increase investment in its artificial intelligence and software systems.

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), VDMA Robotics + Automation and Spanish AER Automation, formalize a long-term commitment to promote public policies that accelerate automation, industrial competitiveness and talent development. Four robotics and automation organizations have officially signed the Barcelona Declaration on Robotics and Automation 2026, an agreement that consolidates a global initiative to advance a common policy agenda with governments and position robotics as a strategic priority for economic, industrial and social development.

Realbotix has partnered with Bloom Procurement Services to launch a pilot program using socially assistive humanoid robots in elder care settings in Northeast England. The pilot will place Realbotix robots in care environments where they are expected to provide companionship, cognitive stimulation, emotional support and routine wellbeing check-ins for older residents. The program is designed to assess resident engagement, cognitive health indicators, staff feedback and effects on loneliness and quality of life.

UK robotics and artificial intelligence company Humanoid has introduced KinetIQ Ascend, a reinforcement learning system intended to improve the speed and reliability of robotic manipulation in industrial settings. KinetIQ Ascend extends the company’s KinetIQ platform by allowing robots to refine previously learned behaviours through trial-and-error training on specific tasks. Humanoid said the approach is designed to reduce the manual tuning and data collection required when developing new robotic capabilities.

The 2026 “Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics & Automation” (IERA) goes to Swiss deep-tech company Verity for its fully autonomous indoor drone system. The aerial robots help in the logistics and retail sector, continuously keeping track of inventory without GPS or human intervention. The drones autonomously navigate aisles and scan barcodes before returning to charging stations. Across deployed fleets, a centralized cloud-based platform ensures continuous learning and optimization of performance.

The European Commission has presented a new package of measures aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on non-European suppliers for critical digital technologies. The European Technological Sovereignty Package focuses on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, open source and the digitalisation of the energy sector.

Europe’s leading robotics association, euRobotics, has issued an urgent call to action, warning that the continent risks missing a critical window to harness robotics for its most pressing real-world challenges, while public attention is distracted by viral humanoid demos. In its Vienna Statement, published Monday at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), euRobotics argues that the stakes extend well beyond factory floors. Food and energy security, an ageing population, large-scale reshoring of manufacturing, maintenance of critical infrastructure, and deep-sea emergency response are among the challenges the association identifies as genuinely requiring capable robotic systems — not optional enhancements, but essential tools. “Humanoids performing household tasks or dance routines are merely entertaining distractions from the real priorities.”