Join host Steve Crowe and The Robot Report editorial team (Gene Demaitre, Mike Oitzman, and Brianna Wessling) for the annual end-of-year wrap-up. The team breaks down the most significant stories, trends, and market shifts that defined the robotics industry in 2025 and looks ahead to 2026.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Business Shake-ups: An analysis of iRobot entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ABB selling its mobile robot division to SoftBank.
- The Year of the Humanoid: A look at the $3.5B+ invested in humanoid companies and the rise of physical AI.
- Autonomous Systems: Updates on Waymo’s scaling challenges, Amazon’s 1M deployed robots, and the impact of autonomous systems in the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
- Industry Trends: The spin-out of Intel RealSense, the return of a national robotics strategy, and new approaches to home robotics (1X, Sunday, Weave).
Featured Guest Vignettes:
- John Santagate: On tote-to-man methodologies and multi-agent orchestration.
- Chris Matthieu (RealSense): On open-source brains for physical AI and the emergence of robot sports.
- Evan Helda (Nebius): On data pipelines, real-world data collection, and world models for training.
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Join host Steve Crowe and The Robot Report editorial team (Gene Demaitre, Mike Oitzman, and Brianna Wessling) for the annual end-of-year wrap-up. The team breaks down the most significant stories, trends, and market shifts that defined the robotics industry in 2025 and looks ahead to 2026.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Business Shake-ups: An analysis of iRobot entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ABB selling its mobile robot division to SoftBank.
- The Year of the Humanoid: A look at the $3.5B+ invested in humanoid companies and the rise of physical AI.
- Autonomous Systems: Updates on Waymo’s scaling challenges, Amazon’s 1M deployed robots, and the impact of autonomous systems in the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
- Industry Trends: The spin-out of Intel RealSense, the return of a national robotics strategy, and new approaches to home robotics (1X, Sunday, Weave).
Featured Guest Vignettes:
- John Santagate: On tote-to-man methodologies and multi-agent orchestration.
- Chris Matthieu (RealSense): On open-source brains for physical AI and the emergence of robot sports.
- Evan Helda (Nebius): On data pipelines, real-world data collection, and world models for training.
From Teleoperation to Autonomy: Inside Boston Dynamics' Atlas Training
The Robot Report Podcast
1 hour 5 minutes
3 months ago
From Teleoperation to Autonomy: Inside Boston Dynamics' Atlas Training
On the show today, Scott Kuindersma, VP of Robotics Research at Boston Dynamics, discusses the development and testing of large behavior models (LBMs) for Atlas, a humanoid robot. The Boston Dynamics team collected 20 hours of teleoperation data to train LBMs, which generalize manipulation tasks.
They demonstrated this with Atlas performing bi-manual manipulation tasks, such as picking and placing Spot parts. The process involves data collection, annotation, model training, and evaluation.
Kuindersma highlighted the importance of simulation data and human demonstration data.
Future plans include testing Atlas in Hyundai facilities and exploring AI-centric results to enhance humanoid manipulation and dynamic behaviors.
Boston Dynamics is planning to take Atlas to some Hyundai facilities this year.
The Robot Report Podcast
Join host Steve Crowe and The Robot Report editorial team (Gene Demaitre, Mike Oitzman, and Brianna Wessling) for the annual end-of-year wrap-up. The team breaks down the most significant stories, trends, and market shifts that defined the robotics industry in 2025 and looks ahead to 2026.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Business Shake-ups: An analysis of iRobot entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ABB selling its mobile robot division to SoftBank.
- The Year of the Humanoid: A look at the $3.5B+ invested in humanoid companies and the rise of physical AI.
- Autonomous Systems: Updates on Waymo’s scaling challenges, Amazon’s 1M deployed robots, and the impact of autonomous systems in the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.
- Industry Trends: The spin-out of Intel RealSense, the return of a national robotics strategy, and new approaches to home robotics (1X, Sunday, Weave).
Featured Guest Vignettes:
- John Santagate: On tote-to-man methodologies and multi-agent orchestration.
- Chris Matthieu (RealSense): On open-source brains for physical AI and the emergence of robot sports.
- Evan Helda (Nebius): On data pipelines, real-world data collection, and world models for training.
