OpenAI plans a humanoid robot, SoftBank weighs $30B Allied Universal deal, and more - Robotics Brief #91

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Until now, our newsletters were assembled automatically: the news assigned to each newsletter went into a simple template. From this edition, our small team, Maiko, Rene and Stefan, edits every edition so it reads as one storyline: related news together, the important stories explained, the rest kept short. We still use AI tooling throughout, and we decide what goes in and how it is told.

In this edition, covering 15 to 22 October:

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company will build a humanoid robot and expects to show a demo in 2027.
• SoftBank Group is weighing a purchase of Allied Universal that could value the security company and its debt at about $30 billion, linked to Masayoshi Son's plans for security robots.
• Eka Robotics raised $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation, and Reliable Robotics added $115 million to its Series D.

Humanoid robots

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company will build a humanoid robot and expects to show a demo in 2027. OpenAI is hiring for robotics roles in machine intelligence, motion control, hardware and manufacturing, with an initial focus on helping skilled workers build infrastructure. OpenAI

Samsung Electronics is testing a bipedal humanoid robot for manufacturing and logistics work at its research campus in Seoul, JoongAng Ilbo reports. The company is considering showing it at CES 2027 and plans to prove its robotics technology in industrial settings before moving to household and service robots. Samsung

AGCO will pilot Agility Robotics' Digit humanoid robot at its manufacturing plant in Hesston, Kansas, starting in 2027. The robot will sort and stack parts and place totes into storage. AGCO says the robots will assist employees with repetitive and physically demanding work rather than replace them. AGCO and Agility Robotics

Germany's Agile Robots plans to produce 1,000 to 2,000 small humanoid robots with NVIDIA next year. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said Europe's engineering expertise gives the region an advantage in physical AI and robotics. NVIDIA added Agile Robots' Agile ONE SN humanoid reference platform to its Isaac open robotics platform; the system uses Isaac GR00T and Jetson Thor, with planned integration of the Halos safety stack. NVIDIA also introduced Isaac OS, Isaac Lab 3.0, new datasets and open source workflows for robot training, simulation and deployment. Agile Robots · NVIDIA Isaac

YYForce plans to develop Workforce OS, a hardware agnostic robotics platform using NVIDIA Jetson, RTX, Project GR00T, Isaac Sim, Isaac ROS and TensorRT. It plans phased deployments in hospitality, including integrations with Unitree humanoid robots, starting with concierge services and moving on to mobile manipulation, banquet operations and facility maintenance. YYForce

After their 14 October launch event, FF EAI Robotics and Faraday Future introduced the FF Nova humanoid robot for developers in the US at $2,490, in an invitation only release. They also launched the $299 FF Nova Mini education robot, a $499 curriculum and Physical AI education and reinforcement learning programs for developers and schools. RoboParty launched RP1, a full stack open source humanoid platform with hardware designs, actuators, control systems, software, simulation tools and training resources, after unveiling it at IROS 2026. FF Nova · RoboParty

The parts suppliers are growing too. YITA, founded in May 2026, raised more than RMB 100 million in seed and seed plus funding from Galbot, Fourier, Matrix Partners China, CCB International, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital and the L2F founder fund for force controlled robotic arms and joint modules for humanoid robots. Suzhou based Jodell Robotics, which has an industrial investment from Midea Group, showed its Mozart five finger dexterous hand, visuo tactile sensors and a data acquisition kit at CIIF in Shanghai. YITA · Jodell Robotics

Shenzhen based DexForce trains humanoid robots in virtual environments and transfers the results to physical machines; CEO Jia Kui says this cuts the cost of collecting real world data. DexForce runs humanoid robots at malls and tourist sites in more than 15 Chinese cities. In the US, Rareview Capital and Tuttle Capital Management launched HOID, an actively managed ETF that invests in companies developing humanoid robots and related technologies. DexForce · HOID ETF

Physical AI models and data

Nebius open sourced Physical AI Workbench on GitHub, a framework with agents for data generation, simulation, training and evaluation, built with NVIDIA. Customers report up to 40% less engineering time. A collaboration with Sereact supports robot training for warehouse and industrial tasks. Nebius

Sereact also signed a partnership with Teradyne Robotics in Berlin to run its Cortex physical AI platform on Universal Robots arms for returns handling, piece picking and replenishment. The companies say dual arm systems already work at Zalando fulfillment centers in Germany and Poland through CEVA Logistics. Teradyne and Sereact

Eka Robotics closed a $150 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and F Prime, at a $1.45 billion post money valuation. Founded by MIT professor Pulkit Agrawal and former Google DeepMind researcher Tuomas Haarnoja, it develops a force sensing gripper and a vision force action model, tested in industrial pick and place and wire manipulation. San Francisco based Dream Labs raised $90 million in seed funding led by B Capital and launched Dream API, which turns camera feeds and plain English instructions into motor commands for robots from different manufacturers. Eka Robotics · Dream Labs

Neura Robotics is working with Austria's NXAI on a memory component for its Neuron AI, based on NXAI's xLSTM architecture; NXAI will also offer its own xLSTM model on Neura's Neuraverse platform. Encord released EMG-1, an open dataset of more than 300 hours of muscle signal and first person video recordings, and says the combination cut fingertip tracking error by 25% compared with video alone. Neura and NXAI · Encord

Generative Bionics plans three Physical AI data facilities, starting with a 5,000 square metre hub in Italy due to open by the fourth quarter of 2027, with AMD Helios computing for robot data processing, digital twin simulation and model training. Generative Bionics

Autonomous driving and delivery

Bolt selected the NVIDIA Alpamayo Stack for its European autonomous ride hailing program with Lucid. It is due to start in Madrid in 2027, subject to regulatory approval, and targets at least 25,000 vehicles. Volvo Cars will use NVIDIA Hyperion, Halos OS and Alpamayo Stack software to support automated driving in future vehicles. TIER IV and the Technical University of Munich will integrate NVIDIA Hyperion, including DRIVE AGX Thor and the Halos safety system, into Autoware based Level 4 autonomous driving projects in Germany, for research and testing of autonomous public transport and robotaxi applications. Element Fleet Management will run fleet operations, maintenance and charging for Waymo's planned 2028 launch in Toronto, Waymo's first in Canada. Bolt · Volvo Cars · TIER IV and TUM · Waymo

In London, about 15 protesters gathered outside Wayve's offices over safety, congestion and jobs in its supervised driverless taxi trials with Uber. Wayve said it takes a phased approach with Transport for London, which said automated passenger services need its consent. Wayve

Volkswagen Group, Porsche and CARIAD are building a shared data system for autonomous vehicle development with Voxel51, NVIDIA and Microsoft Azure, which they expect to cut repeated physical test drives by up to 90% and AI regression test cycles by up to 85%. General Motors targets cutting vehicle development from four to five years to about two years with AI, simulation and concurrent engineering. GM also plans an OnStar AI assistant for the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq through an over the air update and eyes off highway driving with the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. Scania opened a SEK 975 million, 85 hectare proving ground in Södertälje, Sweden, for testing electrification, autonomous systems and safety. Volkswagen · General Motors · Scania

Avride's delivery robots will fulfill eligible Grubhub orders from the Wonder food hall and other restaurants in Philadelphia, and the expansion also covers Hoboken, Arlington County and a larger area in Jersey City. Avride

Defense

Taiwan's navy and coast guard are buying 292 MQ-35A V-BAT surveillance drones from Shield AI. The coast guard has received 12, and the navy plans to buy 280 under a four year NT$36 billion program. Taiwan could become the largest V-BAT operator outside the United States. Shield AI

Australia will equip Anduril's autonomous Ghost Shark submarines with up to 12 sea mines, special forces equipment and Altius aerial drones, after secret trials. Germany told Boeing it will not directly buy the MQ-28 Ghost Bat for its collaborative combat aircraft program, though the aircraft could still compete in a wider selection. Saab, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration and the Swedish Armed Forces launched a large uncrewed underwater vehicle demonstrator after sea trials. Ghost Shark · Ghost Bat · Saab

Helsing is negotiating a minority stake in Dutch drone maker Destinus at a valuation of about $6.7 billion, Bloomberg reports; no agreement has been finalized. The US Navy raised the five year ceiling of Gecko Robotics' AI inspection and repair contract from $71 million to $300 million, extending it from 18 Pacific Fleet ships to the Atlantic Surface Fleet. Helsing · Gecko Robotics

Ukraine's Defense Forces and NATO's Allied Command Transformation developed two AI models, one forecasting enemy drone use near the line of contact and one generating options for artillery operations; one prototype was handed to Ukraine for testing. Arbe introduced Gryphon, a 4D imaging radar for unmanned ground vehicles that works in dust, darkness and poor weather. Ukraine and NATO · Arbe

Autonomous flight

Reliable Robotics raised another $115 million, $90 million in equity and a $25 million Silicon Valley Bank loan, bringing its Series D to $275 million and its valuation above $1 billion. The money goes to fleet expansion, production, hiring and FAA certification. Israel based High Lander reached $30 million in total funding, with more investment from EDGE Group, for US and international growth and defense and homeland security work. NASA awarded AstraQua a $1,274,990 Phase II contract for AstraSense, health monitoring for electric and hybrid electric aircraft. Reliable Robotics · High Lander · AstraQua

Security, construction and deals

SoftBank Group is considering buying US security services company Allied Universal in a deal that could value it and its debt at about $30 billion. The preliminary talks are linked to Masayoshi Son's plans for AI powered robots in security work. SoftBank

ICON raised a $200 million Series D led jointly by Baillie Gifford and funds managed by BlackRock to manufacture its multistory Titan printing system and build an R&D facility in Austin. Origin raised $20 million from Accel and Zacua Ventures and plans to deploy 150 construction robots by the end of 2027 and take its OG-1 robot beyond wall finishing. ICON · Origin

Farms, forests, kitchens and cleaning

PANDAG is showing its G1 autonomous commercial mower at EQUIP EXPO 2026 in Louisville, 21 to 23 October. The platform combines LiDAR, AI vision, RTK and 4G and covers up to 12 acres a day. Kodama raised a $7 million seed round led by Konvoy Ventures and Breakwater Ventures; its remotely supervised logging machines moved more than 100,000 tons of timber in six months. BloomX raised a $13 million Series A led by the Elah Fund for robotic pollination of blueberry and avocado crops. PANDAG · Kodama · BloomX

Carbon Robotics cut jobs across several departments in the US and abroad over economic conditions. It did not say how many and says it employs 275 people. Carbon Robotics

Chef Robotics says its robot arms have handled more than 120 million food servings, and that they helped Café Spice reach 30 trays per minute and cut excess food by 67%. Ganiga raised €1.5 million led by Vivenda for HooolyFood, a computer vision platform that measures food waste. Chef Robotics · Ganiga

Shanghai startup Jingji Intelligent, founded in September, raised tens of millions of RMB in seed funding for robots that clean vertical surfaces, countertops and sanitary fixtures. Jammu based URC Robotics developed the X40 floor cleaning robot for offices, hospitals and malls, with 6 to 8 hours of operating time. Jingji Intelligent · URC Robotics

Also

Zurich based robotics startup Enact Intelligence raised a $30 million pre seed round from Redalpine, Notion Capital and Firstminute Capital, with backing from Yann LeCun and Arthur Mensch. Enact Intelligence

LG Innotek is working with NVIDIA on sensing for physical AI and robotics; at GTC Berlin it showed a 3 megapixel camera module and a multi modal vision system for NVIDIA's Holoscan Sensor Bridge. LG Innotek

Körber is taking a stake in NAiSE, whose software coordinates automated guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots and manually driven industrial trucks in warehouses and factories. Körber and NAiSE

TCS was due to present its Bidirectional Haptic Feedback System for robotic surgery, which gives surgeons tactile feedback, at The MedTech Conference in Boston on 19 October. TCS