July 2026 Robotics Recap

Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to “Robotics Recap,” a monthly breakdown of all the news from Robotics 24/7 at Peerless Media. I'm your host, Tim Culverhouse, Editorial Director of Robotics 24/7, and it's time to look back at all the robotics and automation news from July 2026.

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on whatever medium you listen to it, and also get the latest episode of "Robotics Recap" as soon as it's released. Our release cadence is the last Wednesday of each month.

We’ve entered the second half of 2026, so don’t forget to catch up on our first five editions of the "Robotics Recap" podcast from:

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• And June

June’s “Robotics Recap” examined all of our Automate 2026 coverage with recaps and observations from the show in Chicago. This episode tackles all the news and notes from around the robotics world since Automate, including a plethora of funding and deployment articles.

In July, we released our latest Special Focus Issue, “The inner workings of robots: Components and sensors,” which you can read here.

And, we’re excited for the next roundtable webinar on Robotics 24/7. Join WiBotic and Logic Robotics for our program, “Robots in dull, dirty and dangerous environments,” on August 12. Register today.

Now, without any further ado, let's get into our podcast.

July 2026 robotics funding, mergers and acquisitions news

We kick off the July 2026 “Robotics Recap” with news from funding, mergers and acquisitions. Comau extended its intralogistics platform with its acquisition of Invent Smart Intralogistics Solutions.

Luxonis announced a $14 million Series A round.

Humanoid from the United Kingdom raised $152 million, giving it a $1.35 billion post-money valuation.

In the drone world, JFB and XTEND announced a merger at $1.5 billion.

TerraFirma announced a $115 million funding round that the company says will use to accelerate construction on Earth and in aerospace.

And finally, UNIT AI raised $12 million to scale its AI-powered e-commerce fulfillment and returns platform.

Deployments and expanded partnerships from July 2026

Now, let's move on to deployment and expanded partnership news from July 2026.

Wing and Walmart added seven new markets for their drone delivery service across the United States.

EAIGLE and PortCity announced a partnership that will scale AI native gate and yard automation across high-throughput, high-pace port facilities.

Robust.AI announced a deployment at the e-commerce fulfillment provider ShipLab.

ABB Robotics and Roche Diagnostics announced a partnership that will bring physical AI to laboratory automation.

Sereact scaled its AI-powered robotics deployment with Arvato, doing so across three sites in Europe and the United States.

Exol announced that it will integrate GreyOrange’s GreyMatter advanced intelligent orchestration platform across its robotics-fulfillment-as-a-service network.

SVT Robotics said that it's surpassed 4 billion transactions on its SOFTBOT platform.

In medical robotics news, KARL STORZ said that it's expanding its robotics ecosystem through strategic US partnerships.

And mimic robotics announced the introduction of FLUX-mimic, which it says will bring frontier Video-Action Models to factory floors, including automotive manufacturer Audi.

AI and physical AI news from July 2026

Let's take a look at some artificial intelligence and physical AI news from around the robotics and automation world from July 2026.

Let's start with new research from Gartner. Gartner's Supply Chain said that AI ranks among the top supply chain technology trends so far for 2026.

Robbyant launched the LingBot-VA 2.0 embodied native world action model.

ABB Robotics in the news again, this time adding a new autonomous forklift to its AI-powered Visual SLAM AMR portfolio.

Apptronik unveiled the Apollo 2 humanoid robot and also announced the opening of Robot Park, which it will use for data collection and robot training in Texas.

Cadence penned an article titled “The future of CFD is connected, automated, and AI-enabled.” The organization said that its AI-powered tools, especially in simulation, help aerospace and automotive design.

There was an in-depth examination of Festo's Gripper AI technology and its AI-based picking platform.

Beckhoff Automation and Dexterity opened their doors to collaborate on how Beckhoff's EtherCAT and controllers power Dexterity's Mech “superhumanoid” robot. You can read those two articles in our July Special Focus Issue.

Two pieces of news from NVIDIA this month. First, Nvidia Agent Toolkit expands with new Omniverse libraries. And then NVIDIA also added new Jetson Thor computers that the company said will help advance mainstream robotics and edge AI.

At AAI 2026, AMD made a trio of physical AI announcements, including new processors.

And Wilder X unveiled a proposed machine-side governance boundary for physical AI.

Robotics education and startups

Now, let's take a look at some content related to education, academia and startups from around the robotics world in July 2026.

Foxglove announced the speaker lineup for Actuate 2026, its annual robotics developer conference that will take place in San Francisco.

The University of Rhode Island opened its new Ocean Robotics Laboratory on its Narragansett Bay campus.

Viam launched the free robotics course, Viam 101, that the company said helps engineers scale robotics applications.

In Brooklyn, New York, we're seeing a resurgence as logistics firms, robotics startups, and D2C brands are fueling a retail tech hub called Industry City.

And DigiKey, alongside Arduino, unveiled the Dream Lab Challenge. That challenge is open to robotics developers and comes with $20,000 available in prizes.

Safety & cybersecurity news in the robotics industry

It’s time now for some headlines related to safety and cybersecurity with robotics and automation. First, a new report from Interact Analysis, titled “How suppliers are preparing for new robot safety standards,” examines what that means for these organizations as new safety standards are on the horizon.

Sonair unveiled what it calls the world's first safety-certified 3D ultrasonic sensor for human-robot collaboration. That's ADAR.

Yaskawa said that it has achieved ISO 27001 certification for its robot platform.

And Cimcorp came out with a new report that found growing customer demand for cybersecurity in distribution center automation.

New robots and software

Now we'll take a look at some new robots and software from around the world in July 2026. AGIBOT announced that it has rolled off the 15,000th robot from its production line.

Xpanner introduced the X1 panel lift, which the company said is an intelligent automation system for solar panel installation.

Swisslog introduced the FastMove system, which is a monorail system for pallet transport.

And Roboteon said that it's expanded its fleet management and orchestration capabilities for unified material flows on its platform.

Looking ahead for Robotics 24/7

That'll wrap up our July 2026 “Robotics Recap” podcast. Don't forget, on August 12th, you can join Robotics 24/7 for our next roundtable webinar titled, “Robots in dull, dirty and dangerous environments.” We hope to have you as part of that program.

And on September 16th, Robotics 24/7 will host the fifth annual Robotics Applications Conference, also known as RAC. More details, including timing, speakers and the final agenda of RAC 26 will be announced very soon.

Thank you once again for tuning in to the July 2026 episode of “Robotics Recap.” Don't forget, you can download and subscribe to “Robotics Recap” on the podcast platform of your choosing. We look forward to seeing you again at the end of August as we take a look at more news and notes from around the robotics and automation space.

This is Tim Culverhouse, Editorial Director of Robotics 24/7. Thank you again for listening, and we'll see you in August for the next “Robotics Recap.”