March 2026 Robotics Recap

Welcome back to "Robotics Recap," a monthly breakdown of all the news from Robotics 24/7. I’m your host, Tim Culverhouse, and it’s time to look back on a jam-packed March 2025.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast to get the latest episode of "Robotics Recap" as soon as it’s released on the last Wednesday of each month.

Catch up on our January and February episodes as well.

Today’s episode will dive into a wave of announcements coming out of major industry events like MODEX 2026 and NVIDIA GTC, alongside major funding rounds, partnerships and deployments.

Let’s get into it.

Get ready for MODEX 2026

March serves as the ramp-up month to MODEX 2026 here at Robotics 24/7, we have you covered. We're previewing the event with some articles like our show planner, alongside a Q&A with MHI CEO John Paxton.

Our March Special Focus Issue, titled “Mobile robots for the supply chain,” investigates various AMR form factor news that happened around the world. The Special Focus Issue also features 80 products that will be on display at MODEX 2026 in Atlanta. Make sure you download that SFI now. We'll also have a selection of print copies available at the Peerless Media booth in Atlanta.

Two features from the Special Focus Issue include an investigation in how HOJ Innovations launched an AMR division in late 2025 and also how BlueSword’s AMR and AGV lineup continues to grow across industries and countries.

You can check out two photo slideshows of these MODEX products that I just mentioned, featuring hardware and software, by clicking on the links here and here.

More MODEX news to get ready for the show next month. Swisslog and NORD already announced their presence at MODEX.

Swisslog will have new storage offerings in Atlanta, and NORD DRIVESYSTEMS will be touting new controllers at the show

Recapping NVIDIA GTC 2026

Now that we've looked ahead, let's take a look back.

In March, we had NVIDIA GTC 2026 in San Jose. Right before the show, ABB Robotics and NVIDIA partnered to deliver industrial-grade physical AI at scale. Now they say they're doing so by integrating NVIDIA Omniverse libraries into ABB’s RobotStudio.

At the show, NVIDIA and global robotics leaders announced how they plan to take physical AI to the real world.

Texas Instruments and NVIDIA announced a partnership that the organizations say will accelerate the safe deployment of humanoid robots.

The UK-based company Humanoid showcased its voice-activated multi-robot collaboration platform at GTC.

Universal Robots and Scale AI launched an imitation learning system that the companies say will accelerate AI model training.

Vention debuted its Rapid Operator AI platform for autonomous bin picking. And then e-con system showcased its edge AI multi-vision camera system at GTC and Embedded World 2026.

A lot of this news deals with physical AI. What this means is it's going really beyond traditional robotics. We're seeing voice-controlled, multi-robot collaboration, simulation-driven training and AI models understanding the physical world. A lot of interesting news came out of San Jose at this year's event related to robotics and general technology as a whole. It's always an exciting event that we get a chance to follow and cover here at Robotics 24/7, and we’re certainly keeping our eyes on more announcements coming after that show in the near future.

Manufacturing’s big U.S. bet

Let's take a look at the manufacturing industry, specifically in North America. After two big announcements in March 2026.

FANUC America announced a $90 million investment. Now, the company said it will be building a new robot manufacturing facility in Michigan.

Also, Machina Labs announced it raised over $100 million. They say that they'll use that funding to rethink manufacturing, utilizing AI-driven systems to produce parts faster and more flexibly.

Warehouse robotics news and notes

Let's take a look inside the warehouse now.

AutoStore, as part of its 2026 product reveal, made two announcements. They introduced the CubeVerse platform and also AutoStore intelligence, which the company said is harnessing AI to help make warehouse systems become fully integrated digital ecosystems.

Lots of news in the warehouse space again, as we get ready for MODEX 2026, so let's recap what happened in March.

Dexterity is building AI world models via the Foresight platform. The company says it's a new platform for robots to understand complex environments in trailer loading scenarios.

MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, alongside Mecalux, are developing an AI based simulator to optimize inventory across warehouses.

Ambi Robotics said it is enhancing perception with item level intelligence through the release of its AmbiVision platform.

The Numina Group is combining AMRs with voice picking. And at LogiMAT over in Germany. Brightpick announced the launch of the Gridpicker system.

And on the component side, AMD is expanding its AI hardware with the Ryzen AI Embedded processor.

Warehouse deployments to keep an eye on that happened in March 2026 include Corvus Robotics, which made two announcements this month. It's scaling its drone-based inventory systems with partnerships at Dermalogica and also Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.

Dexory announced an expansion into the United States, with a new headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. Also Kardex announced that its providing Sonepar USA with an AutoStore blueprint for distribution centers.

Autonomous robots in motion

Taking a look outside the warehouse, we have some autonomy in motion, with various autonomous systems in place across industries.

In the trucking side, PlusAI launched Super Drive 6.0, which it said is pushing commercial driverless trucks closer to large-scale deployments.

In food delivery and urban logistics, Serve Robotics announced a partnership with White Castle and Uber Eats that will roll out autonomous delivery robots for White Castle orders in certain markets.

And Coco Robotics introduced Coco 2.0, the next-gen delivery robots that it says are tailor-made for dense city environments.

In the healthcare industry, Able Innovations is deploying its robotic patient transport systems in hospitals. And Tampa General Hospital adopted the LIBERTY advanced vascular robotics system from Microbot Medical.

In the retail segment, Simbe achieved UL 3300 certification for its Tally autonomous retail robot. The company said it's the first retail robot to achieve that level of safety certification.

In the defense industry. Hidonix announced that it is shifting to defense and public safety away from consumer-facing robots. The deep technology company is moving away from commercial into defense and mission-critical applications.

Lastly, in the print space, HP Indigo is adding mobile robots to its portfolio, developed by MoviĜo Robotics. Now, HP will sell and support these AMRs to its print industry clients.

New and expanding robotics frontiers

It’s time for new frontiers. There's a tongue-in-cheek joke here that I hope you'll get by the end of this segment.

In the agriculture segment, AgriPass announced the development of AI systems for selective weed control that the company said will reduce chemical use for agriculture settings.

In food production and farming, MISUMI and Oishii Farms are partnering to show how robotics are transforming agriculture into a high tech indoor production system.

In the construction industry, we have the announcement of Westvue New York, which is a new skyscraper that's currently in the fundraising phase for Manhattan that will utilize advanced robotics and other technologies. Now this was made in conjunction with a partnership with the SkyeForge Alliance, which is a consortium of robotics, AI and tech companies that plan to use their technology as part of the building, development and maintenance of this prospective project.

Space, the final frontier. We had Logic Robotics announce that it's building a logistics operating system for space.

What all this means is that robots are continuing to move into new spaces and new segments, and we're seeing these different deployments across the world.

Robotics funding, mergers and acquisitions

From the financial side of things, Rhoda AI announced that the company has raised $450 million for its robot intelligence layer.

More construction funding news as KEWAZO secured another funding round for its heavy industry robotics technology.

Then, in mergers and acquisitions, Amazon acquired startup Fauna Robotics. That news broke at the end of March 2026, when Amazon added a humanoid robot developer underneath its umbrella.

Download and subscribe to Robotics Recap

Make sure you stick with Robotics 24/7 for all the news related to the robotics and automation industries. We're so glad that you could tune in for our March 2026 “Robotics Recap,” and we look forward to seeing you on the last Wednesday in April for our next episode. Thanks so much, and we'll see you next time.