The Venturist released Europe's Robotics 65, a selection of best startups in this space (probably all are hiring as well).

Selection excluded publicly listed and acquired companies, as well as defence-only companies (which left out Helsing and STARK for example). Startups also had to have a significant European foothold.

Also attached a very interesting graphics on the number of robots installed worldwide in production. Expectedly, China is on a tear but interestingly, Europe has more than twice as many robots installed as the US does.

Some interesting findings:

1. Industry and logistics are still the main market. Roughly one in five companies focuses primarily on factory or warehouse automation.
2. Much of the opportunity is in brownfield robotics. Multiple startups retrofit existing equipment with their technology rather than wait for customers to replace their physical capital.
3. Investors’ appetite to go all-in has increased. The database records multiple nine-digit funding rounds for startups founded as recently as 2024, and eight-digit rounds for companies still establishing commercial traction.
4. Startups are increasingly selling outcomes. Rather than have customers buy the hardware and take responsibility for operating it, vendors run the robots themselves and bill monthly, per hour or per project. This brings robotics companies into direct competition with incumbent service providers, not only other robotics companies.
5. AI attacks what used to be robotics’ greatest weakness: flexibility. Historically, robots worked best in highly controlled environments because they struggled when the goalposts move, which is why industrial robotics concentrated in sectors like automotive manufacturing. Multiple companies in the selection approach the issue from intelligence layer, making robotics more adaptable and cheaper to deploy.
6. General-purpose robots are a huge new trend. Among the 46 companies founded before 2021, only two (4%) fall into the humanoid or general-purpose category. Among the 19 founded in 2021 or later, eight (42%) do, six of them founded in 2024–25.
7. Robotics will aid humans in most categories, not replace them. Healthcare and inspection together account for nearly a third of the selection. Many of these companies amplify human efficacy rather than replace it, allowing more precise work or keeping people out of hazardous environments. They vastly de-risk human jobs.
8. Big hubs cluster close to universities. Zurich counts eight companies in the selection, all with direct ETH lineage, usually through spin-offs. Other companies have roots in TU München, EPFL, Oxford, TU Eindhoven, TU Dresden and Stuttgart.
9. Consumer market is absent for now. Vast majority of the database companies sell to businesses, government, labs, hospitals, etc. Their focus is high-value B2B tasks with clear ROI, rather than discretionary consumer ownership.
10. General-purpose robots are being aimed at very specific customers. Most humanoid and general-purpose companies in the selection actually aim at specific customers, for example logistics and manufacturing. The robotics industry may be moving towards general-purpose machines, but commercialisation remains highly vertical.

From left to right, their names are: Strobo Gonzales, Maria Socket, & Digital Tome III

Put Quaddle on a patch of gravel and just wanted to see it walk. Its IMU (gyroscope + accelerometer) was trying to correct for the uneven ground in real time, but it immediately started wobbling — loose gravel is apparently brutal for a quadruped's balance.

What's the funniest robot-vs-terrain fail you've seen?

I'm not a professional in either robotics/autonomous vehicles or motorsport/rallying, but I encounter quite a bit of both in the wild and it seems like the Grand Challenge was really important to the development of:

Autonomous pathing and pathfinding (SLAM), both for passenger vehicles and for more specialized robots that work in factories and warehouses as well as for a growing minority of drones

Modern LiDAR systems

Google's entire X ecosystem

It seems to me like a blue Touareg with a Red Bull livery has contributed almost as much to robotics and AI navigation as a huge chunk of (say) the American space program.

It was awesome!

Delivery robot dancing in front of street musician

youtube olamfilm

Police have seized a robot in Germany after it allegedly touched a 16-year-old girl's buttocks and 'made thrusting motions against her'.

The 1.2m tall red and gold automaton is believed to have approached the teenager from behind when she was standing with a group of friends.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16202791/police-seize-robot-gropes-girl-sexual-assault-livestreamed.html

I was supposed to be building my Nitro suit for a Halloween party I’m going to and I’m running out of time. Instead, I got so mad that I don’t have random robotic arms around me, besides the arms of my Mimic/Ultron so I took this vac and whatever random scrap robot part (as you can clearly see my room is cluttered with) to build this guy.

I happened to really like Dum-E so eventually I plan to finalize this and make him look cooler with an omnidirectional platform, and of course I have to build U now. I really didn’t expect this to even work, I thought gravity would ruin the arm when he moves fast but thankfully not.

I’m gonna link him to the A.I. that all my other bots and suit is using, just stripping him of the voice so he can actually follow orders

Been working on a compact rear projection system, thought you might find it interesting

Fun film I made where robots play a game of dodgeball. You can watch the whole thing here.

It was all rendered in Unreal Engine and animated in Autodesk Maya for anyone interested. Hope you enjoy!

If anyone cares, here is a full write up of the process:
https://www.therookies.co/entries/42427

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a morphing robot that can operate both as a drone and as a wheeled ground robot, inspired by the ATMO project: https://github.com/mandralis/ATMO.

The robot will fly to a building, land, and then navigate autonomously on the ground using ROS 2. I'm currently designing the four-wheel ground locomotion system.

The estimated total robot weight is around 5–11 kg, but weight is a critical factor because the robot must also fly. Any additional motors, gearboxes, transmissions, and supporting structures affect the overall flight weight and potentially the flight time.

The ground environment will mainly be smooth indoor ceramic floors, such as university hallways. The robot should perform accurate 90° and 180° turns, including in-place turns when necessary.

I'm considering two drivetrain configurations:

Option 1: Four motors

• One geared DC motor per wheel.
• Four wheel encoders.
• Independent wheel-speed control using PID.

Option 2: Two motors

• One motor drives both wheels on the left side.
• One motor drives both wheels on the right side.
• Mechanical power transmission to the second wheel on each side using gears, belts, or another lightweight mechanism.

The chassis and some drivetrain components will be 3D-printed.

My main goal is to find a good balance between minimum weight, mechanical simplicity, energy efficiency, and reliable ground odometry.

I'd appreciate advice on the following:

1. For a flying-ground morphing robot, would you recommend two motors driving four wheels or four independent wheel motors? How significant is the weight difference in practice?
2. Would four independent wheel encoders meaningfully improve odometry accuracy, or would lateral wheel slip in a four-wheel skid-steer configuration dominate the error?
3. How significant is wheel scrub during in-place turns on smooth ceramic floors, and how can it be minimized?
4. What lightweight wheel and transmission options would you recommend for a 5–11 kg robot that must also fly?
5. Would a belt transmission, gears, or another mechanism be a good choice for driving two wheels from one motor?
6. What is the best practical approach to calibrating skid-steer odometry using wheel encoders and an IMU in ROS 2?
7. Are there any papers, open-source projects, or real-world examples of morphing aerial-ground robots that I should study?

I'm particularly interested in practical experience with lightweight mechanisms and the trade-offs between drivetrain weight, ground mobility, and flight performance.

Thanks!

Youtube animation. olamfilm

I made fork-tiped arrows in an attempt to defend myself from A.I. robots.

The idea behind the fork arrow is that as the spinning arrow enters the robot past the firewall, the fork tines will spread out, severing the motherboard and mainframe.

My results: this robot (computer monitor) is indestructible. Multiple arrow points failed. If A.I. robots are built as well as old computer monitors, we are screwed.

How should be try attacking the robot next?

: )

https://youtu.be/KpvBlw8OAYQ