Helping robots fit into the human workplace | MIT News

Seaside Success Stories — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 10:20:09 +0000

“In these environments, what really determines success is how the overall system performs,” explains Anthony Jules ’92, SM ’92, who co-founded the company with MIT Professor Emeritus Rodney Brooks. “The robot does some of the work, the people do some of the work, and the backend systems do some of the work. It’s that combination that determines how well your system performs. We believe it’s really important that people have an appropriate level of agency and input so that they’re always moving the system forward.”

Collaborative robots

Brooks was a faculty member at MIT from 1984 until 2010 and served as the director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) from 1997 until 2007. While at MIT, he co-founded iRobot, which invented the popular Roomba vacuum and went public in 2005. Later, he co-founded the company Rethink Robotics, which also designed collaborative robots.

Jules met Brooks as a graduate student at CSAIL in the 1990s. The two never worked together, but their labs were on the same floor. The pair kept in touch after Jules graduated and co-founded the company Sapient, which went public before being acquired by Publicis in 2015.

In 2019, Brooks bumped into Jules at a robotics conference. He told Jules he was thinking of starting a robotics software company, which he compared to a video game engine for training robots. Robust AI was founded later that year.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused the founders to shift to creating robots that could autonomously disinfect surfaces, but when it was discovered that Covid-19 was not transmitted via surfaces, they had to pivot again.

“That forced us to decide how to use this technology we had been building, which was really about helping robots understand the world more fully,” Jules recalls. “Long story short, I said to Rodney, ‘I have an idea. You’re going to love it and you’re going to hate it. You’re going to love it because it’s solving problems for customers that we’ve been hearing about, and you’re going to hate it because we have to build hardware.”

The founders had been interviewing potential customers for years through Robust AI’s early pivots. They finally decided on logistics and manufacturing as the industries to target early on.

“When people think about automation in factories, they think about pictures of the 5 percent that are fully automated with $50 to $200 million dollar systems,” says Jules, who now serves as Robust AI’s chief innovation officer. “They don’t think about the vast majority of factories that aren’t automated at all. These factories don’t even have a conveyor belt. They are not going to tear everything out and replace it with a $200 million system.”

Robust AI’s robots can be phased into operations as needed and offer several workflows for customers. In one workflow, the robot can guide human workers to specific spaces to retrieve items. In another it can follow humans to important spots for loading. The primary workflows involve Carter robots moving things from one place to another, often in large warehouses or factories, where they say human workers can walk on average 30,000 steps a day.

“These are huge spaces, so a person might load the robot with things and then need to bring them to another station, but that could be 400 feet away,” says, Brooks, Robust AI’s chief technology officer. “Now the person can just say ‘done’ and the robot brings it instead. How the robots are integrated into the workspace is entirely up to the customer.”

Getting work done

Leila Takayama, Robust AI’s vice president of human robot interaction, recently discovered a peer-reviewed study of robots in hospitals, which were used to do things like gather dishes, move sheets, and transport other equipment. The researchers discovered that, in many hospitals, a large number of robots were turned off and against the walls. The nurses said they broke.

“What really happened was the nurses were rushing with a patient on a gurney, and the robot sees them in the hallway and stops dead, and they couldn’t get the gurney around them,” Brooks says. “The robots were getting in the way of nurses’ primary tasks.”

Robust AI’s approach to technology development is to understand workers’ primary tasks deeply and build features that accelerate those tasks, whether a human or a robot is doing them.

“We let humans do what humans are good at in the physical world, which we’ve had millions of years of evolution to get good at, and have the digital system respond to that and provide us with all the things that it is good at,” Brooks explains.

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Brand Case Shows Why “Sinister” NDAs Must Be Reformed

Seaside Success Stories — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 10:19:33 +0000

Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday (Alamy)

3 min read12 November

The conviction of Russell Brand should lead to major reform of how gagging orders are used, the chair of the culture committee has told PoliticsHome.

Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP for Gosport, said non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are being used in “sinister” ways in the media and entertainment industries, “to stop people coming forward with legitimate concerns”.

Following a series of scandals involving high-profile figures in recent years, a new body was set up to protect workers in the creative sectors, the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). However, there are fears that the widespread use of NDAs is still preventing whistleblowers from coming forward.

Speaking on The Rundown podcast by PoliticsHome, Dinenage said people who take up jobs in TV and film are sometimes asked to sign confidentiality clauses, which then stop them from speaking out about mistreatment.

On Monday, entertainer Brand was sentenced to over 10 years in prison for one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault after an investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.

A day later, entertainer David Walliams was revealed as the celebrity who had tried to get a legal injunction to prevent The Guardian and ITV from publishing stories accusing him of sexual misconduct and grooming. He denies any wrongdoing.

There are now renewed discussions about the difficulties facing people in the creative industries in reporting mistreatment, with Dinenage telling PoliticsHome: “The issue that I’ve raised in the chamber is around the use of NDAs and confidentiality clauses.”

“I’m very concerned about this,” the committee chair said.

“It just feels to me that they are frequently being used in the media and entertainment industry in particular to stop people coming forward with legitimate concerns. Workers way too often feel forced to sign them to secure employment, but that then silences them from reporting potentially criminal or unlawful misconduct.”

She said the CIISA, which last month set up a new independent online reporting service, has warned that gagging orders will prevent people from bringing concerns to them.

“That’s properly sinister, isn’t it?” Dinenage added. “Gagging potential victims from speaking out through an NDA is a really unpleasant world to be living in.”

The government has said it will look again at exemptions for the way NDAs are used in light of recent events, but the Tory MP said she would like to see changes in the employment rights bill being brought forward to “reflect the concerns that this case has raised”.

“The fact is we’re in a situation where the law should protect victims, not shield wrongdoing.

“And yet, in so many cases, the law is being used to further offending behaviour, to intimidate victims, in some cases, just put a bit of sand in the wheels of investigative journalists who are trying to find out information to slow them down a bit, stack up a load of money against them to make it unbelievably expensive to pursue what they’re doing.

“This is all wrong, isn’t it?

“And this is where I think now is a unique opportunity for government and others to look at how this is working and pull out the bits that are just enabling wrongdoing and not protecting victims.”

Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Olivia Bailey, has urged ministers to extend the ban on misuse of NDAs so it applies to freelancers, volunteers, and fans, not just employees. The government should also extend other workplace protections and strengthen the industry regulator, the Labour MP argued in a piece for The House.

The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Rundown, or search for ‘PoliticsHome’ wherever you get your podcasts.

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Hasbro’s Sixth Wall, Dynamic Creatures Partner to Bring Robotic Characters to Theme Parks

Seaside Success Stories — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 10:18:50 +0000

Insider Brief

Hasbro’s Sixth Wall Studio and Dynamic Creatures are partnering to develop interactive robotic characters that can greet visitors, engage in conversations and remember previous encounters at theme parks and resorts.
The collaboration combines Sixth Wall’s AI character software with Dynamic Creatures’ SnowJay robotics platform, which coordinates movement, facial expressions, conversation and memory.
The companies are exploring applications in hotels, cruise ships and retail venues, with memory-enabled interactions subject to guest permissions and initial Sixth Wall applications focused on audiences ages 13 and older.

Hasbro’s Sixth Wall Studio and Dynamic Creatures are developing robots based on licensed characters that could greet visitors, interact with them and remember previous encounters at theme parks and resorts.

According to Dynamic Creatures, the partnership combines Sixth Wall’s AI software for managing character personalities and behavior with Dynamic Creatures’ mobile robots, which use movements, facial expressions and gestures to interact with people.

“Sixth Wall brings the character intelligence and creative framework,” Dynamic Creatures co-founder and CEO Marc Theermann said in the announcement. “We bring the physical expression and presence. Together, we want to make meeting a favorite character feel like the beginning of an ongoing relationship.”

Dynamic Creatures, which emerged from stealth in September 2026, develops custom robotic characters using existing robot platforms. The Boston company is also Boston Dynamics’ official hospitality and entertainment partner. Its SnowJay robotics AI platform coordinates how robots perceive their surroundings, move and behave, bringing together conversation, memory, facial expressions and animatronics to support interactions with visitors.

Sixth Wall, launched by Hasbro in June 2026, develops technology designed to keep licensed characters consistent with their established personalities, voices and stories. Its CharacterOS platform and Behavioral Licensing framework will be adapted for use in physical robots.

“Bringing a character to life means preserving the personality, voice, and story that fans love while opening up new ways to interact,” added Sixth Wall Studios CEO Roberta Thomson. “Our partnership with Dynamic Creatures takes that ambition into the physical world. We envision characters that can share an adventure with you while feeling unmistakably authentic from the first hello.”

Dynamic Creatures pointed to an example where a robotic character at a resort could welcome a guest, send them on a quest and ask about the adventure when they meet again. Beyond theme parks and resorts, the companies are looking at how characters could be put to use in hotels, cruise ships, retail destinations and other entertainment settings.

The companies said experiences involving memory would be developed around guest choice and clearly defined permissions, with specific arrangements determined for each venue. Initial applications involving Sixth Wall technology will focus on audiences ages 13 and older.

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The Best iPad to Buy (and Some to Avoid) in 2026: Air, Pro, Mini

Seaside Success Stories — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 10:15:48 +0000

Which Apple Pencil Should You Buy?

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The Apple Pencil is a must-have for any iPad owner who takes a lot of notes or likes to draw. (You can even use it to sign documents.) iPadOS also has handwriting support within certain search fields and apps (like Notes), so you don’t need to switch to the keyboard every time you want to type. Apple debuted a new Pencil in 2024, so now there are four options from which you can choose. Here are the key differences:

Apple Pencil (first gen) for $99: The first-generation Pencil is quite old but still functions well, offering pressure sensitivity (lines become thicker as you press down harder on the screen) and tilt sensitivity (for shading). Unlike the other two Apple Pencils, this one has a glossy finish instead of matte (if that matters), and it is also completely rounded, meaning it will roll off surfaces. It doesn’t feature magnets, so you can’t stick it to the tablet for safekeeping. It has a Lightning connector, so to charge it, you’ll have to remove the cap and plug it into the iPad’s charging port. If your iPad has a USB-C port, you can buy an adapter. It’s only compatible with the iPad (sixth gen and later), iPad Air (third gen), iPad Mini (fifth gen), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (first and second gen), iPad Pro 10.5-inch, and iPad Pro 9.7-inch.

Apple Pencil (USB-C) for $71: The USB-C Apple Pencil is a bit perplexing. It doesn’t come with pressure sensitivity, so it’s better suited for note-takers than artists. It can attach magnetically to the sides of an iPad, so you don’t need to find a place to store it. However, it doesn’t support wireless charging, so you’ll have to pair and charge it via USB-C. It supports Hover Mode, which allows you to preview what will happen before touching the display. This feature is exclusive to the select iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The USB-C Apple Pencil is compatible with iPad (10th gen and A16), iPad Air (fourth gen, fifth gen, M2, M3, and M4), iPad Mini (sixth gen), iPad Pro 11-inch (first gen and later, including M4), and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (third gen and later, including M4 and M5).

Apple Pencil (second-gen) for $129: The second-generation Apple Pencil has the same capabilities as the first-gen and USB-C versions, plus wireless pairing and charging (it’ll charge when it magnetically sticks to the top edge of supported iPads). It also adds a double-tap feature that lets you quickly switch between tools by tapping on the Apple Pencil twice. It’s compatible with the iPad Air (fourth and fifth gen), iPad Mini (sixth gen), iPad Pro 11-inch (first gen and later), and the 12.9-inch (third gen and later). Unfortunately, Apple officially discontinued it, so newer iPads—including the iPad Air (M2, M3, and M4) or iPad Pro (M4 and M5)—don’t support it.

Apple Pencil Pro for $99: Apple’s Pro Pencil is the most feature-packed of them all. It looks identical to the second-generation model, complete with a matte finish, but it also has a few new tricks. A “squeeze” feature opens up a tool palette, and a new haptic engine gives feedback as you squeeze. A built-in gyroscope sensor allows you to change the orientation of the tools as you twist them (for finer control), and it supports Apple’s Find My network to track the stylus if you lose it. It’s only compatible with the iPad Air (M2, M3, and M4), iPad Pro (M4 and M5), and seventh-gen iPad Mini. (C’mon, why isn’t it backward-compatible?)

Great iPad Accessories

iPad accessories are endless. Below, I’ve highlighted some of my favorites to round out your tablet experience. You can find even more options in our Best iPad Accessories guide.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Twelve South Curve Mini for $50: An iPad can be a great tool to use in conjunction with your MacBook or PC, but it needs a proper stand with many adjustments. The Curve Mini is simple, but it’s stable and attractive, especially in this Dune color that I sampled.

Zugu Case for $50+: This is my favorite folio case for the iPad for multiple reasons: It’s durable (complete with a rigid bumper), has a magnetized cover that stays shut, and has a flap that allows you to position the screen at eight angles. The case is magnetic, allowing you to stick it on the fridge securely. It’s also reasonably priced, comes in an array of colors, and has a spot for your Apple Pencil.

Satechi M1 Wireless Mouse for $25: We’re already big fans of Satechi’s accessories at WIRED, and this mouse didn’t disappoint. It has a comfortable ergonomic design, a sleek aluminum finish, and smooth scrolling. It also has a great battery life, with a built-in lithium-ion battery. I’ve been using it for the past four months and have yet to charge it.

Mageasy CoverBuddy Case (iPad Pro) for $70: You can magnetically connect your iPad to Apple’s Magic Keyboard case without having to remove the case each time, thanks to the CoverBuddy. It feels durable and doesn’t add too much bulk to the iPad. There’s also a slot for the Apple Pencil Pro or the USB-C version. The company also offers the CoverBuddy Lite for the iPad Air (M2).

Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Logitech Combo Touch (10th-gen) for $260: The Combo Touch (8/10, WIRED Recommends) comes with a built-in keyboard, trackpad, and kickstand, making it ideal for getting work done on your iPad. You can also easily remove the detachable keyboard when you don’t need it. The Combo Touch connects via Apple’s Smart Connector, meaning you never need to tinker with Bluetooth or bother charging it. It’s also available for the iPad Pro (M4) and M5 (although these add a bit of weight) and the iPad Air (M2).

Casetify Impact Screen Protector for $56: If you’re worried about damaging your iPad screen, I recommend this protector from Casetify. It’s super thin, has excellent touch sensitivity, and is mostly fingerprint-resistant (I’ve wiped off some smudges here and there). It’s painless to apply—the company supplies a microfiber cloth, a de-dusting sticker, and wet and dry wipes.

Paperlike Charcoal Folio Case for $70: Paperlike is known for its screen protector, but the company also offers a great case. It’s designed to feel like a sketchbook, complete with a polyester fabric cover that feels lightweight and high-quality. You can also prop up your iPad at two levels. This case doesn’t come with an Apple Pencil slot, but there is a large flap closure that keeps it from falling out. I tested the case using the iPad Air, but it’s also available for the iPad Pro (both sizes).

Twelve South HoverBar Duo 2.0 for $80: The HoverBar serves two purposes. You can mount it to the side of your bed, kitchen counter, or shelf (to view content comfortably and hands-free), or you can use the included stand at your desk. With the second-gen version, you can now remove the arm from the clamp and attach it directly to the stand, making it easier to swap between the two modes.

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MIT-led team receives funding to develop next-generation alternatives to modern weed killers | MIT News

Seaside Success Stories — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 10:14:22 +0000

MIT researchers will lead an up to $53 million effort, awarded by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as part of its STREAM (Systems for Tracking and Resilience in Efficient Agricultural-input Management) program, to develop next-generation weed killers that help farmers and protect human health.

More than 1 billion pounds of herbicide are used in the United States every year. Herbicides help farmers by preventing significant crop loss due to weeds, and they enable regenerative farming practices that protect the soil, but some weeds are becoming resistant to the most common herbicides.

Exposure to herbicides may contribute to increased risk of cancer, metabolic and endocrine disorders, and other adverse health outcomes. Farm workers can be exposed from frequent herbicide use, but many U.S. residents are also exposed to these chemicals in small amounts through food and drinking water.

The MIT-led research team will develop new generative artificial intelligence tools to help them discover herbicide alternatives that are more effective and developed with human health in mind. Such alternatives could also help to reduce U.S. dependency on imported phosphorus, which is a critical ingredient in a major herbicide, glyphosate.

“With herbicides like glyphosate and atrazine, there’s a real crisis because of resistance mutations that are coming,” says Christopher Voigt, head of MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering. “And if you combine the resistance mutations with issues around national security of the supply chain of the precursors to herbicides, we could find ourselves without these core agrochemicals that are absolutely essential for getting the high crop yields and economical prices that the United States now sees.”

Voigt is the principal investigator for the project, known as Precision Learning for On-target Weed control (PLOW). The team is also expected to include researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Robigo.

The researchers are grouped into three teams that will tackle different aspects of the project, aligned with the STREAM Technical Areas. The generative AI group will develop models that can predict molecules — either chemical compounds or small interfering RNA (siRNA) — that disrupt the same plant enzymes targeted by glyphosate and other herbicides.

Glyphosate kills weeds by interfering with an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which plants need to produce several critical amino acids. After many years of herbicide use, some weeds have begun to acquire genetic mutations that allow them to become resistant to those herbicides, which makes them less effective and poses a significant threat to crop yields.

“There’s a real need for new herbicides because of resistance mutations that have been arising,” Voigt says. “There are also concerns about herbicides’ possible impacts on the environment and on humans, so it’s important to identify alternative ways of making herbicides, which as a general class of molecule are really critical to agriculture.”

The MIT-led team plans to design generative AI models that will be able to predict molecules that can help prevent resistance from arising. The models will also optimize for other features such as low cost of synthesis, low risk of inducing resistance, and low risk of harming humans or causing ecological damage.

The group developing these AI models is led by Connor Coley, the Warren K. Lewis Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT; Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health at MIT; and Alexander Tropsha, the K.H. Lee Distinguished Professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

The models are expected to generate billions of possible candidates, which will then be tested by a second research team. This high-throughput screening group will be led by Angela Koehler, the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, and Jaime Cheah, the associate director of scientific outreach and collaborative screening in the Center for the Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute.

“Those libraries will be screened both to identify those molecules that hit their target, but also to then provide all of that screening data back to the computational approach in order to improve it,” Voigt says.

Once the candidate pools are narrowed down, researchers on a third team will begin greenhouse studies to evaluate how each molecule performs under different agricultural conditions. That team will be led by Neal Stewart and Scott Lenaghan, co-directors of the Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology at UTK; Patrick Tranel, the Tom and Peggy Ainsworth Professor of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois; Tim Willson, the Harold Kohn Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy; and Andee Wallace PhD ’20, CEO and founder of Robigo.

The first greenhouse tests of initial RNAi candidates are expected to be complete by the end of the first year of the program.

As part of this project, the research team will also develop living microbial systems that degrade agrochemicals before they reach food, soil, or waterways. Engineered bacteria, fungi, and srRNA will convert chemicals and formulation ingredients into biomass, providing a scalable strategy to reduce environmental and human exposure.

This research is funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under agreement number 140D042690030. The views and conclusions contained in this article are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the United States government.

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Politics Home Article | Former Miners To Receive Pension Fund Within Weeks, Says Chancellor

Seaside Success Stories — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 10:13:29 +0000

The Chancellor John Healey walks out 11 Downing Street on Budget Day. | (Alamy)

4 min read03 November

John Healey has pledged that former miners will receive their remaining pension funds following a Labour MP backlash on the eve of last week’s Budget.

On Tuesday, the Chancellor told MPs that ex-miners would receive “every penny” of the pension fund and said work is happening to ensure that happens “in weeks, not months”.

“Every penny of the pension fund surplus will go to miners,” he told the House of Commons.

“I know the job’s not done. I will go on to ensure the full transfer of the guarantors fund. I want a way to resolve this in weeks, not months.

“That work is underway. That work will be done jointly by DESNZ (Department for
Energy Security & Net Zero) and the Treasury,” the Chancellor said.

In his Budget speech last Wednesday, Healey pledged the “full transfer of the Guarantor’s Fund”, believed to be worth £1.2bn, and promised to end the “standstill arrangement”, ensuring the pensions continue to rise for former miners.

The night before, a group of Labour MPs representing former mining seats expressed fury after being told that the government planned to renege on its pledge to transfer what remains of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme (MPS).

As reported by PoliticsHome last week, the MPs made urgent representations to No 10, the Treasury and the whips in an attempt to persuade the government to rethink.

Normanton and Hemsworth MP John Trickett told PoliticsHome on the night: “We owe a moral duty to the miners and the government must show that it has listened, understands and will act in this matter. Nothing less will do.”

Another Labour MP, Kate Osbourne, told PoliticsHome: “I will continue to push for us to deliver in full on our promise to end this injustice and ensure former miners and their widows receive the pensions they deserve.”

Former chancellor Rachel Reeves ended a 30-year-old arrangement in her first Budget in 2024 by transferring the first part of the fund (£1.5bn) to former miners.

On Tuesday, sources close to Reeves told PoliticsHome the issue was very important to her and that, as chancellor, she met with many people directly impacted by it.

The latest statement from Healey on Tuesday was in response to Scottish Labour MP Imogen Walker, who asked for an updated timeline for the return of the pension fund.

“There is more to do and time is pressing,” she said, adding: “They deserve every penny of their pensions”.

PoliticsHome understands the Chancellor informed MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night that he is working with trustees of the MPS to ensure ex-miners receive what is owed within a matter of weeks.

Last week, the Coalfield Group of Labour MPs wrote to Healey demanding the immediate release of the £1.2bn fund.

Signed by MPs including Luke Akehurst, Rachel Taylor and group chair Grahame Morris, the letter urges Healey and Prime Minister Andy Burnham to “prove to miners and their families that this Labour government is on their side”.

“Since 1994, the government has taken more than £4.4bn from the MPS in return for a guarantee that has never cost the public purse a penny,” the MPs write.

“We understand the fiscal pressure of the Treasury, however, in light of the facts, we cannot see a justification for withholding the money that belongs to scheme members alone.”

On Monday, Reform UK urged the government to pay the remaining pension fund before Christmas and promised that ex-miners would be paid what is owed within the first 100 days of a Nigel Farage-led government.

“Enough is enough. Miners and their families have waited too long. Tragically, 18 ex-miners die every day without the fair resolution of this matter they deserve,” Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson said in a joint statement.

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India-Founded Ati Robotics Secures FCC Clearance for Five Industrial Robot Platforms

Seaside Success Stories — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 10:12:35 +0000

Insider Brief

India-founded Ati Robotics has secured conditional U.S. national security clearance for five industrial robot platforms, exempting them from the FCC Covered List and preserving their eligibility for U.S. equipment authorization.
The approval covers the Sherpa Mecha humanoid, Sherpa 10K and 3K autonomous tuggers, and Sherpa FlexFork 1500 and 3000 forklifts, with Ati claiming Sherpa Mecha is one of only two humanoids cleared to date.
Ati reports a 99% mission success rate across its robotic portfolio and average deployment times of four weeks or less, while expanding its Michigan operations and planning U.S. manufacturing.

India-founded Ati Robotics has received conditional U.S. national security clearance for five industrial robot platforms, allowing the company to continue seeking the equipment authorization required to sell its machines in the United States.

According to the company, the U.S. Department of War approved exemptions from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Covered List for its Sherpa Mecha humanoid robot, autonomous tuggers and forklifts.

The FCC published the approval Oct. 30 under Ati’s U.S. legal name, ATI Motors Inc. The company noted that Sherpa Mecha is one of only two humanoid robots to receive clearance and the only one designed for factory operations.

Ati develops its own autonomous navigation and fleet management software, allowing it to manage the technology used across its robotic platforms. The company maintains its U.S. headquarters in Madison Heights, Michigan, where it provides customers with deployment support, maintenance services and spare parts.

“Ati Robotics has always prioritized building the robots ground up and having deep control over the components,” founder and CEO Saurabh Chandra said in the announcement. “We were already working on our plans to make these robots in the US and had taken a larger site in Michigan earlier this year. The FCC action simply reinforces our belief that autonomous robots are strategic technology and must be treated as such by enterprises.”

The approval covers five platforms:

Sherpa Mecha: A dual-arm mobile robot designed to navigate factory floors, retrieve bins and handle parts.
Sherpa 10K and Sherpa 3K: Autonomous tuggers used to transport materials, with the Sherpa 10K capable of moving loads up to 10,000 pounds.
Sherpa FlexFork 1500 and 3000: Autonomous forklifts designed to move pallets and carts.

The robots use Ati Flow, the company’s software platform for coordinating material movement across industrial facilities. Ati reported a 99% mission success rate across its robotic portfolio in daily production operations, with average deployment times of four weeks or less.

National Security Review

Since July 28, 2026, foreign-produced advanced robotic devices have been subject to the FCC Covered List unless they receive clearance through a national security review, according to Ati. The conditional approval keeps the five platforms eligible for FCC equipment authorization, which is required for distribution in the U.S. market.

“This year, our U.S. customers kept asking a common question before payload or price: ‘will this robot be cleared to ship and be serviced long term’?” added Siddharth Bhagra, Ati’s vice president of sales. “For Mecha, the Sherpa 10K and FlexFork, this approval confirms this clarity. Our customers will continue to partner with Ati Robotics for their automation needs – with more confidence than ever.”

The post India-Founded Ati Robotics Secures FCC Clearance for Five Industrial Robot Platforms appeared first on Seaside Success Stories.

The American Dream Wasn’t Built for Climate Change

Seaside Success Stories — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 10:10:47 +0000

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

To Sierra Isley, the American Dream brings to mind a home ringed by a white picket fence. “The house in the suburbs is just what you’re taught growing up,” the 26-year-old said. “You know, that’s what you see on TV.” What she wanted for her life was a bit different from that picket-fence ideal, but she still saw the prospect of buying her first house two years ago as a chance to live out what she called “that big dream that everybody has as a kid.”

Isley and her girlfriend, Jamie, were moving from Philadelphia to Asheville, North Carolina, and found a home they liked, a three-bedroom brick house with lots of natural light and a big tree out front. With some help from their parents, they put down a deposit and got their offer accepted. But when they went to sign the closing papers, a complication got in the way: The house had a huge lien on it. After consulting with lawyers, they decided to break the contract and hunt for an apartment to rent in Asheville.

It was a blessing in disguise. One month later, while Sierra and Jamie were still unpacking boxes and building furniture, the remnants of Hurricane Helene turned Asheville into a disaster zone. The basement of their apartment flooded, but they were luckier than some of their neighbors, whose homes had been destroyed.

Owning a home has long been seen as a cornerstone of the American Dream—a way to build wealth that you could use one day to pay for your children’s education and fund your retirement. That arrangement was always more precarious than it was made out to be. But as fires and floods damage homes and drive up insurance rates, pouring your life savings into a house has become riskier than ever. In a report called “Property Prices in Peril,” the firm First Street projected last year that climate risks could knock nearly $1.5 trillion off the value of American homes by 2055. For some people, the sociologist Rebecca Elliott wrote, “the American dream of homeownership may become a nightmare.”

A fallen tree on a home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina, in September 2024.PHOTOGRAPH: Sean Rayford / Getty Images; Grist

The post The American Dream Wasn’t Built for Climate Change appeared first on Seaside Success Stories.

Clearing up a robot’s fuzzy memory | MIT News

Seaside Success Stories — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:08:45 +0000

The researchers also employed a special technique to streamline this process so a mobile robot can continually update uncertain memory entries in real time.

When compared to baseline methods, UQ-DAAAM boosted the robot’s confidence and improved the accuracy of its answers to questions about objects, their locations, and when it saw them.

“Contrary to ChatGPT, when we think about physical AI, it is not enough to simply put a disclaimer cautioning that sometimes the robot might be wrong. Allowing a robot to know what it doesn’t know is going to be essential for this technology to be deployed safely and have a positive impact on society,” says Luca Carlone, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), principal investigator in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), director of the MIT SPARK Laboratory, and the senior author of the paper presenting UQ-DAAAM.

He is joined on the paper by co-lead authors and MIT graduate students Harry Zhang and Nicolas Gorlo. The research will be presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.

Amending memory

This new method builds on the researchers’ prior work, DAAAM, a robot memory system that uses a vision-language model (VLM) to richly describe objects in scenes a robot captures with its onboard cameras. These descriptions are stored as detailed captions in a 3D map-based representation of the robot’s environment that it can call upon later to answer questions.

But the robot sometimes sees objects only partially or from far away, or its camera might capture blurry or poorly lit images. In these cases, DAAAM might describe these objects incorrectly, such as by mistaking a gray chimney for a squirrel perched on a rooftop.

“With no way to correct itself, this wrong memory would persist as the robot proceeds in its environment, which could impact downstream applications,” Zhang says.

UQ-DAAAM integrates uncertainty quantification into the DAAAM framework. It allows the robot to measure its confidence in the accuracy of object descriptions and fix incorrect captions as it travels through an environment.

While on the move, the robot constantly collects and stores images of the world around it. Many of these images show the same objects captured from different angles. UQ-DAAAM uses these additional viewpoints to identify and correct unreliable descriptions.

First, it calculates the VLM’s confidence level in the words it generated to describe a potentially mislabeled object. Then, it measures consistency by comparing this description to captions of images that describe the same object from different vantage points.

“We fuse both sources of uncertainty into a single number that captures how certain the VLM is in its overall understanding of the object,” Carlone explains.

If that number exceeds a certain threshold, the uncertainty is too high, and UQ-DAAAM will refine the caption by using additional images of the object.

It does this using a heuristic, or simple rule, that determines which additional viewpoints will reduce the robot’s uncertainty about the object. For instance, it might choose an image captured a few frames later that clearly shows smoke emanating from the chimney.

The researchers mathematically proved that this heuristic can identify the best frames to select without rerunning the VLM, dramatically reducing the amount of computation.

“The key challenge Nico and Harry had to overcome is how to combine VLMs with uncertainty quantification into something that is running in a fraction of a second on a robot that is moving,” Carlone says.

Remembering with confidence

Once it has identified additional captions that will reduce its uncertainty about the object, the system uses an LLM to fuse them into a single object description. To boost accuracy, the LLM puts more weight on new captions and those with less ambiguity.

This refinement step is able to resolve ambiguities for about 92 percent of the objects in the robot’s environment, while only requiring two additional captions per object. It increased the accuracy of object descriptions by 5 percent compared to the state of the art.

UQ-DAAAM also provided more accurate answers to questions about the objects it observed, where it saw them, and when it last encountered them than baseline methods.

“Performing this uncertainty quantification procedure across the entire map the robot generates allows it to improve its understanding of what it has observed,” Gorlo says.

Next, the researchers want to use UQ-DAAAM to guide different types of robots, like mobile robotic manipulators, and apply their uncertainty quantification techniques to other domains.

In addition, they are studying the use of UQ-DAAAM to identify areas of high uncertainty the robot could revisit to improve its understanding of the environment. They are also exploring uncertainty quantification in systems that predict the future state of a robot’s environment.

This research is supported, in part, by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Carlone is currently on sabbatical as an Amazon Scholar; this article describes work performed at MIT and is not associated with Amazon.

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Politics Home | World Has Opportunity To End Iran War After Heavy Republican Losses In US, Says PM

Seaside Success Stories — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:08:18 +0000

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the results of the US mid-term elections are an opportunity to tackle the cost of living and end the war in Iran. (Alamy)

2 min read04 November

Heavy losses for Donald Trump’s Republicans in the US present the world with an opportunity to focus on ending the Iran war, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said.

“I think people want to see the world coming together, and focusing on the things that matter to people. And that’s what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States,” Burnham told reporters on Wednesday.

The PM spoke to the media after a devastating set of mid-term elections for the Republicans across the Atlantic.

The Democrats claimed victory in several traditionally Republican states like Kansas, South Carolina and Texas to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Trump administration’s ongoing war in Iran and the impact it is having on prices at home were seen as the key issues for voters going to the polls in the US.

Responding to the mid-term results, characterised by US-based commentators as a political earthquake, Burnham said the world has an “opportunity now to unite” around ending the war in the Middle East and tackling cost-of-living pressures.

“That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves, but I can’t get people’s cost-of-living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved, the conflict in Ukraine started by Russia…

“These are things we have to focus on now,” the PM said.

He continued: “I think people want to see the world coming together, and focusing on the things that matter to people. And that’s what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States. Let’s get focused in a laser-like way on those cost of living issues.”

Responding to last week’s Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said that the US-Iran war was driving cost-of-living pressures in the UK, resulting in higher energy prices, interest rates and inflation.

In response to US and Israeli attacks, Iran has made it more difficult for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz – a vital global shipping lane relied on by countries including the UK for gas and oil.

The post Politics Home | World Has Opportunity To End Iran War After Heavy Republican Losses In US, Says PM appeared first on Seaside Success Stories.

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