It's great to see momentum building in Washington DC for policies that will support the success of the US robotics industry. I was honored to have my views quoted in this @politico article on recent developments and future aspirations.

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Thanks to @heathersomervil for including my thoughts in the @WSJ on the Department of War’s updated list of Chinese Military Companies.

Deploy. Deploy. Deploy. It’s not enough to scale up humanoid production into the thousands of units. Chinese policymakers are also pushing for real-world testing and deployment, tasking local govts and SOEs with searching for new applications in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, etc. Rather than wait for the technology to mature or the market to emerge naturally, China is trying to accelerate physical AI development across the full stack: algorithms, data, hardware components, applications.

@politico names AUVSI President & CEO @MRobbinsAUVSI a Power Player in Washington's robotics race with China, recognizing his work advancing the case for a stronger U.S. policy response. subscriber.politicopro.com/a… #Robotics #NationalSecurity #RoboticsPolicy

This is correct

Atlas gets a lot of love these days but Spot is out there doing real manipulation tasks (like this great welding partnership with Path) today.

If you've ever worked on your feet all day, you know how important a good pair of shoes is. Mechanical design engineer Chastity Kelly shares how we built Atlas functional feet. Learn more about Atlas' design, Chastity's path to robotics, and starting on the right foot: bosdyn.co/4ugC50p

I spent the last week in over a dozen pitches with robotics companies across Silicon Valley, NY and Europe...then I looked at the US Census Bureau Data Turns out 88% of US manufacturing plants don't own a single robot...and that's the opportunity Founders are seeing. Despite the endless deluge of humanoid robot demos and "AI factory" hype in our feeds, nearly 9 out of 10 American factories look exactly the same as they did 20 years ago. Manual labor, mechanical machinery, a retiring workforce and challenges in filling roles. The reasons why they haven't been "updated" historically breaks down into two clear buckets that I call: 1. The Integration Iceberg: A robot arm might cost $25,000 and has come down in price, but the custom tooling, safety cases and software integrations to make it work cost $125,000. 2. The Agility Tax: A traditional robot does one thing a million times. But the average US shop does "high-mix, low-volume" work. To reprogram a robot for a new part has required an expensive software engineer and could take days depending on engineer availability. The next generation of massive robotics outcomes won't come from building shinier hardware for the 12% of factories that are already automated. It will come from the Founders solving the integration and business model friction for the 88% that aren't. If your GTM strategy doesn't solve the 18-month ROI math of a shop owner in Ohio who needs financing, fast onboarding and the ability for the robot to handle a variety of tasks, then you're likely going to struggle. If you're working on a robotics business solving our countries biggest talent bottlenecks, I want to chat.

China has started giving every humanoid robots 29-character ID codes, with 28,000 assigned so far. The system works like a robot passport: each unit gets a code that records its country link, maker, model type, and individual serial identity. The goal is not only paperwork, because humanoids are moving from demos into public roads, factories, homes, and service jobs where failures need clear responsibility. A robot that falls, damages property, leaks data, or gets modified after sale becomes easier to trace when regulators can link the machine to its maker, seller, user, service history, and recycler. --- scmp .com/tech/policy/article/3354747/china-give-every-humanoid-robot-digital-id-push-boost-industry-standards

Now it all makes sense

More fun than lifting fridges

This Memorial Day, we come together to remember and honor those who gave their lives in service to our country.

Here is my take on one of the questions that I’ve heard most often recently: why humanoid? The thing that drives the current bet on humanoids is the perceived potential value of a generalist solution to physical work. Outside of some applications that have very large and very stable volumes, for all other physical work, automation becomes unfeasibly expensive if we have to specialize hardware, or models or deployment strategies.

They said ‘no robots.’ Good thing I'm a #Familiar. #Southwest #RobotBan

Thankfully, @Hermes_Paris is ready with the fashion accessories.

Atlas hauling a 50 lb mini-fridge - Practiced the maneuver for millions of hours in a virtual environment. - Focused the training policy on full-body engagement rather than just hand-grasping, allowing the robot to leverage its entire frame for the lift.

If you want to work with us and @_albertorod_, we are also hiring for RL roles! Research Scientist: bostondynamics.wd1.myworkday… Research Engineer: bostondynamics.wd1.myworkday…

Everyone's talking about VLAs and VLMs for robotics. For humanoids, the whole body controller underneath matters a lot too. Without good whole body control, even the most capable VLA can't complete the task. 🧵 x.com/i/status/2056344756926…