Universal Robots patches critical command injection flaw in cobot OS

Universal Robots has patched CVE-2026-8153, a critical command injection vulnerability in its PolyScope 5 operating system that powers collaborative industrial robots. The flaw allows unauthenticated attackers with network access to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying Linux OS, potentially ...

Octopus-inspired gripper shifts from soft to rigid in under 2 seconds

Researchers at Peking University have developed an octopus-inspired underwater gripper that transitions between soft and rigid states in 1.3 seconds — 10x faster than existing shape memory polymer systems. The OUT-Robot uses electrically heated PLA arms that grip fragile or irregular objects when so...

Yarbo robotic lawnmowers contain hardcoded backdoor and bypass emergency stop

Security researcher Andreas Makris discovered critical vulnerabilities in Yarbo's modular robotic lawnmowers and snow blowers that allow remote takeover, emergency stop bypass, and extraction of owner data including Wi-Fi passwords and GPS coordinates. All 11,000+ deployed devices share a hardcoded ...

Physical Intelligence trains robots to master precision tasks in 15 minutes

Physical Intelligence has developed RL tokens (RLT), a reinforcement learning method that allows vision-language-action models to refine precise manipulation skills using just 15 minutes of real-world robot experience. The technique adds a compressed "RL token" output to the base model, enabling a l...

Military drone lessons expose self-driving car safety gaps

Self-driving car companies are repeating mistakes the U.S. military solved decades ago in unmanned aerial vehicle operations, according to autonomous systems researcher Missy Cummings. Remote supervision of autonomous vehicles requires low latency, careful interface design, operator workload managem...

Unitree robots vulnerable to firmware poisoning via hard-coded encryption keys

Security researchers have disclosed CVE-2026-1442, a critical vulnerability in Unitree's firmware update system that uses hard-coded encryption keys. The flaw allows anyone with physical or remote access to create and deploy malicious firmware packages that Unitree robots — including models deployed...

Engineer accesses 7,000 robot vacuums via DJI backend flaw

Software engineer Sammy Azdoufal reverse-engineered his DJI Romo vacuum cleaner and discovered a backend vulnerability granting access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, and floor plans from nearly 7,000 devices globally. The disclosure highlights systemic security weaknesses in consumer IoT ro...

Researcher breaks Tegra X2 secure boot, exposing Tesla Autopilot hardware

Security researcher Elise Amber Katze disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in NVIDIA's Tegra X2 SoC, including an unpatchable BootROM exploit affecting Tesla Autopilot 2 and 2.5 hardware. The research, presented at 39C3, demonstrates complete secure boot chain bypass via USB recovery mode. Since the v...

UniPwn exploit allows remote takeover of Unitree robot fleets

Security researchers disclosed UniPwn, a critical Bluetooth Low Energy vulnerability in Unitree's Go2, B2, G1, and H1 robots that enables root-level takeover via hardcoded encryption keys. The exploit is wormable — infected robots can autonomously scan for and compromise other Unitree units in range...

Flexiv previews 7-DOF tactile arm and modular humanoid at ICRA

Flexiv will preview two unreleased robotic platforms at ICRA 2026 in Vienna, including a 7-DOF force-controlled arm with whole-body touch sensing and a modular humanoid system combining dual arms, vision, and an autonomous mobile base. The systems represent the company's push into high-dexterity man...

Robot dogs track car thieves to arrest at Atlanta apartment complex

Two suspects breaking into cars at an Atlanta affordable housing complex were tracked and arrested with assistance from Undaunted's autonomous quadruped robots on May 21. One robot pursued fleeing suspects while another alerted Atlanta Police, who arrived within minutes — one suspect was caught flee...

GE Vernova acquires Robotech Automation to build in-house robotics integration

GE Vernova has signed an agreement to acquire Robotech Automation, a Quebec-based robotics systems integrator with ~35 employees. The acquisition aims to accelerate robotics deployment across GE Vernova's energy manufacturing supply chain, building in-house integration capabilities rather than relyi...

Kawasaki opens Silicon Valley Physical AI center focused on healthcare robotics

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has launched a Physical AI development center in San Jose, partnering with Nvidia, Microsoft, Analog Devices, and Fujitsu to build autonomous healthcare systems. The facility will integrate AI with Kawasaki's existing surgical and service robots, starting with a "hospital o...

Gecko Robotics tests Ouster's Rev8 color lidar for infrastructure inspection

Gecko Robotics is testing Ouster's Rev8 digital lidar sensor to enhance its Cantilever platform for industrial infrastructure inspection. The Rev8's ability to output colorized 3D point clouds alongside infrared and intensity data enables Gecko's AI to more reliably detect structural anomalies that ...