Heiman, a prominent researcher specializing in neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington’s and Parkinson’s, has been appointed to lead the institute starting July 1. This leadership transition aims to enhance the institute's focus on groundbreaking research and innovative treatments for these debilitating conditions. Heiman's extensive expertise and commitment to advancing the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders are expected to drive the institute's initiatives forward, fostering collaboration and discovery in the field. The appointment reflects the institute's dedication to addressing the growing challenges posed by these diseases, which affect millions globally.
Education & Research
Research Institute
Original from MITNews: Myriam Heiman named director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Myriam Heiman named director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
RobotToday Initiative
Robotics needs a service framework.
RSF defines a common language for robot service capability, lifecycle operations, certification pathways, and service-provider networks.
Anthropic Disrupts Five Cases of Claude Misuse for Potential Bioweapons Research
Anthropic reported that it intervened in five instances where researchers misused its AI model, Claude, in ways that could have facilitated biological weapons development. These incidents occurred between December 2025 and August 2026, highlighting the challenges of distinguishing legitimate scientific research from potentially harmful activities. The sig...
AI and Robotics
Sixth Graders Program Robots to Breakdance, Highlighting Shift in Robotics Education
At Punahou School in Hawaii, a group of sixth graders successfully programmed wheeled robots to perform breakdancing moves. This project involved translating complex physical movements into sequences of commands that machines can understand, encompassing concepts like coordinate transformation and feedback control. With the right educational tools, these ...
Robotics Education Programming Algorithm Development
DAWG Director Expresses Concerns Over Potential Funding Shortfall Impacting Drone Development
The director of the Defense Autonomous Working Group (DAWG), Lt. Gen. Steven Marks, expressed uncertainty regarding the nearly $54 billion funding request from the Trump administration. He warned that without adequate funding, the momentum gained since DAWG's establishment over a year ago could diminish significantly. Marks highlighted the urgency of secu...
Air Warfare Land Warfare Networks & Digital Warfare
NOAA Selects Mississippi State University to Lead New Northern Gulf Research Institute
NOAA has appointed Mississippi State University to host the Cooperative Institute in the Gulf of America (CINGA), aimed at enhancing research collaboration on Gulf ecosystems. This initiative builds on a 20-year partnership with NOAA, focusing on science-based decision-making for the northern Gulf region. The establishment of CINGA is significant as it co...
noaa mississippi state university northern gulf research institute
Astribot Launches SmoothRL: A New Era in Online Reinforcement Learning for Robots
Astribot has introduced SmoothRL, an online reinforcement learning framework validated through real robot tasks. This technology addresses a critical challenge in embodied intelligence: how robots can learn and improve while executing tasks in real-time. Traditional models struggle with precision in real-world applications, often failing in details like p...
Reinforcement Learning Embodied Intelligence Robot Development
Teledyne Webb Research Secures U.S. Navy Contract for APEX Profiling Floats
Teledyne Webb Research has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy for the provision of APEX profiling floats. This contract highlights the Navy's commitment to enhancing oceanographic research capabilities through advanced technology. The APEX profiling floats are designed to collect critical ocean data, which is essential for various applications, incl...
teledyne webb research contract award u.s. navy
China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 3 — The Players
Five vendor archetypes, MIR’s composite top ten, eight company profiles and six field deployments — every firm linked to the RobotToday supplier directory.
Components and Hardware Humanoids
ARM Institute Secures $90 Million for Ten Military Manufacturing Modernization Projects
The ARM Institute has been awarded nearly $90 million for ten projects aimed at modernizing military manufacturing. This funding comes from the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge initiated by the Office of the Undersecretary of War Manufacturing Technology Office, supporting the U.S. Department of War's efforts to enhance defense manufa...
Defense / Security Financial Investments
RobotToday Weekly Briefing August 31 – September 4, 2026
This week in robotics: NVIDIA agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, Figure signs a $3.5 billion compute deal with Nscale for up to 100,000 GPUs, Tesla launches steering-wheel-free Cybercabs in Austin under NHTSA scrutiny, and Uber and Wayve bring the UK its first autonomous rides. August 31 – September 4, 2026.
RobotToday Weekly
AGIBOT Open-Sources 11,430 Robot Trajectories to Enhance Reinforcement Learning Research
AGIBOT, a Chinese robotics company, has released its WORLD 2026 dataset, featuring 11,430 robot trajectories aimed at advancing research in reinforcement learning for embodied AI. This dataset emphasizes learning from real-world interactions, capturing a range of experiences including successes, failures, and human interventions. The significance of this ...
AI and Robotics
China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 1 — The Demand Picture
MIR Databank puts China dexterous hand shipments above 30,000 units in 2026, yet only 3.5% of 2025 demand came from factory production. Part 1 of 3.
Components and Hardware Humanoids
China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 2 — The Technology
Linkage, tendon, direct drive or hybrid — and why hardware is converging while the DL1–DL5 manipulation scale decides who wins. Part 2 of 3.
Components and Hardware
BioRobotics Laboratory, Korea University of Technology and Education
Korea, Republic of (South)
South Korean university research laboratory focusing on haptics, exoskeletons, rehabilitation robotics, and autonomous ground vehicles.
Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL)
United States
VA–Univ. of Pittsburgh research center founded 1994, developing wheelchair robotics and assistive mobility tech for veterans and people with disabilities.
Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
United States
The REC Foundation is a US nonprofit that runs VEX-based robotics and drone competitions reaching 1.1 million students across 70 countries.
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) 工業技術研究院
Taiwan
Taiwan's leading government-backed applied R&D institute driving industrial and robotics innovation.
Korea Aerospace Research Institute
Korea, Republic of (South)
South Korea's national government aerospace R&D institute leading space launch vehicles, satellite systems, UAVs, and aviation research.
MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
United States
US deep-sea research institute developing AUVs and ROVs for ocean exploration, including Ventana, Doc Ricketts, and Tethys.
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