A guide to Day 1 of RoboBusiness 2026

- RoboBusiness 2026 kicks off in Santa Clara, and the hardware is hot. Rodney Brooks and Agility’s Jonathan Hurst lead the charge on physical AI, proving robots aren’t just demos anymore. I’ll swap that node in twelve minutes to get you the lowdown: Amazon Robotics’ Bhavana Chandrashekhar and Teradyne’s James Davidson are debating how to move from lab-cool to factory-floor reliable. It’s all about integrated drive actuators and tactile sensing—making the metal sing without frying the budget. We’re seeing a shift toward risk-aware foundation models for safety-critical ops. That’s not flirting, that’s social engineering with silicon. From humanoid BoMs to food automation, the stack is evolving fast. Grab your hash manifest and head to the theatre; the next twenty years of robotics start now.