The Robot Report Podcast

Hosted by The Robot Report Podcast

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270

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Join Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

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60 recent

October 28, 202635 min

RoboBusiness 2026 recap

Join the editorial team from The Robot Report as they recap the 2026 RoboBusiness event which took place last week in Santa Clara CA. Steve Crowe, Gene Demaitre, Mike Oitzman, and Brianna Wessling share their favorite memories from the event. Learn more about Open RobOps project: https://openrobops.org/ ### Closing the loop of autonomy takes more than a great robot. WiBotic provides reliable wireless charging and fleet energy management for autonomous robots and other battery-powered systems. This patented technology gives robots more freedom to charge throughout their normal workflow, helping increase the uptime, ROI, and safety of your fleet. AMRs, drones, floor scrubbers, humanoids, and everything in-between, WiBotic makes charging simple, seamless, and scalable. Learn more at http://www.wibotic.com/robotreport

October 16, 20261 hr 13 min

Why Opportunity Charging Is Winning as Robot Fleets Scale

Ben Waters, CEO of Wibotic, joins Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre to discuss how wireless charging is evolving for larger, more autonomous robotics fleets. The conversation explores why opportunity charging—charging robots during natural idle moments—is becoming essential for maintaining uptime at scale. Ben explains the trade-offs between charging speed, battery size, infrastructure costs, safety, and maintenance. They also discuss Wibotic’s expansion into outdoor robotics, medical carts, drones, humanoids, defense, and other markets; the company’s IP65-rated 1-kilowatt charger; development toward 3-kilowatt systems; and software that helps customers model ROI and predict battery degradation. The episode offers a practical look at why charging infrastructure, battery strategy, certification, and fleet data will shape the next generation of robotics. ### Closing the loop of autonomy takes more than a great robot. WiBotic provides reliable wireless charging and fleet energy management for autonomous robots and other battery-powered systems. This patented technology gives robots more freedom to charge throughout their normal workflow, helping increase the uptime, ROI, and safety of your fleet. AMRs, drones, floor scrubbers, humanoids, and everything in-between, WiBotic makes charging simple, seamless, and scalable. Learn more at http://www.wibotic.com/robotreport

October 9, 20261 hr 18 min

Why humanoid robot demos still fail the generalization test

Janine Sinanan-Singh, Director of Gen AI Research at Appen, joins Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre to discuss the data, evaluation, and human oversight needed to advance robotics and agentic AI. They explore how video and egocentric data can support robot training, why latency and generalization remain difficult, and where human judgment still matters. Janine describes Appen’s evolution from speech and linguistics into supporting generative AI, multimodal systems, agents, and robotics with expert data. The conversation examines what humanoid robot demos do—and don’t—show, how synthetic data can help teams scale, and what it takes to evaluate systems beyond the lab. ### Closing the loop of autonomy takes more than a great robot. WiBotic provides reliable wireless charging and fleet energy management for autonomous robots and other battery-powered systems. This patented technology gives robots more freedom to charge throughout their normal workflow, helping increase the uptime, ROI, and safety of your fleet. AMRs, drones, floor scrubbers, humanoids, and everything in-between, WiBotic makes charging simple, seamless, and scalable. Learn more at http://www.wibotic.com/robotreport

October 2, 20261 hr 7 min

Inside Omron’s Next-Generation LD Mobile Robots

The interview this week explores the European robotics market with OMRON’s Miguel Garces Moreno, covering growth in collaborative robots and AMRs, shifting demand toward sectors such as pharma, and the impact of labor shortages and supply-chain pressures. Miguel discusses how OMRON aims to stand out through software, navigation, safety, and fleet management—not hardware alone. He previews the LD150 and LD300 mobile robots, including faster wireless charging, expanded safety features, and improved serviceability. The conversation also looks at AI’s potential in path planning and predictive maintenance, mobile manipulators and their applications, and why system integrators remain essential to OMRON’s strategy. The interview closes with OMRON’s product roadmap and the growing importance of interoperability across multi-brand fleets. ### Closing the loop of autonomy takes more than a great robot. WiBotic provides reliable wireless charging and fleet energy management for autonomous robots and other battery-powered systems. This patented technology gives robots more freedom to charge throughout their normal workflow, helping increase the uptime, ROI, and safety of your fleet. AMRs, drones, floor scrubbers, humanoids, and everything in-between, WiBotic makes charging simple, seamless, and scalable. Learn more at WiBotic.com/robotreport

September 25, 20261 hr 4 min

General Robotics Is Betting on Modular Intelligence, Not One Robot Brain

Sai Vemprala, CTO of General Robotics, talks about why robotics still faces a major gap between research and real-world deployment—and how the company’s Grid platform aims to close it. Their conversation explores robot-agnostic intelligence, simulation, reusable skills, deployment architecture, enterprise data ownership, and the growing role of agentic AI. Rather than relying on one universal “robot brain,” Grid combines specialized capabilities—including perception, grasp prediction, and motion planning—into workflows that can be adapted to different robots and tasks. Sai also explains how simulation and deployment data can work together in a feedback loop, and how agents could help build, evaluate, and deploy robotic skills. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://cvent.me/w0eRN9?RefId=podcast Listen to the podcast for a special discount code.

September 18, 20261 hr 26 min

The picks-and-shovels strategy behind the robotics boom

Teddy Haggerty is the founder and CEO of Robostore and Robo Inc., where he has helped push robotics into education, enterprise pilots, and early commercial deployments. His perspective is shaped by years of building in drones, crypto infrastructure, manufacturing, and import-export before turning his focus to robots. The robot boom is real, but the winners may not be the ones building the flashiest humanoid. Haggerty reveals why the smartest move in robotics right now is selling the picks and shovels: the hardware, curriculum, training, and integration layer that makes robots actually usable. From high school drones to crypto infrastructure to safety helmets and now robotics, Haggerty has been building businesses at the edge of every major wave. In this conversation, he breaks down how Robo Store evolved from a distribution play into a robotics education and deployment platform, and why Robo Inc. is now pushing toward a more localized, solution-first model. Gene Demaitre and Mike Oitzman press Haggerty on the bigger question behind the hype: what does it take to turn robotics into a real business, not just a demo? Haggerty’s answer is refreshingly pragmatic. Build for a specific job, keep the stack modular, and solve a customer problem today instead of chasing a fully general robot that is still years from mass adoption. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://cvent.me/w0eRN9?RefId=podcast Listen to the podcast for a special discount code.

September 11, 20261 hr 18 min

One brick at a time: How Monumental uses robotics to build walls

On the show this week, Salar al Khafaji, CEO and founder of Monumental explains how they are building walls with a custom trio of robots that automate the process of placing mortar and bricks. The company is innovating the construction market, selling “walls as a service”. In the interview, al Khafaji outlines the business model, and describes the solution design that uses custom mobile robots to handle all the wall materials on the construction site. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://cvent.me/w0eRN9?RefId=podcast Listen to the podcast for a special discount code.

September 4, 20261 hr 8 min

How FPGAs become the gatekeepers of Physical AI Security

Our guest this week is Eric Sivertson, VP of Security Business at Lattice. This episode explores why physical AI and humanoids change the security conversation from traditional IT risk to real-world safety risk. Sivertson explains how FPGAs can act as deterministic guardrails for robotic and cyber-physical systems. We discuss why safe is not enough if a robot is also connected, how zero trust and cyber resilience apply on the factory floor, and why hardware needs to verify, monitor, and recover systems in real time. He says traditional factory networks relied on “guns, guards, and gates,” and once OT systems connect to IT and the cloud, the attack surface expands dramatically, and cyber resilience becomes essential. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://cvent.me/w0eRN9?RefId=podcast

August 28, 20261 hr 20 min

From Teach-and-Repeat to SelfPath AI: The next robotics leap

On the show today our guest is John Black, CTO of Brain Corp. John shares how Brain Corp has evolved from proving autonomous navigation in public spaces to operating at fleet scale across cleaning, scanning, retail analytics, and new manipulation use cases. He explains why the real challenge is not just making robots smarter, but building the guardrails, infrastructure, and platform reuse needed to deploy them safely and reliably in the real world. John joins Gene Demaitre and Mike Oitzman to unpack how Brain Corp moved from proving autonomous navigation in public spaces to operating fleet scales across cleaning, inventory intelligence, and shelf scanning. He explains why the company’s next leap is less about building one perfect robot and more about creating a platform that can support many robot form factors, many applications, and many customers at once. You’ll discover: Why public spaces are the hardest test for autonomous robots, and how Brain Corp designs for safety without killing productivity How Brain OS evolved into a full-stack platform with cloud infrastructure, OTA updates, manufacturing tools, trust centers, and fleet management Why 50,000 connected robots and tens of millions of operating hours create a data advantage smaller fleets simply cannot match If you want a clear-eyed look at where physical AI is headed — and what it takes to make robots commercially useful instead of just impressive — this episode delivers the strategy behind the scale. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://cvent.me/w0eRN9?RefId=podcast

August 21, 20261 hr 7 min

How software-defined manufacturing fits into real factory operation

Roby Lynn, founder and CEO of R2 Labs, shares how his team is bringing software-defined automation to industrial manufacturing. He explains how the R2 Autonomy Controller connects PLCs, robots, vision systems, MES/ERP software, and other factory assets into one configurable platform. The conversation explores the growing gap between legacy OT systems and modern IT tools, and how R2 Labs is helping manufacturers unify workflows, improve visibility, and add intelligence without replacing the systems they already trust. Roby also reflects on lessons from building a company in a decades-old industry, including the importance of customer feedback, practical design, and solving real problems over chasing “cool” technology. ### Register now for RoboBusiness 2026: https://www.robobusiness.com/