From AI to humanoids: top robotics trends of 2024

By Mike Oitzman | December 20, 2024

In Episode 178 of The Robot Report Podcast, we present our annual end-of-the-year review show. This episode features the voices of our entire editorial staff, including Steve Crowe, Mike Oitzman, Gene Demaitre and Brianna Wessling.

The staff recalls the good, the bad, and the ugly in 2024. The show also features guest commentary from A3 president Jeff Burnstein, Körber Supply Chain Solutions senior VP of robotics John Santagate, and Mytra AI co-founder and CEO Chris Walti.

2025 RBR50 awards open for nominations

You can submit nominations for the 2025 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards. They will recognize technology and business innovations in the calendar year 2024, and the awards are open to any company worldwide that produces robotics or automation.

The categories include:

1. Technologies, products, and services: This category includes primary or applied research focusing on robotics and supporting technologies such as motion control, vision, or machine learning. It also includes new products and business, engineering, or technology services.
2. Business and management: This category covers initiatives positioning a company as a market leader or an organization as an important thought leader in the robotics ecosystem. Significant mergers and acquisitions are relevant, as are supplier, partner, and integrator relationships.
3. Applications and markets: The RBR50 will also recognize innovations that improve productivity, quality, and cost-effectiveness, as well as those that automate new tasks.

In addition, the RBR50 awards will celebrate the following at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo:

• Startup of the Year
• Application of the Year
• Robot of the Year
• Robots for Good Award

The deadline for submissions is Friday, Dec. 20, 2024.

Podcast sponsored by FlexQube

This week’s show is sponsored by FlexQube. Move material with any size, shape, and weight with the FlexQube Navigator AMR (autonomous mobile robot), the world’s first multi-purpose and non-load-carrying robot.

The FlexQube Navigator AMR features a standardized coupling interface to connect with an ecosystem of different load carriers, depending on the customer’s needs.

The system also features a safety-rated identification of load carrier footprint to secure a safe and efficient scale-up of different use cases in a factory or warehouse. 

FlexQube Navigator – robotics that delivers! 

To learn more about FlexQube’s solutions, go to: https://www.flexqube.com