The Rundown Robotics is reporting that the Federal Communications Commission has added foreign-made humanoids, robot dogs and connected power inverters to its national-security Covered List. It said this action effectively closes the U.S. market to new models of these advanced robotic systems. The FCC's order does not explicitly name China, but the country's firms shipped approximately 90% of the world's humanoids last year. The FCC stated that cameras, sensors and connectivity can turn robots into surveillance devices, and power inverters could be used to disrupt the electrical grid.
The Rundown Robotics also reported that DoorDash has received FAA Part 135 air carrier certification and launched DoorDash Air, an in-house drone program. It said the company plans to begin delivering small packages by drone this fall, initially with short flights within the operator's line of sight. DoorDash aims to develop ground infrastructure for restaurants to facilitate drone order handoffs. The drones utilize mostly U.S.-sourced components and were developed by DoorDash Labs, the same division that created the Dot sidewalk robot.
Separately, The Rundown Robotics highlighted 1Rollo, a new self-balancing monowheel security robot from Estonia. It said the prototype, developed by Rollo Robotics, is designed for patrolling tight, sensor-heavy sites with less hardware than traditional robot dogs or four-wheeled rovers. The robot features 360-degree vision, RTK GNSS, obstacle detection and a spinning internal flywheel for stability. Commercial rollout is slated for 2027.
Furthermore, The Rundown Robotics noted that researchers at MIT have demonstrated a new planning system for robots called VLASH. It said VLASH predicts a machine's future state, allowing it to line up its next move before the current one finishes, which reduces stop-start movements. The approach doubled performance in pick-and-place tasks and improved dynamic activities like table tennis, without adding computational overhead. A related tactic, action quantization, can help robots complete tasks two to three times faster by trading some accuracy for speed.