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Inside the 16-Person NASA Team in Houston Building Robot Helpers for the Moon
Industrial October 12, 2026

Inside the 16-Person NASA Team in Houston Building Robot Helpers for the Moon

NASA's Dexterous Robotics Team at Johnson Space Center is developing robots to do the hauling, maintenance, and risky repairs on future Moon missions. Its iMETRO testbed, open to outside companies, has already been used to test software that lets a robot arm open a spacecraft hatch and move cargo on its own.

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Persona AI Has Sold $65 Million of a Planned $142 Million Raise, an SEC Filing Shows
Industrial
Persona AI Has Sold $65 Million of a Planned $142 Million Raise, an SEC Filing Shows
A Form D filed September 14 shows Houston humanoid startup Persona AI has sold $65.4 million of a $142 million securities offering to 46 investors. The money backs a narrow bet the company has spelled out publicly: humanoids that do shipyard welding with the same handheld tools people use.
Houston Robotics Staff Oct 12, 2026
At Rice, the Fabric Is the Robot
Industrial
At Rice, the Fabric Is the Robot
Most soft robots are machines wrapped in fabric. Rice's Vanessa Sanchez is building the opposite: knitted textiles with sensing, movement, and mechanical function encoded directly into the stitch structure. A Toyota fellowship is funding the work toward car seats, assistive clothing, and soft safety systems.
Houston Robotics Staff Sep 25, 2026
Intuitive Machines Books a $600M Satellite Deal — and a NASA Earth-Observation Contract a Day Later
Industrial
Intuitive Machines Books a $600M Satellite Deal — and a NASA Earth-Observation Contract a Day Later
Houston's Intuitive Machines won a $600M+ contract to build three commercial satellites for a communications mission, then landed a NASA contract for its IM-300 spacecraft bus on the EAGLE-VSWIR Earth-observation mission. Its order backlog has reached a record $1.8 billion.
Houston Robotics Staff Sep 2, 2026
The Houston Company Trying to Kill Robot Programming
Industrial
The Houston Company Trying to Kill Robot Programming
The reason most fabrication shops can't use welding robots isn't the welding — it's the programming. Houston-based Abagy uses computer vision and AI to generate robot weld paths automatically in minutes, letting a single cell handle 150+ different part types a month. It's an attack on the real bottleneck in high-mix automation.
Houston Robotics Staff Aug 13, 2026
Why Welding Is So Hard to Automate — and Why Houston Keeps Trying
Industrial
Why Welding Is So Hard to Automate — and Why Houston Keeps Trying
Welding is one of the most automated tasks in manufacturing and one of the least automated in heavy industry — a contradiction that comes down to repeatability. A guide to why welding robots thrive in factories but struggle on pipe and in shipyards, and why Houston companies from ARC Specialties to Persona AI keep attacking the problem.
Houston Robotics Staff Aug 5, 2026
How Automated Is Port Houston, Really? Inside the Machines Moving America's Fifth-Largest Container Port
Industrial
How Automated Is Port Houston, Really? Inside the Machines Moving America's Fifth-Largest Container Port
Port Houston moved more than 1 million TEUs in a single quarter and is now a top-five U.S. container port — powered by 21 ship-to-shore cranes at Bayport, a 163-strong fleet of rubber-tired gantry cranes, and a growing layer of automation. A look at what's actually automated, what isn't, and why.
Houston Robotics Staff Aug 5, 2026
Construction Is the Next Great Robotics Frontier — and Houston Has a Stake in It
Industrial
Construction Is the Next Great Robotics Frontier — and Houston Has a Stake in It
Investors have poured hundreds of millions into startups retrofitting excavators and dozers into self-driving machines. A guide to why construction is robotics' hardest and most valuable frontier, the approaches competing to win it, and where Houston companies like Rugged Robotics fit in.
Houston Robotics Staff Aug 5, 2026
A Houston Robot Turns Crop Waste Into Soil Carbon Without Ever Leaving the Field
Industrial
A Houston Robot Turns Crop Waste Into Soil Carbon Without Ever Leaving the Field
Houston's Climate Robotics — now Applied Carbon — built a machine that drives across a harvested field, picks up crop residue, and pyrolyzes it into biochar in a single pass, spreading it back onto the soil. The company raised a $21.5M Series A backed by the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund to deploy across Texas and neighboring states.
Houston Robotics Staff Aug 4, 2026
Two Houston-Area Companies Win NASA Funding to Build Robots That Roam Mars
Industrial
Two Houston-Area Companies Win NASA Funding to Build Robots That Roam Mars
NASA's new $17M STRIDE initiative tapped seven companies to develop mobility systems for exploring the Martian surface — and two are from the Houston area: Intuitive Machines and Webster's Aegis Aerospace. The goal is robots that can reach challenging terrain and travel farther across Mars than today's rovers.
Houston Robotics Staff Jul 28, 2026
Universal Robots vs. Standard Bots: How to Actually Choose a Cobot
Industrial
Universal Robots vs. Standard Bots: How to Actually Choose a Cobot
The collaborative-robot market has a clear incumbent (Universal Robots) and a fast-rising challenger (Standard Bots). Neither is universally 'better.' A neutral, decision-focused guide to how a manufacturer — including Texas plants weighing their first cobot — should compare them on payload, ecosystem, price, programming, and support.
Houston Robotics Staff Jul 17, 2026
Intuitive Machines Lands $148M From NASA to Help Build a Moon Base
Industrial
Intuitive Machines Lands $148M From NASA to Help Build a Moon Base
Houston's Intuitive Machines won a $148.3M NASA award — its sixth Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order — to fly a Nova-C lander to the Moon by 2028 as part of a $600M push toward a lunar South Pole base. CEO Steve Altemus frames the moment as a shift from custom aerospace engineering to commercial mass production of robotic landers.
Houston Robotics Staff Jul 17, 2026
Humanoid Robots Are Coming to a Houston Factory Floor — to Build the AI Servers That Power the Boom
Industrial
Humanoid Robots Are Coming to a Houston Factory Floor — to Build the AI Servers That Power the Boom
Foxconn is deploying NVIDIA-powered humanoid robots at its Houston plant that builds Nvidia's AI servers — one of the first real industrial humanoid deployments in the U.S. The robots, running NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T platform, will handle pick-and-place, screw-fastening, and material handling alongside human workers.
Houston Robotics Staff Jul 8, 2026
What Is a Cobot — and Should Your Texas Plant Use One?
Industrial
What Is a Cobot — and Should Your Texas Plant Use One?
Collaborative robots — cobots — are the most accessible entry point into automation for Texas manufacturers: they work alongside people without a safety cage, install in days, and redeploy easily. A plain-English guide to what they are, what they're good at, the safety rules, and the honest limitations.
Houston Robotics Staff Jun 28, 2026
Houston's Intuitive Machines Scales Up Its Lunar Robotics Operation With a New Center of Excellence
Industrial
Houston's Intuitive Machines Scales Up Its Lunar Robotics Operation With a New Center of Excellence
Intuitive Machines, the Houston Spaceport-headquartered lunar lander company, is expanding its dedicated robotics operation with a 69,000-square-foot Mechanisms and Robotics Center of Excellence, backed by a $1 million Maryland state grant. The team builds the robotic mechanisms behind the company's Nova-C Moon landers.
Houston Robotics Staff Jun 24, 2026
Houston Is Mission Control — and a Robotics Lab: Inside Space Robotics at Johnson Space Center
Industrial
Houston Is Mission Control — and a Robotics Lab: Inside Space Robotics at Johnson Space Center
NASA's Johnson Space Center has spent decades building some of the most advanced robots ever made — Robonaut, the Valkyrie humanoid, the free-flying Astrobee. That work is now a talent engine for Houston's commercial robotics industry, with JSC-trained engineers building the robots that work in space, on the Moon, and in Gulf Coast energy facilities.
Houston Robotics Staff Jun 24, 2026
Persona AI Teams With Under Armour to Armor Its Humanoid Robots for the Shipyard
Industrial
Persona AI Teams With Under Armour to Armor Its Humanoid Robots for the Shipyard
Houston humanoid robotics startup Persona AI has partnered with Under Armour to adapt the sportswear maker's performance textiles into protective skins for robots working in hazardous industrial environments like shipyards — a novel crossover between athletic apparel engineering and industrial robotics.
Houston Robotics Staff Jun 19, 2026
The Woodlands Is Ground Zero for Energy Drone and Robotics This Month — Inside the 10th Annual EDR Summit
Industrial
The Woodlands Is Ground Zero for Energy Drone and Robotics This Month — Inside the 10th Annual EDR Summit
The 10th Annual Energy Drone & Robotics Summit convenes June 22–24 at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott, bringing 1,500+ energy industry professionals together for three days of keynotes, live demos, and operational sessions on drones, robotics, and AI across oil and gas, utilities, and infrastructure.
Houston Robotics Staff Jun 10, 2026
Stord Raises $250 Million to Build the Robotics-Powered Amazon Alternative
Industrial
Stord Raises $250 Million to Build the Robotics-Powered Amazon Alternative
Fulfillment tech company Stord has raised $250 million at a $3 billion valuation — backed by Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, and Franklin Templeton — while simultaneously launching Stord Labs, a dedicated robotics and physical AI facility that tests autonomous systems against real warehouse orders before deploying them across its 100-facility network.
Houston Robotics Staff May 29, 2026
Unitree Built a 9-Foot Piloted Mech You Can Buy for $574,000
Industrial
Unitree Built a 9-Foot Piloted Mech You Can Buy for $574,000
Unitree — the Chinese robotics company that shipped more humanoid robots than anyone else in 2025 — has unveiled the GD01: a 500kg, 2.8-meter piloted mech that transforms between bipedal and quadruped forms, priced at 3.9 million yuan ($574,000) and classified as a civilian vehicle.
Houston Robotics Staff May 25, 2026
Rocket Lab Acquires Motiv Space Systems, Bringing Mars Robot Heritage In-House
Industrial
Rocket Lab Acquires Motiv Space Systems, Bringing Mars Robot Heritage In-House
Rocket Lab announced the acquisition of Motiv Space Systems — the Pasadena robotics firm whose arms and actuators flew on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and CADRE lunar rovers — bringing proven deep-space robotics hardware into Rocket Lab’s spacecraft manufacturing stack.
Houston Robotics Staff May 18, 2026
Mind Robotics Hits $1 Billion Raised in 60 Days, Deploying AI Robots Inside Rivian's Factory
Industrial
Mind Robotics Hits $1 Billion Raised in 60 Days, Deploying AI Robots Inside Rivian's Factory
Mind Robotics — the industrial AI robotics company spun out of Rivian and chaired by CEO RJ Scaringe — closed a $400 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing total funding past $1 billion in less than 60 days as it actively deploys robots inside Rivian's manufacturing plant.
Houston Robotics Staff May 18, 2026
Figure AI Raises $1 Billion at $39B Valuation — Then Runs Its Robots for 81 Hours Straight
Industrial
Figure AI Raises $1 Billion at $39B Valuation — Then Runs Its Robots for 81 Hours Straight
Figure AI closed a $1 billion Series C at a $39 billion valuation this week, backed by Nvidia, Qualcomm, Salesforce, and others — then immediately ran three of its humanoid robots autonomously for 81 consecutive hours, sorting over 101,000 packages without human intervention.
Houston Robotics Staff May 18, 2026
Robot Orders Are Holding Steady — But the Mix Is Shifting Fast
Industrial
Robot Orders Are Holding Steady — But the Mix Is Shifting Fast
North American companies ordered 9,055 robots worth $543 million in Q1 2026, according to new A3 data. Automotive is slumping, but cobots are up 55% and life sciences, semiconductors, and food manufacturing are driving a broadening of automation demand.
Houston Robotics Staff May 14, 2026
Tesla Is Building Its Robot Factory in Texas — 10 Million Optimus Units a Year
Industrial
Tesla Is Building Its Robot Factory in Texas — 10 Million Optimus Units a Year
Tesla has begun Optimus humanoid robot production at its Fremont facility and is breaking ground on a Texas Gigafactory line targeting 10 million units annually — phasing out car production lines to make room for what it calls a robotics-first future.
Houston Robotics Staff May 14, 2026
Humanoid Robots Are Headed to Real Factory Floors — Schaeffler Just Proved It
Industrial
Humanoid Robots Are Headed to Real Factory Floors — Schaeffler Just Proved It
UK startup Humanoid signed one of the largest humanoid robot deployment deals ever announced, committing to put thousands of wheeled robots into Schaeffler's live manufacturing operations across Germany by 2032 — with first units running before year-end.
Houston Robotics Staff May 14, 2026
Persona AI Taps Amazon Robotics Veteran to Lead Global Manufacturing
Industrial
Persona AI Taps Amazon Robotics Veteran to Lead Global Manufacturing
Houston humanoid robotics startup Persona AI has hired Brian Davis — a former Amazon Robotics and Dell Technologies manufacturing executive — as its head of global manufacturing, signaling a push to scale production of its industrial humanoid robots.
Houston Robotics Staff May 10, 2026
Autonomous Trucks Are Now Hauling Freight on the Dallas-Houston Corridor
Industrial
Autonomous Trucks Are Now Hauling Freight on the Dallas-Houston Corridor
Kodiak AI's self-driving trucks began commercial freight runs between Dallas and Houston in April 2026, marking a milestone for autonomous logistics on one of Texas's busiest industrial corridors — with full driverless operations targeted by year end.
Houston Robotics Staff May 9, 2026
Building a Moon Suit: Inside the Robotics and Engineering of Axiom Space's AxEMU
Industrial
Building a Moon Suit: Inside the Robotics and Engineering of Axiom Space's AxEMU
Houston's Axiom Space has entered production on the AxEMU — the next-generation spacesuit that will carry astronauts back to the lunar surface on Artemis III. A look at the suit as a wearable life-support machine, and the robotic systems, like the Argos gravity-offload crane, used to test it.
Houston Robotics Staff Mar 18, 2026