Manufacturing & Industry

Humanoid Summit 2026 「Humanoid Robots: Crossing the Chasm from Concept to Commercial Reality」 Ani Kelkar, Partner at McKinsey & Company. The $2 Trillion Reshoring Dilemma and the Skilled Labor Crisis Over the past several decades, advanced Western economies—including the United States and Germany, alongside key Asian industrial leaders like Japan and South Korea—have witnessed a steady erosion of their domestic manufacturing strength, measured in employment, production capaci

In the world of mission-critical infrastructure—power grids, high-speed railways, hospitals, and water systems—there is zero room for error. The Silicon Valley mantra of "fail fast, fail often" cannot be applied to systems that sustain human lives and modern society. It is within this demanding environment that Hitachi is deploying "Physical AI"—a paradigm that marries physical operational technology (OT) with advanced artificial intelligence. This article explores the global

Humanoid Summit2026 「Humanoids, Interaction, and Real-World Deployment」 Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories at Osaka University At the landmark Humanoid Summit Tokyo 2026, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro—Osaka University Professor and the Director of the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories—delivered the opening keynote address under the title “Human Avatars and Future Society”. Speaking to a global audience, Is

Humanoid Summit2026 「Insights Into Disney’s Robotic Character Platform」 Dr. Moritz Bächer, Director of the Zurich Lab at Disney Research Disney Research is systematically dismantling the boundaries between digital screens and physical spaces with its cutting-edge Robotic Character Platform. Unveiled during a presentation titled "Insights into Disney's Robotic Character Platform" by Dr. Moritz Bächer, Director of the Zurich Lab at Disney Research, this initiative redefines "Ph

Humanoid Summit2026 「Dexterity: The Final Frontier for Physical AI」 James Wells, CEO at Sanctuary AI While the global artificial intelligence race has seen billions of dollars poured into compute, foundational models, and data pipelines, the physical application of AI has remained stalled at a single, frustrating bottleneck: dexterity. Robotic arms can move, and AI brains can think, but the ability of a mechanical hand to manipulate the world with human-like precision has rem

Humanoid Summit2026 「Year One of Humanoids — Japan's Deployment Frontline」 Tomohiro Uchida, CEO at GMO AI & Robotics Corporation In May 2026, Japan embarked on a landmark three-year demonstration project at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Co-developed by GMO Internet Group and Japan Airlines (JAL), the initiative deploys advanced humanoid robots to handle demanding back-of-house container transport operations. Beyond its immediate operational impact, this milestone project marks a pr

Humanoid Summit2026 “General-Purpose Robot Brains: A New Era of Industrial AI” Editorial Note This article is based directly on the primary source material and case studies presented during the joint keynote session by Dr. Ali Agha, Founder and CEO of Field AI, and Hashimoto-san of Kajima Corporation. It details the verified technological specifications, return-on-investment models, and multi-agent coordination systems demonstrated during their presentation. By shifting the

Session: Getting to the First Million Speakers: Dov Moran (Moderator) – Managing Partner, Grove Ventures Lockie Andrews – CEO and Founder, Catalyzes AI Leesa Eichberger – Fractional CMO Larry Li – Managing Partner, Amino Capital Barry O'Neill – Partner, Value Create Ventures Summary: This panel outlines critical pathways for early-stage startups to secure their first $100,000 and scale to $1 million, emphasizing that a company’s foundation relies heavily on finding complement