Service, not hardware, decides whether robots last.
Interoperability standards are maturing, fleet software is spreading and skills are short. Follow the integrators, maintainers and standards shaping robots at work, then plan support with The Humanoid Group.
What moved in robot services this year.
5 million industrial robots in operation worldwide, a record, up 9% in 2025 (IFR World Robotics 2026, 2025)
655,000 industrial robot installations forecast worldwide for 2026 (IFR World Robotics 2026, 2026)
6.6% year-on-year rise in A3-tracked robot orders by value, first half of 2026 (The Robot Report (A3 data), 2026)
ANYbotics launches Shift to run inspection robot fleets and feed maintenance systems
· Launch
Swiss robot maker ANYbotics launched Shift, a cloud platform that schedules and monitors inspection robot fleets, analyzes thermal, acoustic, visual and gas readings, and passes findings to maintenance and ERP systems such as SAP and IBM Maximo. It already runs across more than 200 robot deployments, including 33,000 inspections in 16 months at one cement plant.
Why it matters: Robot data is most useful when it lands where maintenance teams already work. Before buying, ask which work-order, ERP and asset systems a fleet platform connects to out of the box.
ASI and SoftBank form a $225 million venture to run mixed autonomous construction fleets
· Partnership
Utah-based Autonomous Solutions Inc. and SoftBank Group formed a joint venture backed by $225 million in new SoftBank capital. It will deploy ASI's Mobius orchestration software, which coordinates haul trucks, dozers, loaders and compactors from different manufacturers, on large projects such as roads, airports and railways, citing a shortage of skilled equipment operators.
Why it matters: Brand-agnostic orchestration lets one team supervise machines from several makers. Wherever fleets mix vendors, ask whether the control software works across brands or locks you into one.
Intrinsic open-sources a ROS-compatible core for building robot arm applications
· Launch
Intrinsic, an Alphabet company, released Intrinsic Core under the Apache 2.0 license at ROSCon 2026 in Toronto. The ROS-compatible suite includes hardware-agnostic real-time control, motion and grasp planning, pose estimation, Gazebo simulation, camera calibration and drivers for FANUC and Universal Robots arms, plus a reference design for CNC machine tending.
Why it matters: Open, ROS-compatible building blocks can reduce dependence on one integrator's private code. Ask integrators which parts of a cell they build on open software and who maintains it after handover.
Robotics: Standards— Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Lists the OSHA rules and consensus standards, such as ANSI/RIA R15.06, that apply to robot systems.