At CES, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled a new end-to-end robotics architecture and its latest premium-tier robotics processor, the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ10 Series, positioning the combined hardware and software stack as a foundation for “Physical AI” systems ranging from household and personal service robots to industrial autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and full-size humanoids.
The company said its next-generation robotics architecture integrates hardware, software, and what it described as “compound AI” to help move robotics from prototypes to deployment-ready machines. Qualcomm framed the approach around safety-grade, high-performance system-on-chip platforms designed for low latency and power efficiency, with an emphasis on scalability across different robot form factors and use cases in retail, logistics, manufacturing, and other industrial environments.
Qualcomm said the Dragonwing IQ10 Series expands its robotics processor roadmap and is aimed at advanced AMRs and humanoids, delivering what it characterized as high-performance, energy-efficient “brain of the robot” compute. The company said the platform supports workloads spanning sensing, perception, planning, and action, and is intended to enable robots that can reason, adapt, and make decisions in dynamic real-world settings. Qualcomm also pointed to support for advanced perception and motion planning with end-to-end AI models, including vision-language-action and vision-language models, to enable more generalized manipulation and human-robot interaction.
As part of its broader robotics push, Qualcomm said it is collaborating with Figure to help define next-generation compute architecture as Figure scales its humanoid platforms. Qualcomm also highlighted an expanding ecosystem of partners working with its robotics platforms, naming companies including Advantech, APLUX, AutoCore, Booster, Figure, Kuka Robotics, Robotec.ai, and VinMotion. Qualcomm said it is also engaged in discussions with Kuka regarding next-generation robotics solutions.
At CES, Qualcomm said VinMotion’s Motion 2 humanoid, powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series, will be shown at Qualcomm’s booth (#5001), alongside Booster’s K1 Geek. Qualcomm also said it is demonstrating Advantech’s commercially available robotics development kit intended to speed multi-application development and deployment, as well as teleoperation tooling and an “AI data flywheel” concept for collecting data, training, and continuously deploying new skills across robotic platforms.
KEY QUOTES:
“As pioneers in energy efficient, high–performance Physical AI systems, we know what it takes to make even the most complex robotics systems perform reliably, safely, and at scale. By building on our strong foundational low-latency safety-grade high performance technologies ranging from sensing, perception to planning and action, we’re redefining what’s possible with physical AI by moving intelligent machines out of the labs and into real-world environments.”
Nakul Duggal, Executive Vice President and Group General Manager, Automotive, Industrial and Embedded IoT and Robotics, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“Figure’s mission is to develop general-purpose humanoid robots powered by advanced AI to eliminate unsafe and undesirable jobs, boost productivity across industries, and create economic abundance that enables happier, more purposeful lives for humanity. Qualcomm Technologies’ platform, with its combination of exceptional compute capabilities and energy efficiency, is a valuable building block in enabling Figure to turn our vision into reality.”
Brett Adcock, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Figure
