Qualcomm Assembles Its Robotics Play With New Architecture and IQ10 Chip

• Qualcomm introduced a full-stack robotics architecture alongside the Dragonwing IQ10 processor for humanoids and autonomous mobile robots.
• The company is working with partners including Figure, Kuka, and Booster to scale deployment across general-purpose robotics systems.

At CES, Qualcomm Technologies announced a new full-stack robotics architecture designed to support a wide range of autonomous systems—from service robots to full-size humanoids. Central to the launch is the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ10 Series, a high-performance, energy-efficient processor designed for advanced autonomous mobile robots and humanoids. Qualcomm positions the IQ10 as a critical step in enabling physical AI systems that can reason, adapt, and operate safely in complex environments.

“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,” said Nakul Duggal, EVP and Group General Manager, Automotive, Industrial & Embedded IoT and Robotics, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, in a press release. “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.”

The architecture builds on Qualcomm’s existing Dragonwing roadmap and supports general-purpose robotics across multiple form factors. It enables safety-grade performance and supports perception, motion planning, and human-robot interaction through end-to-end AI models such as VLAs and VLMs. Qualcomm is targeting use in retail, logistics, and manufacturing, with a focus on scalable deployment and industrial-grade reliability.

Qualcomm is working with a broad set of partners to bring deployment-ready robotics to market. The company is collaborating with Figure to define future compute architecture for general-purpose humanoids and is in discussions with Kuka Robotics on next-generation solutions. Earlier-generation Dragonwing processors are already powering humanoid robots from VinMotion and Booster. Qualcomm is also engaged with ecosystem players such as Robotec.ai and Advantech to support scalable development across robotics form factors.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

Collaborating with established robotics partners gives Qualcomm a faster path to real-world deployment. It turns its platform into more than just a reference design.

Source: Business Wire / Qualcomm