What are the best free service robot news sites for following prototype progress and industry updates?

Here are some of the best free sources for following service robot prototype progress, product launches, funding, deployments, and industry news.

Best general robot news sites

1. The Robot Report
   Strong coverage of robotics business news, product announcements, startups, and service robot deployments.
   Best for: broad industry updates and commercial robotics trends.

2. Robotics & Automation News
   Good for regular news on automation, robotics companies, and new platforms.
   Best for: quick industry scanning.

3. IEEE Spectrum – Robotics
   Very solid reporting and analysis, especially for technical prototype progress and research-to-product transitions.
   Best for: deeper context on what’s actually advancing.

4. Interesting Engineering – Robotics
   Covers prototypes, demos, and emerging service robot concepts, though it can be more general tech-news oriented.
   Best for: seeing what’s new and visually impressive.

5. TechCrunch Robotics / AI coverage
   Useful for funding rounds, startup launches, and commercial robotics companies.
   Best for: startup and investor activity.

Best for service-robot-specific developments

6. Servicerobotics.com
   Focuses more directly on service robotics and related industry news.
   Best for: service robot market and deployment updates.

7. RobotBB / robotics blogs and newsletters
   Aggregates robotics news from across the web.
   Best for: browsing multiple sources quickly.

8. The Spoon
   Not robotics-only, but strong coverage of service robots in food service, retail, delivery, and hospitality.
   Best for: real-world service robot adoption.

9. Automate.org news and resources
   Industry-oriented and useful for automation/robotics ecosystem updates.
   Best for: market and trade perspectives.

Best for prototype and research progress

10. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society / conference news
    Good for early-stage prototypes, especially from major conferences.
    Best for: cutting-edge research before commercialization.

11. arXiv + robotics conference proceedings
    Not a news site, but excellent for tracking the earliest prototype work.
    Best for: new methods and prototype ideas before press coverage.

12. RoboHub
    Often highlights academic robotics, prototype demos, and emerging projects.
    Best for: research and demo-oriented updates.

Best free way to keep up efficiently

If you want a simple workflow, I’d suggest:

• The Robot Report for business/deployment news
• IEEE Spectrum Robotics for technical progress
• The Spoon for service-robot use cases
• TechCrunch for startup/funding updates
• arXiv/RoboHub for early prototype research

Tip: use news aggregators

To stay current without visiting many sites:

• Google News alerts for “service robot”, “delivery robot”, “hospitality robot”, “robot prototype”
• RSS readers like Feedly
• LinkedIn company pages for robotics startups and integrators

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a ranked top 10 list specifically for service robots, or
2. a list of the best newsletters and RSS feeds for this topic.