Qualcomm to Acquire PickNik to Advance the Future of Open Robotics and Physical AI

Highlights:

• Qualcomm to acquire PickNik Robotics, reinforcing its continued investment in driving an open ecosystem for advanced physical AI and robotics.
• MoveIt, one of the most widely used open-source robotics manipulation frameworks, is expected to offer streamlined integration with Qualcomm® Dragonwing™ Robotics platforms and Arduino® platforms, expanding access to advanced robotics, and aiming to enable millions of developers to leverage edge AI and heterogeneous compute to build the next generation of intelligent robots.
• Qualcomm remains committed to PickNik’s open-source development, with MoveIt 1 and MoveIt 2 to remain open, community-driven, and supported across third-party hardware platforms. 

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced its agreement to acquire PickNik Inc., an industry recognized robotics software company and longtime steward of MoveIt, one of the world's most widely adopted open-source robotics manipulation frameworks. This acquisition is intended to strengthen Qualcomm Technologies' commitment to fostering an open robotics ecosystem, providing developers with the tools, software, and frameworks needed to move more efficiently from research and experimentation to prototyping, deployment, and production at scale. In addition to remaining open-source, MoveIt is expected to offer streamlined integration with Dragonwing robotics platforms—providing developers with a more streamlined path from AI models such as VLAs and VLMs to planning, manipulation, and real-time control. The closing of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

“Robotics is one of the most exciting frontiers of physical AI, and software is the connective tissue that turns great hardware into great robots,” said Nakul Duggal, EVP and Group GM, Automotive, Industrial and Embedded IoT, and Robotics, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “PickNik has earned tremendous trust within the global robotics community through its stewardship of MoveIt and its commitment to open-source innovation. Together, we plan to make it easier for developers to build advanced robotic applications on Dragonwing robotics platforms, while continuing to support the openness and collaboration that have made MoveIt successful.”

“Since our founding, PickNik’s mission has been to provide industries with a powerful, open platform that accelerates innovation and development of advanced robotics, well beyond traditional factories," said Dave Coleman, Founder and Chief Product Officer, PickNik Inc. “Joining Qualcomm Technologies will allow us to accelerate that mission, expand investment in MoveIt as a leading AI training platform for robotics, and deliver even more value to developers while preserving the openness, community collaboration, and cross-platform support that have always been central to our approach.”

“MoveIt is entering an exciting new chapter with the resources and support to help expand its impact,” said Dave Grant, Chief Executive Officer, PickNik Inc. “We look forward to joining Qualcomm Technologies and building on MoveIt’s momentum.”

Advancing Open Robotics Development

Built atop the Robot Operating System (ROS), MoveIt has been used extensively by developers, students, researchers, and commercial robotics organizations worldwide to create sophisticated robotic applications in nearly every industry, including industrial automation, service robotics, mobile manipulation, and emerging physical AI systems.

Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik recognize that MoveIt’s value comes from its openness, broad adoption, and active developer community. Accordingly, Qualcomm Technologies intends for MoveIt to remain open-source under its existing license with community-driven roadmaps and open resources. Qualcomm Technologies also intends to continue supporting MoveIt across third-party hardware providers. MoveIt’s hardware-agnostic design is a key enabler of innovation, giving developers the freedom to choose the robot, compute platforms, and sensor components that best fit their needs.

Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik are both founding members of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA) and Qualcomm Technologies intends to continue driving major projects including Space ROS, a hardened version of ROS optimized for critical applications such as space exploration. Qualcomm Technologies will continue to support the open source development of MoveIt and ROS.

Accelerating Robotics Development on Dragonwing and Arduino

As part of the acquisition, MoveIt, MoveIt Pro — PickNik’s commercial platform designed to support advanced robotics systems — and future PickNik technologies, are poised to become more closely integrated with Dragonwing robotics platforms. This integration will enable developers to more easily take advantage of Dragonwing’s advanced AI, heterogeneous computing, connectivity, and real-time robotics capabilities in order to help simplify robotics development, shorten deployment timelines, and accelerate innovation across a broad range of robotic applications. Developers building on Dragonwing should benefit from first-class, optimized support for MoveIt’s motion planning, manipulation, perception, and kinematics capabilities—helping to move from prototype to production faster while maintaining the flexibility to develop for diverse robotics architectures and deployment environments.

Starting with Arduino® VENTUNO™ Q boards, MoveIt integration with Arduino aims to make advanced robotics, edge AI, and heterogeneous compute more accessible than ever. This integration seeks to extend powerful motion planning and autonomy capabilities to target millions of developers, helping shorten the journey from prototype to production-ready robots.

This week at ROSCon Toronto, Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik will be displaying MoveIt Pro running on VENTUNO Q and Dragonwing robotics platforms. Visit the Qualcomm Technologies (9/10 & 16) and PickNik (7) booths to learn more.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is a global computing leader at the center of the AI era, enabling intelligence to scale from the most personal devices to large‑scale infrastructure. Building on more than four decades of innovation, we develop platforms and solutions that bring together advanced AI, high‑performance, low-power computing and industry‑leading connectivity—powering products and services used around the world.  At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.  Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm, Snapdragon, Qualcomm Dragonwing and Qualcomm Dragonfly are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.