{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-04-14-gemini-robotics-er-1-6/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-04-14-gemini-robotics-er-1-6/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-04-14-gemini-robotics-er-1-6","date":"2026-04-14","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google DeepMind releases Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6","deck":"Boston Dynamics' Spot uses it to read gauges","takeaway":"On 2026-04-14 Google DeepMind released Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 (gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview), an embodied-reasoning model for robot perception, planning and success detection, in the Gemini API and AI Studio.","category":"robotics","category_label":"Robotics","importance":2,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Google DeepMind: Gemini Robotics ER 1.6","url":"https://deepmind.google/blog/gemini-robotics-er-1-6/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":2,"title":"Google blog: Gemini Robotics ER-1.6","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/gemini-robotics-er-1-6/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":3,"title":"Gemini API deprecations (ER 1.6 dates)","url":"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"ai.google.dev"},{"n":4,"title":"SiliconANGLE: DeepMind launches Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6","url":"https://siliconangle.com/2026/04/15/deepmind-launches-gemini-robotics-er-1-6-meet-precise-physical-ai-demands/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"siliconangle.com"}],"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Boston Dynamics"],"title":"Google DeepMind releases Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6; Boston Dynamics' Spot uses it to read gauges","summary":"On 2026-04-14 Google DeepMind released Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 (gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview), an embodied-reasoning model for robot perception, planning and success detection, in the Gemini API and AI Studio. Its new instrument-reading skill, built with Boston Dynamics for Spot's facility inspections, scored 86% (93% with agentic vision), up from 23% for ER 1.5 and 67% for Gemini 3 Flash.","key_facts":["Released 2026-04-14 in the Gemini API / Google AI Studio as gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview (shut down 2026-08-31, replaced by ER 2)","Instrument reading (pressure gauges, thermometers, sight glasses, digital readouts): ER 1.5 23%, Gemini 3 Flash 67%, ER 1.6 86%, ER 1.6 + agentic vision 93%","Improved pointing, counting and multi-view success detection over ER 1.5 and Gemini 3 Flash","Deployed in Boston Dynamics Spot for autonomous industrial inspection rounds","DeepMind reports better adherence to physical safety constraints (e.g. gripper/material limits)"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["embodied-reasoning","gemini","api","inspection","spot"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nER 1.6 is the \"thinking\" layer of the Gemini Robotics stack. It looks at camera feeds, points at and counts objects, plans steps and judges whether a task succeeded, then hands off to a VLA or to a robot's own controllers. The headline new skill, reading analog instruments, came from work with Boston Dynamics, whose Spot robots use it on inspection rounds.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt is a concrete, measurable commercial use of a frontier multimodal model inside a deployed robot fleet. ER 1.6 was superseded about four months later by Gemini Robotics-ER 2.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-07-30-gemini-robotics-2","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-30-gemini-robotics-2/","date":"2026-07-30","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google DeepMind launches Gemini Robotics 2 family with whole-body humanoid control","deck":null,"takeaway":"It moves Google's robotics stack from tabletop arm manipulation to general-purpose humanoid bodies, with a hosted \"robot brain\" API developers can use today — a key piece in the 2026 race for physical AI.","category":"robotics","category_label":"Robotics","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":6,"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[{"id":"gemini-robotics-er-1","name":"Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5 / 1.6","url":"https://postcutoff.com/m/gemini-robotics-er-1/"}],"changes":[{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-09-29","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":14,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":null}