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According to Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., the company announced on September 23, 2026, that it has entered into an agreement to acquire PickNik Inc., a robotics software company and longtime steward of MoveIt, one of the world’s most widely used open-source robotics manipulation frameworks. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the deal remains subject to customary closing conditions.

Founded in 2015, PickNik has focused on advancing robotic manipulation technology and building open software for robotics development. The company has played a key role in maintaining and advancing MoveIt, which is built on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and has become widely used by developers, researchers, students, and commercial robotics organizations.

MoveIt is used to develop robotic applications across areas including industrial automation, service robotics, mobile manipulation, and emerging physical AI systems. Through the acquisition, Qualcomm Technologies aims to strengthen its commitment to an open robotics ecosystem and provide developers with software, tools, and frameworks that can help them move from research and experimentation to prototyping, deployment, and production more efficiently.

Qualcomm said MoveIt will remain open source under its existing license, with community-driven development and support for third-party hardware platforms. Its hardware-agnostic architecture will also continue to allow developers to select the robots, computing platforms, and sensors that best meet their application requirements.

As part of the planned acquisition, MoveIt, MoveIt Pro and future PickNik technologies are expected to become more closely integrated with Qualcomm Dragonwing robotics platforms. The integration is designed to give developers greater access to Dragonwing’s AI, heterogeneous computing, connectivity and real-time robotics capabilities. It is also intended to provide a more streamlined development path from AI models such as Vision-Language-Action (VLA) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to motion planning, manipulation and real-time control.

Qualcomm Technologies Executive Vice President and Group General Manager Nakul Duggal said that software plays an important role in connecting advanced hardware with robotics applications. He noted that PickNik has established strong recognition within the robotics community through its stewardship of MoveIt and its commitment to open-source development. Qualcomm plans to work with PickNik to make it easier for developers to build advanced robotic applications on Dragonwing platforms while maintaining the openness and collaboration associated with MoveIt.

PickNik Founder and Chief Product Officer Dave Coleman said that joining Qualcomm Technologies will allow the company to accelerate its mission of providing an open platform for advanced robotics. He added that the company plans to increase investment in MoveIt as a robotics AI training platform while continuing to emphasize openness, community collaboration and cross-platform support. PickNik CEO Dave Grant said the acquisition will provide additional resources and support as MoveIt enters its next stage of development.

Advancing Open Robotics Development

MoveIt is built on ROS and has been adopted for sophisticated robotics applications across a wide range of industries. Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik said that MoveIt’s continued value is closely linked to its open architecture, broad adoption and active developer community.

Qualcomm intends to maintain MoveIt 1 and MoveIt 2 as open-source projects under their existing licenses, while continuing community-driven roadmaps and open development resources. The company also plans to support MoveIt across third-party hardware platforms.

Both Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik are founding members of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA). Qualcomm also plans to continue supporting major open-source robotics initiatives, including Space ROS, a hardened version of ROS designed for critical applications such as space exploration.

Expanding Robotics Development Across Dragonwing and Arduino

The acquisition is also expected to strengthen integration between MoveIt and the Qualcomm Dragonwing robotics platform. Developers will be able to leverage MoveIt’s motion planning, manipulation, perception and kinematics capabilities alongside Dragonwing’s AI and computing technologies, helping simplify robotics development and shorten the path from prototypes to production systems.

MoveIt integration with Arduino is beginning with the Arduino VENTUNO Q development board. The initiative is intended to make advanced robotics, edge AI and heterogeneous computing more accessible to a broader developer community while extending motion-planning and autonomous-control capabilities to new robotics applications.

At ROSCon Toronto this week, Qualcomm Technologies and PickNik are demonstrating MoveIt Pro running on the Arduino VENTUNO Q and Qualcomm Dragonwing robotics platforms, highlighting the companies’ plans for closer integration between open-source robotics software and advanced edge computing platforms.