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Qualcomm to Acquire PickNik, Bringing MoveIt Robotics Software Closer to Dragonwing
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Qualcomm Technologies has agreed to acquire PickNik, the robotics software company behind the open-source MoveIt manipulation framework. The deal is intended to connect MoveIt’s motion-planning and manipulation capabilities more closely with Qualcomm’s Dragonwing robotics platforms. Terms have not been disclosed, and the agreement remains subject to customary closing conditions. Qualcomm and PickNik are demonstrating MoveIt Pro on Dragonwing and Arduino’s VENTUNO Q board at ROSCon Toronto this week.
MoveIt is an open-source framework built around the Robot Operating System (ROS), providing tools for motion planning, manipulation, perception, and kinematics. Those capabilities address a central robotics challenge: turning AI models into coordinated physical actions. Qualcomm says the combined stack could offer developers a more direct path from vision-language and vision-language-action models to motion planning and real-time robot control. Integrating these stages could make advanced robotic applications easier to design, deploy, and adapt across supported hardware.
Dragonwing brings AI processing, heterogeneous computing, connectivity, and real-time robotics capabilities to the proposed combination. Integrating PickNik’s tools with those features could streamline the deployment of advanced manipulation applications on Qualcomm platforms. PickNik’s commercial offering, MoveIt Pro, and future PickNik technologies are also expected to gain closer Dragonwing integration. The goal is to make it easier for developers to move from trained models to functioning robot systems without abandoning familiar development environments.
Open-source continuity is a central condition of Qualcomm’s plan for the acquisition. The company says MoveIt 1 and MoveIt 2 will remain open source under their existing licenses, with community-driven development and open resources continuing. Support for third-party hardware will also remain, allowing developers to use MoveIt across different robots, compute platforms, and sensors. Qualcomm and PickNik are founding members of the Open Source Robotics Alliance, a shared affiliation that reinforces their connection to the broader open-source robotics community.
The acquisition will also extend MoveIt’s reach into Arduino hardware, starting with the VENTUNO Q board. That initiative, alongside the planned Dragonwing integration, could broaden adoption by connecting robotics software with another class of supported development boards. Qualcomm also pledged continued support for ROS and Space ROS, the version of ROS designed for critical applications such as space exploration. The breadth of that roadmap suggests an effort to expand MoveIt’s developer base while preserving existing projects and application areas.
Qualcomm executive Nakul Duggal called robotics “one of the most exciting frontiers of physical AI” and described software as “the connective tissue that turns great hardware into great robots.” He said PickNik’s stewardship of MoveIt had earned trust across the global robotics community and that the combination should make advanced applications easier to build on Dragonwing. PickNik founder and chief product officer Dave Coleman said joining Qualcomm would accelerate investment in MoveIt as an AI training platform for robotics. He also emphasized preserving open-source development, community collaboration, and cross-platform support.
In the near term, the ROSCon demonstrations will provide a public look at MoveIt Pro running across Qualcomm’s robotics platforms and the VENTUNO Q board. Longer term, the companies’ stated goal is to create a more integrated path for training, deploying, and operating manipulation systems. The key questions will be whether tighter hardware integration delivers better performance and whether those gains remain accessible outside Dragonwing. Success would mean both stronger capabilities for Qualcomm’s ecosystem and continued confidence in MoveIt as independent, cross-platform software.
