A single destination for timely, editor-curated robotics news from around the world.
Tencent has announced the open-source release of three embodied foundation models during the WAIC 2026 event. These models include a Visual Language Model (VLM) designed for scene understanding, the RxBrain cognitive model that facilitates planning with visual states, and the VLA model, which suppor...
Helm.ai announced it has signed $70 million in commercial contracts for its foundation models focused on physical AI over the past year. These contracts involve global automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and industrial automation companies, with a primary focus on the automotive sector. The signific...
Dalian University of Technology has introduced VA-Bench, a testing framework that evaluates 12 multimodal model setups on various robot-arm tasks. Among these models, Qwen3.8-max achieved the highest success rate, completing 53.93% of the tasks. However, none of the models managed to finish a strict...
Sales of humanoid robots are experiencing a significant surge, primarily driven by high-performance models, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan. The report, released on September 28, indicates a shift in the industry from technology validation and small-scale deliveries to large-scale p...
On September 18, 2026, independent testing organization Robocurve released a benchmark report titled RoboHarm. The report addresses a critical question regarding AI: can large language models effectively recognize and reject dangerous commands when controlling real robotic arms? The study tested thr...
Light Origins has launched Light-O1, its first general-purpose embodied foundation model, which utilizes human actions extracted from internet videos to provide a reusable framework for robots to learn various tasks. The company trained six versions of the 4-billion-parameter model on multimodal tok...
China Mobile has announced the open-source release of its Open-RAIL middleware, designed to facilitate the integration of VLA/WAM models with robotic hardware. This middleware introduces asynchronous inference, hardware abstraction, and approximately 50 to 100 lines of code for model hooks, enabling...
China Mobile has announced the open-source release of Open-RAIL, an engineering base designed to integrate vision-language-action and world-action-model systems with robotic platforms. This innovative framework allows for seamless model inference, real-robot execution, data feedback, and model itera...
GPT-6 Astra's performance in robotics evaluations has shown significant advancements, surpassing open-source models in a recent MolmoSpaces assessment. The model achieved a score of 70.5%, outperforming competitors like Cosmos3 and MolmoAct-2, which scored 53.0% and 38.6%, respectively. This progres...
Skild AI has launched the S1, a groundbreaking robotics foundation model that allows robots to learn manipulation tasks from just one video demonstration. This innovative model eliminates the need for task-specific fine-tuning or post-training, streamlining the learning process for robotic systems....
Faraday Future (FF) announced the launch of nine new robot models during a press conference on September 19, 2023. These models include humanoid, quadruped, and wheeled-arm robots, marking a significant expansion in FF's product lineup aimed at achieving market dominance in the U.S. robotics sector....
On September 14, Digua Robotics and Giga Vision announced a strategic collaboration focused on integrating their respective technologies. Giga Vision will provide world models, embodied foundational models, and real-world application experience, while Digua Robotics will contribute an edge AI comput...
Humanoid robots are evolving from simple tools to complex partners, driven by advancements in large models. The architecture of these robots consists of a 'cerebellum' for motion control and a 'brain' for understanding tasks and making decisions. Companies like Yushutech and Tesla are at the forefro...
Skild AI has introduced S1, its flagship robot foundation model designed to enable in-context learning for robotics. The model allows robots to learn complex tasks by observing a single video, a significant advancement since the company's founding in 2023, during which it raised nearly $1.7 billion...
Florent Delgrange received the Best Blue Sky Paper Award at AAMAS 2026 for his research on Foundation World Models for agents that adapt in dynamic environments. His work addresses the challenge of ensuring that autonomous agents continue to learn effectively while maintaining reliable behavior in c...
Xiaomi reported a revenue of 108.92 billion yuan in Q2 2026, marking a significant stabilization amidst fierce competition. The company's attributable net profit has doubled, reflecting its successful diversification beyond traditional markets like phones and cars. This growth is attributed to seve...
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a resolution to regulate the use of humanoid robots in commercial settings. This resolution, authored by Supervisor Ray Mueller, aims to draft an ordinance that imposes strict oversight on 'untethered, autonomous or semi-autonomous h...
China is redefining its export landscape with a new trio of products: robots, AI models, and innovative drugs. This shift is exemplified by wall-climbing cleaning robots being utilized in Australia and Chinese large language models (LLMs) powering Brazilian energy grids. This transformation in expo...
Xiaomi has announced the open-source release of its embodied-AI foundation model, Xiaomi-Robotics-1, on August 5. This release encompasses the entire process from real-robot post-training to model deployment, along with code for benchmark evaluations. The model was pretrained on over 100,000 hours o...
Foundation Robotics has released a video showcasing its innovative robotic hand that successfully catches a baseball mid-air, demonstrating significant advancements in robotic dexterity and control. This development is crucial as it illustrates how enhanced mechanical design and motion planning are...
Mimic Robotics has launched FLUX-mimic, an advanced Video-Action Model developed with Black Forest Labs, designed for industrial automation. This model allows robots to learn complex manipulation tasks in real-world settings, significantly reducing the time required for training and deployment. The...
Contactile has developed tactile sensors for robotic hands and grippers that enhance world models in robotics. These sensors address the limitations of current conditioning methods, which primarily rely on visual inputs and joint encoders, by incorporating friction as a critical input. This advancem...
As of July 20, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that China has developed over 400 humanoid robot models, accounting for more than half of the global total. Additionally, autonomous quadruped robots represent nearly 70% of global sales. The penetration rate of AI technolog...
Noetra, in collaboration with key partners including Sony, SoftBank, NEC, and Honda Motor, has launched extensive R&D for a multimodal foundation model aimed at enhancing AI-enabled robotics in Japan. This initiative is part of a broader effort to develop sovereign AI technologies within the country...
PHANES AI, established by 28-year-old Yang Shuo from HIT, has introduced TouchWorld, a tactile foundation model designed to enhance robotic manipulation capabilities. This model enables robots to perform precise physical tasks by incorporating a sense of touch, marking a significant advancement in r...
Microagi has appointed Animesh Garg as its chief research officer, aiming to transform robot models into reliable workers. This strategic move, announced on September 29, emphasizes post-training as a core focus for the German company. Garg, who has an extensive background in robot-learning research...
DexRobot is presenting its advanced dexterous manipulation technologies at IROS 2026, highlighting the DexGEM platform and the DexHand021 Pro. The company is showcasing its capabilities through three accepted research papers, including one focused on dexterous robot manipulation from human demonstra...
Unitree Robotics has unveiled its AI models, UniFoLM, WLA, and X2, aimed at improving robot interaction with their environment. These models address the challenge of enabling machines to operate autonomously rather than relying on human direction. The significance of these developments lies in thei...
On September 19, FF launched nine new robot models, including humanoid, quadruped, and wheeled-arm types, along with four industry solutions targeting K12 education, research, security, and inspection. This ambitious rollout stands out in an industry where many competitors are still refining single...
The primary bottleneck for humanoid robots is not just AI model limitations but also supply chain constraints. A recent McKinsey report highlights that critical hardware components such as precision motor systems and tactile sensing are high-risk areas that won't automatically improve with algorithm...
At the 2026 World Robot Conference, a clear trend emerged indicating that the embodied intelligence industry is shifting focus from creating general-purpose robots to developing specialized solutions that deliver real value in specific scenarios. Innovations in areas such as garment sewing, biomedic...
Scalabot has introduced the HERON-World Model, a new action-conditioned world model aimed at enhancing robotic understanding and future prediction capabilities. This model utilizes a three-tier data pyramid, incorporating real robot teleoperation data, simulation data, and first-person human operati...
AGIBOT presented its newest embodied AI robotics innovations at IFA 2026, including the AGIBOT A3 humanoid and AGIBOT X2 Ultra. These robots are designed for various applications, such as retail, industrial operations, and commercial cleaning. The significance of this showcase lies in AGIBOT's comm...
On September 2, JAKA Robotics issued an official statement regarding overseas patent litigation, asserting that it does not infringe on the opposing party's patents based on comprehensive technical tracing and patent comparison analysis. This confidence stems from over a decade of the company's full...
Swarm robotics systems are influenced by their power architecture, which affects coordination efficiency and fault tolerance in multi-agent environments. Centralized models rely on unified infrastructure for energy management, while decentralized approaches distribute control among individual roboti...
Wang Xingxing, a millennial billionaire, is experiencing a significant increase in his wealth, driven by his involvement in China's AI sector. Despite facing restrictions from the US government that prevent his company from introducing new robot models in the American market, his financial success c...
In western Shenzhen, an artificial intelligence and robotics industry cluster valued at nearly 60 billion yuan is rapidly emerging. Bao'an, leveraging the Qianhai-Bao'an Embodied Intelligence Port, is establishing a complete ecosystem for embodied intelligence, from 'brain' to 'body'. The region's c...
Kong Tao, the former head of the robotics team at ByteDance, has reportedly joined Xiaomi in 2025. He is now leading a team focused on developing foundation models for robots, bringing several colleagues from ByteDance along with him. This move is significant as Xiaomi's robotics division is expand...
Foundation Future Industries has deployed two 'Phantom MK-1' humanoid robots to the front lines in Ukraine, marking a significant step in military robotics. These robots, standing 1.8 meters tall and weighing 80 kilograms, are designed for combat, capable of operating firearms such as handguns and M...
Zhejiang IPLUSMOBOT Technology has introduced the NERA-P omnidirectional chassis and NERA-C controller at the WAIC. This launch aims to standardize navigation and control for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), establishing a reusable embodied intelligence infrastructure for both humanoid wheeled and q...
Delta Intelligence, a company focused on foundational models for humanoid robots, has announced the completion of nearly 500 million yuan in funding. This funding round, which is the sixth within six months since the company's establishment in January 2026, involved multiple listed companies and lea...
Generalist has announced that its GEN-1 foundation model now supports a wide array of robot end effectors, ranging from five-fingered hands to specialized tools. This advancement showcases the model's ability to learn sensorimotor policies that can adapt across various physical interactions, demonst...
On July 17, Extreme Intelligence unveiled Gravity 4D WAM, the first module of its embodied intelligence framework, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC). This launch addresses a critical issue in current visual language models: the discrepancy between visually plausible predict...
Xiaomi has introduced the Xiaomi-Robotics-U0, a multimodal autoregressive foundation model featuring 38 billion parameters for embodied AI. This innovative model integrates four essential capabilities: embodied scene generation, embodied transfer, robot interaction video generation, and general-purp...
X Square Robot, a Chinese company focused on embodied AI, is pioneering an integrated stack for general-purpose robots. This stack combines data learning, a world model for predicting physical changes, and an action model that integrates perception, planning, reasoning, and decision-making. The comp...
Chinese AI company Robbyant has launched LingBot-Depth 2.0, a next-generation spatial perception model designed to enhance robotic navigation in complex environments. This model builds on the previous LingBot-Depth, utilizing the Masked Depth Modeling technique and trained on 150 million samples, ac...
NVIDIA has expanded its collaboration with Hugging Face to enhance the LeRobot open-source robotics platform with new AI models and frameworks. This integration includes the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T 1.7 vision-language-action model and the Isaac Teleop framework, aimed at streamlining robot development. T...
GA Robotics, the official distributor of UBTECH humanoid robots in Japan, announced the launch of three new models set to be available domestically starting June 30, 2026. The models include the "Walker Tienkung DEX" designed for research and development, the "Walker C1" tailored for commercial serv...
X Square Robot has successfully completed four consecutive funding rounds, culminating in a Series C that has propelled its valuation to $2.8 billion. This achievement marks the company as the sole embodied AI firm in China to receive backing from all four of the country's major internet giants. The...
A new funding initiative has been launched to advance the development of embodied AI foundation models, enhance commercial deployments, and establish integrated robotics infrastructure. This initiative marks a significant collaboration as it is the only embodied AI company supported by all four majo...
RSF defines a common language for robot service capability, lifecycle operations, certification pathways, and service-provider networks.
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