Live Briefs 2026-08-18 · Full coverage of embodied AI
Agility Co-Founder: Physical AI Depends on Getting Physics Right
In a new @ScienceMagazine paper, Agility co-founder and Chief Robot Officer Jonathan Hurst argues that AI alone cannot repeal physics; physical AI requires correct physical foundations. The article highlights the importance of embodiment in making robots truly useful.
Butterfly-Inspired Ceramic Microscrolls Unroll with Magnets to Power Tiny Robots
Researchers have developed ceramic microscrolls inspired by butterfly proboscis that can be unrolled and rolled up using magnetic fields. These smart materials could enable more efficient actuators for micro and soft robotics, with potential for significant economic impact.
Scientists develop RoboDojo, a unified platform to evaluate embodied AI
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have developed RoboDojo, a unified benchmarking platform for evaluating robotic manipulation across simulated and physical environments. The platform, created with collaborators from nearly 20 universities, including UC Berkeley and Tsinghua, aims to standardize assessment in embodied AI research.
LimX Dynamics Open-Sources TRON 2 Code, Model, and Dataset
LimX Dynamics announces that its TRON 2 code, model, and dataset are now fully open-sourced, available on GitHub and Hugging Face.
LimX Dynamics Open-Sources TRON 2 VLA for Clothes Folding
LimX Dynamics releases the core stack of its TRON 2 VLA demo for autonomous clothes folding, including an embodied AI data platform, open datasets, and open-source code. Researchers can now focus on algorithms rather than hardware integration.
Shanghai to Expand Overseas Use of AI Computing and Foundation Models
Shanghai's commerce authorities have issued a plan to promote overseas use of computing power and foundation models, and support exports of AI products such as intelligent agents and multimodal generation models.
Tianjin Aims for 20B Yuan Robot Industry by 2028 with 15% Annual Growth
Tianjin has issued a new action plan targeting a core output value of over 20 billion yuan for the intelligent robot industry by 2028, with an annual growth rate exceeding 15%.