Figure said it trained robots to jump autonomously, shipped them to Finland and had them leap into a vat of molten steel. The company also attached behind-the-scenes footage of the action to the post.
Sharpa showed its D01 robot performing a full bartending sequence, from uncapping to pouring, shaking and mixing. D01 is teleoperated through the AE01, a 22-DoF hand-glove twin that maps the operator's hand movements directly to the robot. The company said D01 combines fine manipulation with high-speed motion and 1:1 human-scale spherical wrist joints, with maximum end-effector speed above 10.5 m/s.
A research team has developed a new system to help humanoid robots move and react more reliably, using soccer-playing robots as the testbed. The work targets coordination and dynamic movement, aiming to close the gap between lab demos and real-world performance.
Sharpa's D01 robot took on the Catch the Stick Challenge, detecting a falling stick, moving at high speed to intercept it and grasping it with precision. The demo highlights a maximum end-effector speed above 10.5 m/s, 0.2 mm repeatability and 1000 Hz communication frequency. Sharpa notes that speed alone is not enough: the robot must reach the right place at the right time and secure the grasp.
A soft robotic exosuit is designed to assist older adults with standing up from a chair. The device aims to respond intuitively and stay synchronized with the user's hip and leg movements.
The ULTRA framework has been accepted to IROS 2026 and nominated for the Mobile Manipulation Paper Award. It enables a single controller to either track reference motions or generate whole-body loco-manipulation actions from just a target position and perception.
A surgical robot developed by the Eye Center of Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital filters hand tremors to 10-micron precision. In July 2023, it completed Asia's first clinical ophthalmology robot surgery, performing a 3-minute macular injection on a nearly blind patient; 32 such procedures have been done to date.
A viral video shows influencer Frankie LaPenna fighting a humanoid robot in a 44-second MMA-style cage match arranged by REK. Although the bout appears choreographed, it highlights rapid advances in robot locomotion, balance, and responsiveness.
Light Origins has released Light-O1, its first general embodied foundation model, trained on human motions recovered from internet videos to provide a reusable starting point for robots across tasks and embodiments. The company also launched Light-O1-Preview, a text-to-motion model that accepts natural language and generates whole-body motion sequences.
Researchers developed a solar-powered seeding robot that integrates precision seed metering with sustainable energy. Tests show spacing accuracy of 98.08% to 98.80%, with optimal performance at low speeds and wider spacing.
Engineers at the University of Washington have created DirectHop, a 1-gram jumping robot that can perform multiple jumps with precise height control. By abandoning traditional springs and using a tiny motor, the robot can clear stair steps and self-right after landing, with potential applications in exploration and monitoring.
At CCTV's inaugural Intelligent Robot Application Skills Exhibition in Hangzhou, Deep Robotics' Lynx M20S wheeled-legged robot completed a full extreme-condition test under Level-14 typhoon winds with zero faults or errors.
A KAIST team has demonstrated a four-legged robot that completed the Sangju Marathon in South Korea in 4 hours and 19 minutes on a single battery charge. The robot traveled three times as far per charge as existing legged robots, suggesting potential improvements in battery life for legged machines.
Engineers at ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab have adapted an off-the-shelf detached robotic hand to crawl, balance, and interact with its environment. TechXplore Robotics reports that the hand can walk, press keys, and move objects on its own, echoing the fictional character Thing.
Skild AI says it trained a robot to play football using self-play. The system went through the equivalent of 140 years of a virtual World Cup during training before the policy was moved onto a real machine.
Qualcomm Technologies has agreed to acquire PickNik, the developer of the MoveIt manipulation framework, and plans to integrate it with its Dragonwing robotics platforms. Qualcomm says MoveIt 1 and 2 will remain open-source under their existing licenses and community-driven roadmaps.
Researchers at UCLA and the University of Michigan have developed an 11 cm, 98.2 g frog-inspired robot that stores energy in twisted elastic rods and releases it in sudden jumps. It achieves 2.46 body lengths per second on average across six surfaces and can swim with flexible fins, with design rules scalable to millimeter-scale robots.
A 44-second video shows internet personality Frankie LaPenna fighting an EngineAI T800 humanoid in an octagon cage at an event staged by San Francisco robotics company REK, which calls it the first human-versus-humanoid robot fight. The robot, styled to look like a Terminator, was teleoperated by a human, so the bout demonstrated physical capability under remote control rather than autonomous fighting skill.
The 48th WorldSkills Competition opened in Shanghai with a ceremony featuring full-size humanoid robots dancing with humans. Director Hou Jie revealed that in early rehearsals, dancers wore helmets and kept a 50-meter distance from the robots, which have since been refined for close interaction.
At a Sept. 20 event in California, China's Zhongqing T800 humanoid robot fought an American boxer in the first human-versus-robot combat match, kicking him down before losing when its battery or cooling failed. The robot was remotely operated by a VR-equipped human, showing that humanoid motion control can handle impact but endurance, heat management, and autonomous decision-making remain limited.
Researchers at UCLA and the University of Michigan have shown that elastic rods can snap between shapes to power small robots. A frog-like robot using this mechanism reportedly hops, flips, swims, and outruns rigid-legged designs across six terrains.
The 2026 URKL humanoid robot combat city tour opened in Shanghai's Baoshan Gymnasium on September 19, selling out 5,000 tickets as Zhongqing's T800 pulled off a kip-up recovery. The event, run under a joint venture between Gucun Industrial and Zhongqing Robotics, highlights how combat tests a robot's structural resilience, balance and self-recovery.
Icarus Robotics flew its free-flying Joy robot on four parabolic flights, logging 66 parabolas and about two minutes of weightlessness. The Brooklyn startup says the tests validated Joy's arms, state estimation and flight control ahead of a January 2027 handover to NASA.
Tiangong, a humanoid robot, appeared at the opening of the second Beijing Art and Technology Week and danced alongside a human performer. The demonstration used motion capture and transfer learning, signaling a step from industrial robotics toward cultural performance.
Five LimX Luna humanoid robots from LimX Dynamics performed an autonomous group dance at the 2026 CHINA GT Opening Ceremony. The company said the routine relied on stable whole-body motion control and intelligent multi-robot coordination, bringing a fusion of technology and speed to the racetrack. LimX Dynamics said the appearance expands possibilities for humanoid robots in motorsports, live entertainment and commercial events.
Researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands have built a robot that uses a metal needle to tickle participants, aiming to quantify the phenomenon. A survey of 448 people found that tickling mostly occurs at home and targets predictable body parts like the sides, armpits, belly, and feet.
Tiangong Ultra clocked 8.64 seconds over 100 meters at the second World Humanoid Robot Games, nearly a second quicker than Usain Bolt's 2009 world record of 9.58 seconds. Asked about it in Budapest, Bolt laughed and offered a comment on the direction of technology.
Recent advancements have enabled robots to learn waist-twisting motions, marking a step toward whole-body intelligence. This could enhance balance and task execution in humanoid robots.
Rack and pinion systems convert rotary motion to linear motion, but selecting the wrong size can hurt performance and cost. GAM's Matt Ruggles explains how to size racks, pinions, gearboxes, and motors based on feed force, speed, precision, and inertia matching.
A 22-meter robotic arm built to retrieve Fukushima fuel debris has been delayed five years and postponed four times, and is now stuck because a motor brake will not release. Analysis argues the real obstacle is not engineering but a nuclear decommissioning system that has never treated the job as urgent.
At Punahou School in Hawaii, sixth graders programmed wheeled robots to perform breakdance moves, illustrating a shift in robotics education from hardware assembly to programming and algorithms. The exercise involved coordinate transforms, timing, feedback, and motion planning, mirroring industry demand for talent able to program complex robotic actions and correct errors in real time.
Researchers at the Shenyang Institute of Automation have developed a biohybrid manta ray robot powered by living frog muscle, reaching a swimming speed of 2.7 cm/s—a record for such devices. The robot uses near-infrared laser power and can operate for about seven days.
Researchers from Tohoku University and VISTEC have developed a robot that learns to walk by observing stick insects, mastering diverse terrains in under an hour. The approach uses adversarial inverse reinforcement learning to capture general principles rather than fixed gaits.
Astribot's SmoothRL framework enables robots to learn and improve during real-world execution. Tests show success rates soaring from 39% to 94% in dynamic tasks, marking a shift toward continuous post-deployment improvement.
AXIS is a browser-based data engine for robot manipulation, providing 207 tasks and over 50,000 trajectories collected via teleoperation. Pretraining with AXIS improves π0.5 on LIBERO-Plus from 83.9 to 88.8 overall accuracy.
A team from Texas A&M University has developed RoboBall, a 1.8-meter inflatable spherical robot that rolls across rugged lunar-like terrain to avoid tipping risks. Field-tested in a quarry, the robot could explore the Moon's south pole and assist in future lunar base missions and disaster response.
DEEP Robotics showcased its Lynx quadruped robot navigating rain, steep slopes, and loose rocks, highlighting its all-terrain mobility that turns extreme environments into workable terrain.
At the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Zoomlion's humanoid robots competed in high jump, 100m sprint and standing long jump, showcasing the company's AI, hardware and motion control capabilities.
Noetix Robotics shared a tech-reveal video asking how its robots' synchronized formation passed a real-world test, and said it would break the process down.
Noetix Robotics published a tech reveal explaining why synchronized robot formation is more complex than it appears. The company notes that while it sounds simple, the actual execution is challenging, and shares a demonstration via the post.
Noetix Robotics explains how it makes a group of robots move in sync, noting countless rounds of testing and tuning in the process.
Booster Robotics shared a video on X demonstrating a robot that follows a person's movements, highlighting its motion-control technology.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed teardrop-shaped soft robots that leap when exposed to infrared light and continue jumping as long as the light is on. The work introduces a new self-resetting mechanism for soft robotics, potentially enabling untethered, light-powered locomotion.
Sanctuary AI's latest video demonstrates robots handling brittle crackers and soft grapes, highlighting precise force control and continuous adjustment for manipulating delicate, irregular objects.
Researchers have developed a six-legged robot that learns to walk by imitating the gait of a stick insect. The work demonstrates how insect-inspired control systems could lead to more adaptable and efficient robots.
A new motion-imitation framework enables three legged robots to perform dynamic movements such as cartwheels and backflips. The framework addresses the challenge of quickly learning complex whole-body actions, potentially enhancing the agility of legged robots.
At the World Humanoid Robot Games (2026), Galaxea's bipedal humanoid robot Kengo won the freestyle gymnastics event. The company touted the robot's movement capability.
Agility Robotics shared a video of Digit performing whole-body range of motion exercises, likening them to a workout class. The demo highlights synchronized joint control with timing, velocity, and balance, using the same control system deployed in real warehouse operations.
Booster Robotics has shared a clip of its robot performing a nutmeg and scoring a goal in a football-themed demonstration, highlighting the machine's agility and motion control capabilities.
At the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, AGIBOT A3 won gold in both Table Tennis and International Standard Dance, demonstrating precise control, fast reactions, and coordinated movement across two distinct events.
On Aug. 25, AGIBOT won 7 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze at the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, bringing its total to 15 gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze. The team is surging into the final day with strong performance in whole-body motion and precision manipulation.
A Chinese humanoid robot sprinted 100 meters in 8.86 seconds in Beijing, setting a new robot record and beating the fastest human time. The achievement highlights rapid progress in robot motion control and hardware.
Booster Robotics released behind-the-scenes footage showing 80 robots transitioning from individual movements to a synchronized formation, highlighting multi-robot coordination technology.
Galaxea Dynamics showcases its robot Kengo executing a flawless floor exercise routine, claiming a sealed gold medal.
Booster Robotics shared a clip of its T2 robot scoring a goal and performing the SIUUU celebration. The post highlights the robot's agility and precise motion control.
A robot from the Beijing Humanoid–HUST team claimed the first humanoid robot weightlifting title at the second World Humanoid Robot Games by lifting 16 kilograms. The event features 51 competitions with over 2,000 robots from 16 countries.
LimX Dynamics released the full TRON 2 VLA stack on GitHub and Huggingface. The demo shows active-vision sorting where the robot distinguishes bananas from apples, performs pick-and-place with head movement for target location. The open-source approach cuts model development from three months to two hours.
UNIUBI AI showcased its quadruped robot Cyvet at WRC 2026, unveiling new jumping skills within 30 days of its debut at WAIC. The fully self-developed robot is set for mass production and real-world deployment in inspection tasks.
At the second World Humanoid Robot Games, Team Tianzhuo won the 1500m final in 2:21.64, beating the human world record of 3:26. Feileishen and Fenghuo Shandian took second and third.
At the second World Robot Games, the robot Lightning broke the human world record in the 1500m with a net time of 2:30.22, also setting records in the 100m and 400m.
At the second World Humanoid Robot Games, Tiangong robots excelled in track events and set records. The Omni R&D team highlighted that approaching human-level mobility is key for real-world deployment.
A humanoid robot by Chinese smartphone maker Honor ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds, beating Usain Bolt's world record. Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared the video, noting the robot's robust build.
At the second World Humanoid Robot Games, the Tian Gong robot ran 400m in 38.15 seconds, beating the human men's world record of 43.03 seconds set in 2016. This marks a milestone in humanoid robotics and motion control.
Noetix Robotics released a POV video where a group of robots suddenly starts dancing together as a person walks by. The company highlights an immersive mode and encourages viewers to turn up the volume for the performance.
During preparations for the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, Honor Robot's Lightning Bolt completed a 100-meter test in 9.32 seconds, hitting a peak speed of 14.5 m/s and breaking the human world record of 9.58 seconds.
At RoboBusiness, Kollmorgen's Yoshi Umeno will present a joint-by-joint guide to humanoid motion, addressing the gap between prototypes and scalable production. The session will cover zone-by-zone demands and offer a framework for evaluating motion partners.
Noetix Robotics demonstrates its E1 robot performing a smooth shuffle dance, powered by self-developed high-precision motion control algorithms.
At WRC 2026, Galaxea Dynamics' NEXO robot demonstrated whole-body null-space control, coordinating its arms, torso, and mobile base to steadily pour coffee.
Chinese robotics firm Unitree has introduced a new humanoid robot named 'Superman,' claiming it can jump 2 meters from a standstill and reach a top speed of 12.66 meters per second. The company has not disclosed detailed testing protocols, and the figures remain unverified claims rather than indicators of commercial production.
Noetix Robotics released a video of its E1 robot performing cartwheels, highlighting its ultra-high-stability motion control. The company asks fans what the robot should try next.
Noetix Robotics shared a playful media of its Robot N2 dancing, saying it's 'pretty fun'. The robot is shown moving to music in an interactive demonstration.
LimX Dynamics' TRON 2 robot demonstrates a closed-loop autonomous inspection workflow in a real municipal utility tunnel, covering mapping, navigation, multi-level inspection, anomaly response, and autonomous docking/charging. Equipped with an autonomous mobile manipulation kit, it adapts to complex spatial structures.
Intermittent swimming, inspired by natural bout-and-glide behavior, can significantly improve the energy efficiency of fish-like robots. A new study using the ZBot platform reveals that this gait reduces energy consumption across speeds and offers a validated control strategy for underwater robots.
Unitree Robotics has unveiled a new humanoid robot capable of a 2-meter standing jump and a top speed of 12.66 m/s, breaking previous humanoid records. The company says the machine was developed in just over three months.
Humanoids lead WRC 2026's announced lineup. A complete guide to the biped vs wheeled form-factor war and what it signals for embodied AI.
Booster Robotics posted a single media item on social media, accompanied by the text 'That happened a little too fast'. The post, which features a robot emoji, appears to showcase a robot performing a rapid movement or an unexpected action. The company's social media team shared the clip without additional commentary, sparking curiosity among followers.
LimX Dynamics shared the first episode of its TRON Camp 2026 documentary, showing how participants started with the simple goal of getting hands-on with a real robot and ended up winning. The film details the iterative process from simulation to real hardware, including data collection, position adjustments, and motion refinement.
The second World Humanoid Robot Games will be held from August 22 to 26 at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, featuring 51 events and 1,301 matches, a significant expansion from the inaugural edition.
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.
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.
DEEP Robotics shows its DR02 humanoid robot climbing stairs with stable, controlled movement, emphasizing steady steps and consistent forward progress.
DEEP Robotics shares a video of a robot demonstrating steady steps and consistent progress.
Noetix Robotics showcases its small robot N2 running, doing forward flips, performing Yingge dance, and dancing cha-cha-cha, calling it a little robot with a champion's spirit.
LimX Dynamics wrapped up its TRON Camp 2026, a five-day event where participants tackled VLA and locomotion challenges and demonstrated their work on real robots.
DEEP Robotics demonstrated its Lynx M20S quadruped robot navigating rocky and muddy terrain, highlighting agile mobility and robust locomotion in outdoor environments.
Beijing's 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games will feature mostly fully autonomous events, showcasing genuine technical prowess. StarMap's R1 Lite robot is training for the office scenario, highlighting the shift from teleoperation to autonomous long-horizon tasks.
Noetix Robotics demonstrated its E1 robot's enhanced motion control, featuring autonomous terrain perception, obstacle negotiation and stair climbing in real-world environments.
Noetix Robotics showed its humanoid robot Bumi performing a viral dance, and hinted at more dance content.
In a future factory in Ningbo, robot development engineers—dubbed 'robot trainers'—teach industrial robots tasks through hands-on demonstration and correction. This emerging profession is attracting talent with salaries reaching 800,000 RMB annually.
Figure AI's Figure 03 robot demonstrated fully autonomous ladder climbing, a complex task requiring precise hand-foot coordination and balance. This breakthrough, powered by an upgraded AI model with real-time visual input, expands the robot's potential in industrial environments.
This paper introduces a stochastic multiple shooting trajectory optimization method that connects short control sequences via local feedback policies, improving sample efficiency and terminal set convergence, and synthesizes approximate Jacobians from rollouts for black-box dynamics.