Humanoids Latest coverage

Lumos Robotics stages the 'world’s first' humanoid robot theater in Shenzhen

Lumos Robotics recently staged what it called the 'world’s first' humanoid robot theater performance in Shenzhen, featuring a 45-minute autonomous show with robots performing dance, comedy, and other acts. The event tested the robots' ability to coordinate and execute complex tasks, with the company using the performance as a training ground for improving robotic skills and exploring commercial applications in entertainment and education.

From Exhibition to Production Line: 2026 Marks a Critical Window for Humanoid Robot Scene Implementation

In 2026, humanoid robots are transitioning from technology demonstrations to actual procurement in industries such as injection molding, 3C manufacturing, automotive, and healthcare. The article discusses the evolving criteria for procurement, including performance, cost efficiency, and supplier reliability. It highlights specific applications and case studies from companies like Topseed, UBTech, and others, and mentions industry events such as the 2026 World Robotics Conference.

Agility Robotics Unveils Digit 5 Humanoid with Cooperative Safety Features

Agility Robotics announced the Digit 5 humanoid robot on September 15, 2026, designed for cooperative work with humans without physical safety barriers. The robot features advanced safety systems, a 90-minute battery with 9-minute charging, and capabilities for multiple industrial tasks. The company also outlined pricing models and plans for global expansion, including European availability by 2027.

TouchScale: 500 Hours of Human Vision and Touch for Visual-Tactile Learning

TouchScale is a 500-hour human vision-touch dataset collected using a unified sensor setup, enabling scaling benefits in both perception and robotic manipulation. The dataset improves robot task success rates through mid-training with human data, demonstrating the potential of large-scale human experience in training embodied agents.

Innodata opens motion-capture AI lab to help humanoids move like humans

Innodata has launched a new R&D lab equipped with high-precision infrared cameras to generate 3D motion data for training humanoids and validating robot performance. The lab, developed in collaboration with Vicon, provides sub-millimeter accuracy and millisecond latency, addressing the need for high-quality training data in physical AI.

China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone: Humanoid Robots Accelerate 'Onboarding', Pudong's Embodied Intelligence Industry Ecosystem Booms with Energy

Pudong is accelerating the formation of an embodied intelligence industry ecosystem, driving the deployment of humanoid robots in commercial, public services, and rehabilitation medical scenarios. Companies such as Zhiyuan, Furuiyi, and Mifeng Technology have showcased multiple robot products and data platforms, promoting embodied intelligence technology from laboratories to large-scale applications.

Understanding Their Limits

Carnegie Mellon University and Siemens developed PRISM, a method to assess the safe stoppability of humanoid robots. The approach uses simulation to define safe stopping conditions, enabling proactive safety monitoring and supporting certification of fail-safe behaviors. The research highlights the importance of context in determining when a robot can be safely stopped, especially in environments with people or obstacles.

Robotics Roadmaps from Around the World: Spotlight of the Month - China

China is pursuing a strategic roadmap through its Five-Year Plans to dominate the global robotics industry, focusing on embodied AI and humanoid robotics. The 13th and 14th FYPs laid the foundation for industrial automation, while the 15th FYP emphasizes embodied intelligence, with state support for R&D and mass deployment of humanoids. Despite achievements in market share and production scale, challenges remain in precision hardware and semiconductor self-sufficiency, with risks of overcapacity and market volatility.

Unitree@UnitreeRobotics· 09:01SignalEditorial score6868

Unitree has fully open-sourced its UnifoLM-WLA-1.0 embodied foundation model, achieving new state-of-the-art results across multiple benchmarks. The model supports cross-task and cross-end-effector generalization, enabling whole-body coordination for both desktop and mobile manipulation.

Deploying Robots Into (and Onto) the Field

Boston Dynamics deployed their production Atlas robot at the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Norway-Brazil match, where it performed a ceremonial role and showcased its capabilities. The demonstration involved dynamic movement and precision, trained through reinforcement learning, and highlighted the robot's potential for industrial applications beyond entertainment.

NVIDIA and Hugging Face Bring New Models and Frameworks to LeRobot for the Open Robotics Community

NVIDIA and Hugging Face are releasing the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T 1.7 model and Isaac Teleop framework into LeRobot, an open-source robotics library, to provide developers with shared tools for training, evaluating, and deploying robot foundation models. NVIDIA Cosmos 3, a frontier world model for physical AI, is also set to be integrated soon.

Welcome to Robot Park: Where Apptronik’s Apollo Goes to Work Training the Next Generation of Humanoid Robot Intelligence

Apptronik announced the opening of its expanded Robot Park in Austin, Texas, and the launch of Apollo 2, a modular humanoid robot platform. The facility and robot are part of a global network, enabling real-world data collection and training for embodied AI models. Apollo 2 supports both bipedal and wheeled configurations, with data used to refine Gemini Robotics models for commercial deployment.

Unitree@UnitreeRobotics· 13:10SignalEditorial score7272

Unitree says it supports BitRobot in open-sourcing HIW-500, a humanoid teleoperation dataset collected across 12 real homes in Southeast Asia. The quoted announcement reports 500+ hours, 23K+ episodes, 10+ TB and more than 10 household tasks. The post does not specify the time basis or license, or link to a downloadable artifact.

Can football teach a robot to move?

Boston Dynamics explores how football can inform robot movement by using human demonstrations and reinforcement learning to train Atlas to perform a complex 'Ghost Rabona' kick, highlighting the intersection of sports and robotics in developing dynamic, whole-body control.