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IFAI

Robotics

Humanoid robots from Figure, Unitree, Tesla Optimus and others, plus robot arms, embodied AI and self-driving cars.

4 stories in the last 7 days

  1. Reach 37

    Boston Dynamics' Spot cleans the house with Gemini

    Boston Dynamics just showcased its Spot robot tackling household chores like picking up shoes and soda cans, powered by Google's Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5 VLM. Instead of hardcoding complex state machines, engineers used conversational prompts and API tools to let the model plan and sequence actions dynamically. Why it matters: It shows how frontier visual reasoning can turn rigid industrial hardware into flexible, adaptive helpers with minimal custom logic.

  2. Reach 43

    Clone Robotics unveils $20K synthetic human roadmap

    Clone Robotics just revealed an ambitious roadmap to build sub-$20K musculoskeletal androids powered by fluid-driven "Myofiber" muscles. The startup aims for scalpel-wielding robot torsos by late 2026, human-like walking by 2027, and hotel robot butlers by 2028. Why it matters: If Clone can actually scale artificial muscles cheaply, it could undercut traditional electric humanoids, though its timeline still lags behind factory-deployed rivals.

  3. Reach 39

    Generalist's GEN-1 model brings physical AI to 99% reliability

    Robotics startup Generalist just unveiled GEN-1, a physical foundation model that hits a 99% success rate on real-world manipulation tasks while running up to 3x faster than prior state of the art. The system is pretrained on over 500,000 hours of human wearable data and needs roughly one hour of robot-specific data to adapt to a new task. Why it matters: High failure rates have kept generalist robots off factory floors, but dependable self-recovery makes commercial deployment realistic.

  4. Reach 31

    Figure's F.03 robot visits the White House

    Figure just brought its F.03 humanoid robot inside the White House, marking the first time a bipedal robot has visited the presidential grounds, according to founder Brett Adcock. While specific details were sparse, the symbolic milestone puts advanced robotics front and center in the highest-profile government setting.

  5. Reach 39

    Robot dogs get hired to guard massive AI data centers

    AI giants are deploying quadrupeds like Boston Dynamics' Spot to patrol sprawling data centers around the clock. The robot dogs cost between $175,000 and $300,000 each and flag blind-spot hazards like leaks or heat anomalies. Operators claim the investment pays for itself in roughly two years by trimming physical guard headcounts.

  6. Reach 39

    Memories.ai and Nvidia give robots visual memory

    Memories.ai just partnered with Nvidia to build a dedicated visual memory layer for smart glasses and robots. Powered by Nvidia's Cosmos-Reason 2, the system indexes first-person video so physical devices can actually recall what they see, tackling a major blind spot left by text-only AI memory.

  7. Reach 39

    Humanoids can now rally with you on the tennis court

    Chinese researchers just taught a Unitree G1 humanoid robot to play tennis using only five hours of imperfect motion-capture data. Through a framework called LATENT, the robot can track footwork, return balls traveling over 15 m/s with 90% accuracy, and sustain multi-shot rallies against human players.

  8. Reach 39

    Nosh Robotics' $1,499 cooking robot writes recipes from prompts

    Nosh Robotics just unveiled Nosh One, a $1,499 AI kitchen robot that automatically adds ingredients, stirs, and monitors cooking via an onboard camera. The companion app lets you prompt custom recipes alongside 500 built-in meals, with Kickstarter preorders set to ship in summer 2026.

  9. Reach 33

    Figure's Helix 02 tackles living room clutter

    Figure just demonstrated Helix 02 cleaning a living room using a single end-to-end neural system running directly from pixels. Without changing algorithms or writing custom controllers, the robot learned complex tasks like spraying and wiping tables, tucking bins under its arm, and operating a remote simply by training on more data.

  10. Reach 39

    OmniXtreme lets humanoid robots pull off backflips and breakdancing

    Researchers just open-sourced OmniXtreme, a control framework that teaches humanoid robots high-agility moves like backflips, breakdancing, and handstands. A two-stage approach combines scalable simulation pre-training with residual learning to protect real-world hardware. Why it matters: It breaks the generality barrier, proving humanoids can execute complex acrobatics with a single unified policy without wrecking their motors.

  11. Reach 31

    HONOR puts a robotic gimbal inside a phone

    HONOR just revealed its Robot Phone concept and first humanoid robot at MWC 2026. The futuristic handset packs a micro 4DoF gimbal system and a 200MP camera, moving physically to nod, track subjects, and express emotion. Why it matters: Hardware makers are pushing to move AI out of glass screens and into embodied physical interaction.

  12. Reach 44

    Intrinsic joins Google to supercharge physical AI

    Alphabet's robotics software bet Intrinsic just merged into Google as a distinct group, teaming up with Gemini, Google Cloud, and DeepMind. The move connects its modular Flowstate robotics platform directly to Google's frontier AI models to automate factory floors and warehouses. Physical AI is finally getting the Android treatment.

  13. Reach 32

    Unitree unveils As2 companion robot with heavy-duty muscle

    Unitree just revealed the As2, a quadruped companion robot packing 90N·m of torque and industrial-grade specs into a compact frame. It features over 4 hours of no-load runtime, IP54 rainproofing, and can haul a 15kg payload across more than 13km. With open secondary development, it basically bridges domestic companionship with practical utility.

  14. Reach 39

    Figure's humanoid fleet runs 24/7 at headquarters

    Figure just put a fleet of seven Figure 03 humanoids into 24/7 autonomous operation at its California headquarters, powered by its Helix 02 neural network. The bots monitor their own battery telemetry, stepping onto 2 kW inductive charging docks and swapping tasks without human intervention. It marks a serious technical milestone for humanoid uptime, even if Figure hasn't disclosed what actual work they're doing yet.

  15. Reach 39

    DJI flaw gives gamer keys to 7,000 robot vacuums

    A software engineer building a custom gamepad app just accidentally gained access to nearly 7,000 DJI Romo robot vacuums across 24 countries. Using an AI coding assistant to reverse-engineer cloud communications, he exposed live camera feeds and home floor plans. DJI rolled out an automatic patch on February 10.

  16. Reach 66

    OpenAI's secret hardware bet: A $200 smart speaker with eyes

    OpenAI is quietly building a 200-person hardware team led by Apple veterans to launch consumer AI devices. Its first product is reportedly a $200 to $300 smart speaker packed with cameras for facial recognition and proactive life nudges, slated for February 2027 at the earliest. Smart glasses and a lamp are also in the pipeline.

  17. Reach 39

    Toyota hires seven humanoid robots for its RAV4 factory

    Toyota just contracted seven Digit humanoid robots from Agility Robotics to work at its Canadian RAV4 plant under a robots-as-a-service deal. Following a year-long pilot, the bipedal bots will start unloading auto parts from tuggers this April. While backflip demos grab headlines, integrating real humanoids into daily factory shifts is a far bigger milestone.

  18. Reach 31

    AI robot swarms take on firefighting

    Cyborg Dynamics and Griffith University just tested an AI-powered robot swarm that put out fires with a 99.67% success rate. Using multi-agent reinforcement learning across physical and virtual ground vehicles, the system self-organized to navigate obstacles and divide tasks. Why it matters: Autonomous swarming could soon replace manual remote controls and keep first responders out of extreme danger.

  19. Reach 48

    Unitree pulls off an autonomous humanoid kung fu show

    Unitree just revealed behind-the-scenes details of its Lunar New Year showcase, where dozens of G1 humanoids performed the world's first fully autonomous cluster kung fu routine with zero teleoperation. The demo also featured an H2 robot dressed as the Monkey King riding quadruped "clouds," proving multi-humanoid physical coordination is advancing rapidly.

  20. Reach 31

    Nvidia drops DreamDojo to teach robots physics from human video

    Nvidia and university researchers just released DreamDojo, a robot world model trained on 44,000 hours of egocentric human video. Instead of collecting endless, costly physical demonstrations, robots learn basic physical intuition by watching humans before fine-tuning for specific hardware. It also runs in real time at 10 FPS, making pre-deployment simulations far easier.