Topic
Bipedal and human-shaped robots for factories, homes, care work, and hazardous jobs.
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South Korea gave robot startup Robros a regulatory sandbox pass to put 20 bipedal humanoids at a chip plant, an auto parts plant, a shipyard and a logistics site, working in the same space as human workers.
Pune startup Muks Robotics says ISRO picked it to build SPACEO Prime, a two legged humanoid robot meant to do space work. No mission, timeline or specs have been shared yet.
XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng laid out a timeline in Paris: IRON mass production in late 2026, deliveries in the first half of 2027, and a European rollout in the second half of 2027.
China's Guangdong province says it wants to make over 80,000 humanoid robots a year by 2028, with more than 3,000 already expected to be working in its factories this year.
Chinese robot maker UBTECH signed a deal with Xiamen C&D to form a joint venture and sell at least 10,000 humanoid robots by 2030. The interesting part isn't the robots. It's who's selling them and how.
HIVE Robots has humanoids stocking shelves at Denmark's føtex after closing time. New AP and Euronews footage this weekend shows them at work, with the goal of running the night shift on their own by early 2027.
GMO AI & Robotics put a dedicated 'humanoid ambulance' on Tokyo's roads. It carries an engineer, parts, diagnostic gear, and a spare robot, so a broken humanoid gets fixed or swapped on the spot.
China published a BYD design patent for an 'embodied intelligence robot' on Oct. 9, the first official look at the world's biggest EV maker's own humanoid. BYD wants two to three in every dealership.
During China's National Day holiday, DEEP Robotics put its waterproof DR02 humanoids on traffic duty at busy Hangzhou intersections in steady rain. They waved people across, flagged e-bike riders without helmets, and answered tourists' questions in several languages.
Minerva Humanoids came out of stealth with about $10 million led by General Catalyst. Its humanoid, Roger, is run by trained specialists through a VR headset for bomb disposal and oil and gas work, with paid pilots this fall.
Charm Care, which runs more than 100 private nursing homes in Japan, is putting ¥300 million (about $2 million) into donut robotics. Its cinnamon humanoid has been on trial in one home since July.
The 2026 Seoul AI Robot Show runs Oct. 6 to 8 at COEX. The city says 51 companies are in, six Korean humanoids are on open display, and firefighters and police will run a robot rescue challenge.
The Oct. 1 write-up drops the pinky. The new hand has 13 degrees of freedom, direct drive, and a job list that starts with tools.
On Sept. 29 Agility said Merline Saintil, Derek Aberle, and Pierre Gentin are expected to join the board tied to its Churchill Capital deal. Saintil is lined up to join now. The other two wait for closing.
On Sept. 28 Evri and Refined Robotics put a two-legged parcel robot on the street in Barnsley. It is rated for 15 kg and 6 km/h. Couriers are still the job.
On Sept. 29 in Seoul, Neubility unveiled Billy, a wheeled robot with two five-finger hands. One unit is headed to a CJ CheilJedang food plant this year. Neubility hopes for several hundred in one to two years.
On Sept. 28 NVIDIA launched an Open Agent Safety Platform with more than 100 partners. Figure signed on. It has not said which of its robots will use the tools.
Unitree said on Sept. 28 it will host the 2026 World Physical AI Conference and a partner summit on Oct. 22 in Hangzhou, with more than 3,000 guests expected.
AGIBOT and Chimelong launched the first phase of a robot-staffed theme park in Zhuhai on Sept. 24. The robots perform, guide visitors, and work in the hotel.
IROS 2026 runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Pittsburgh, and its first Humanoid IKEA Assembly Challenge asks a Unitree G1 to put together a kids' table with no teleoperation.
A California startup exited stealth with a modular wheeled humanoid at roughly half Unitree’s edu price, already past $1M in sales, deliberately not building the brain.
Digit 5 targets barrier-free work near people, 50 lb lifts, and a 10:1 charge ratio. Early access is 2027 — and the $300M order book is milestone-gated.
The new RMAC center inside Hyundai’s Georgia Metaplant will train Atlas humanoids on real automotive workflows. It is an operational testbed, not evidence that Hyundai has deployed 25,000 robots.
Reuters reports that Chinese regulators are informally slowing some humanoid robot listings while examining valuations, government-backed revenue, and evidence of recurring commercial demand.
Chinese media say a Tesla team hit Ningbo on Sept. 16–17 to audit Tuopu, Joyson, and Sanhua for Optimus. Suppliers confirm robotics work — not necessarily this audit round. Treat $20k and ~50k-unit claims as unverified.
Index pretraining → 56% zero-shot success vs 9% from scratch. Tidying, towels, beds — no fine-tuning in those houses. Homes aren't the demo. Transfer is.
Warehouse demos slap. Dinner prep is a different sport. Here's what has to get boring before humanoids go domestic.