🤖 Nine Minutes Buys Two Shifts
Good Morning, Roboticists!
Robots are working longer shifts, playing doubles, and inviting relatives into their bodies. Somehow, their social lives are getting more interesting than ours.
Nine Minutes Buys Two Shifts
TL;DR: Agility Robotics has chosen Nyobolt batteries for Digit 5, targeting more than 20 productive hours in a 24-hour day. The company says a nine-minute recharge should deliver about 90 minutes of runtime, a 10:1 work-to-charge ratio. Early access to battery-equipped humanoids is planned for the first half of 2027 for warehouse and manufacturing operators at industrial scale. Read more →
Two Humanoids Share A Court
TL;DR: Researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Innovation Institute, Archon Robotics, and NVIDIA built PingpongDuo, a framework for two humanoids playing table-tennis doubles. It coordinates positioning, footwork, racket control, and collision risk so teammates alternate shots and clear space. In demonstrations, the robots sustained rallies longer than ten returns without reverting to a standard pose. Read more →
A Family Member Teleports Home
TL;DR: German company Devanthro has rebranded as Plim Robotics and unveiled Plim, a wheeled household robot that can be remotely inhabited by a family member or caregiver. The 1.65-meter machine combines two grippers, Jetson Thor computing, self-docking, and a listed two-hour runtime, but the company has not announced pricing or delivery timing for the wider rollout yet. Read more →
A Prompt Runs The Show
TL;DR: Unitree has introduced UniUni, a control system for robot performances that combines LiDAR stage mapping, per-robot choreography timelines, live battery tracking, and emergency stops. A demo also lets an operator request changes in natural language, such as altered movements, paths, and formations. Unitree has not disclosed pricing, supported models, availability, or fleet-size limits to date. Read more →
Three Containers Want The Factory
TL;DR: Swedish startup 120ft has raised EUR576,000 to build shared robotic microfactories inside three 40-foot containers: one for preparation, one for assembly, and one for inspection and packing. Brands would pay per finished product rather than operate their own factory. Initial pilots target rigid components under five kilograms, while cables, flexible materials, and gluing remain future work. Read more →
Touch Gets Its Turn
TL;DR: Rhoda AI demonstrated a robot retrieving textured balls after its head and wrist cameras were blocked, using touch alone to search, identify objects, and adjust its grip. Its Direct Video-Action model predicts future tactile signals that an inverse-dynamics model turns into actions. The video includes mistakes and recovery, but Rhoda published no repeated-trial success rate. Read more →
The Whole Humanoid Goes Open
TL;DR: RoboParty has released RP1 as a full-stack open-source humanoid platform, publishing mechanical CAD, electronics, wiring, firmware, simulation models, deployment software, and learning tools. The release includes bills of materials and checkpoints for two robot configurations, though licenses vary across components. It gives developers unusual access to both a humanoid's body and its behavior stack at once. Read more →
Concrete Drilling Finds A Robot
TL;DR: DEWALT and August Robotics' DALE, a fleet-capable autonomous downward drilling robot for data-center construction, has been named a TIME Best Invention of 2026. The companies say it drills up to ten times faster than conventional methods, achieved more than 99% accuracy across 385,000 holes, and shortened project schedules by over 300 weeks across 44 phases. Read more →
One Chip Wants The Whole Robot
TL;DR: Ubitium raised $14 million in seed funding to commercialize a reconfigurable processor designed to combine signal processing, AI inference, and real-time machine control on one architecture. Its first UB108 silicon uses 256 processing elements on Samsung's 8nm process; a 4,096-element commercial UB410 and customer evaluation units are planned for 2027, with total seed funding reaching $18 million. Read more →
China's Drone Defense Goes Cheap
TL;DR: China displayed low-cost AI-guided interceptor drones at Beijing's Great Wall-2026 counterterrorism forum, designed to neutralize small, slow-flying unmanned aircraft. The People's Armed Police event also showed robotic dogs, humanoids, ground vehicles, and laser-defense systems. Organizers disclosed no price, speed, range, or details of how the interceptors disable targets. The display brought delegates from 62 countries. Read more →
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