On 16 September, UBTECH founder, chairman and chief executive Zhou Jian announced that the company’s U1 series of hyper-realistic humanoids has begun delivery. The first batch goes to Shanghai Yongda Group, Beijing Bosch Group and Korea’s Galaxy Robot Park. The U1 line launched on 30 June in three versions: U1 Lite at 119,800 yuan, U1 … Read more
Physical-AI startup ZINOVA, building on LimX Dynamics’ TRON 2 dual-arm embodied robot, completed a scaled tilt-up construction demo with RIC Robotics that covers formwork framing, multi-layer rebar laying and tying. The proof of concept shows a general-purpose robot using off-the-shelf tools inside a complex build sequence. ZINOVA’s thesis is tool intelligence: teaching a robot to … Read more
Details of Xiaomi’s next-generation humanoid have leaked via the Daily Economic News: about 1.70 metres tall, 66 kilograms, with 66 degrees of freedom, and half of those in the hands. The company plans to show it publicly for the first time at the 2026 World Robotics Conference, which opens on 19 August, before taking it … Read more
On 31 August, Unitree refreshed its fire and emergency-response lineup with a slogan that leaves little to the imagination: robots built for people, on a mission to serve, into the fire and duty bound. This is not Unitree’s first move into the sector. In April it showed a fire-recon robot dog built with Bawei Tong, … Read more
Figure, the humanoid builder now valued close to US$40 billion, has shipped three moves in quick succession that together look less like product updates and more like a bet on when embodied AI tips into the home. The headline is Helix 2.5. The company rented 30 residences around the Bay Area and let its robot … Read more
A star robotics company has entered bankruptcy, and the lesson is not about technology DeepBlue Robotics, once a fixture at technology exhibitions and treated as a new force in Chinese robotics, has formally entered bankruptcy liquidation. The Shanghai campus of DeepBlue Robotics. A court in Pudong has accepted the liquidation case. (Source: OFweek) The People’s … Read more
The first dexterous hand that can take a pulse, from a company that only does touch Embodied intelligence has remained one of the most watched early-stage sectors in 2026. Competition across bodies, models, scenarios and applications keeps intensifying, and the upstream sensor layer has heated up along with it. Tactile sensing is one of the … Read more
Japan is building robots to cut China out of its training data Tetsuya Ogata, a professor at Waseda University, said something unusually candid in Tokyo. Facing prototype machines from seven Japanese companies at the Physical AI Summit, he put it plainly. If geopolitical problems make Chinese data-collection robots unavailable, the development of Physical AI becomes … Read more
D-Robotics raises USD 400 million to become the Wintel of robotics On 17 September D-Robotics announced a USD 400 million Series C. Mirae Asset led the round, with Meituan’s strategic investment arm, Hefei State Investment, Nanshan Zhanshi Investment and Jingquan Capital joining from local government platforms, while existing backers Hillhouse Venture Capital, Five Source Capital, … Read more
Capital dives into underwater robotics, betting on the next Unitree of the deep Off Fujian, a cargo ship sits at anchor under a crust of barnacles. Cleaning its hull by hand takes two weeks. A robot called Orca, built by Shihang Intelligent, does it in 10 hours, roughly 50 times faster than a dive team. … Read more