Industrial Automation

Hai Robotics restarts its Hong Kong IPO with RMB 4.1 billion of orders and a loss to price away

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Warehouse automation leader Hai Robotics refreshed its listing application on 13 September, restarting its Hong Kong IPO and positioning itself as a candidate for the first automated case-handling robot listing on the exchange, following an initial filing in February 2026. Hai Robotics targets case-handling automation in high-density warehouses. (Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) Before … Read more

This physical-AI startup wants to put a brain into America’s 280,000 legacy factories

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On 9 September, the US physical-AI startup Harmoni closed a 10 million dollar Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with valuation undisclosed, and on the same day unveiled HAL. HAL is an AI that lives on the shop floor: a worker can ask why a machine is running slower than usual, file a repair … Read more

Zhejiang breaks ground on a 5,000-unit-a-year smart logistics robot factory

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Zhejiang Qingtian Lituo Robot Co has broken ground on a project that will build a digital factory for smart logistics robots at a planned capacity of 5,000 units a year. The site covers 40 mu and will produce AGV handling robots, smart warehouse systems and the software that runs them, aimed at the intelligent-upgrade needs … Read more

JD launches JoyRobocare in Europe, plans 100,000 robot-repair jobs across 100-plus countries

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At the 2026 World Robot Conference, JD laid out a robotics service strategy: over five years it will build an after-sales repair network across more than 100 countries and create more than 100,000 robot-repair engineer jobs. JD plans ten training and certification centres in China and aims to train over 100,000 repair engineers covering robots … Read more

Why most humanoid robots are still factory interns, not full-time workers

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Unitree’s listing lifted attention on the robot industry, and 2026 is widely called the year of humanoid mass production. Yet behind the conference glow, most industrial robots are still ‘interns’ on the floor, not reliable ‘full staff’. Deployment sits at single-point tests and showcase pilots, moving boxes, loading parts, and simple patrols, while full-line replacement … Read more

Ninebot’s Navimow mower: 2.54 billion yuan in half-year sales, over 40 per cent of China’s mower exports go to Europe

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On 10 August, Ninebot released its first-half 2026 results: group revenue of 14.36 billion yuan, up 22 per cent, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.008 billion yuan, down 18.79 per cent, and ex-non-recurring profit of 969 million yuan, down 26 per cent. By segment, e-scooters in China sold 2.842 million units, up 19 … Read more

Schaeffler debuts humanoid-robot components at WRC 2026, eyes series production

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At the 2026 World Robot Conference, Schaeffler Embodied Intelligence Robotics (Taicang) showed up for the first time, centring its display on the core parts and subsystems that make a humanoid move. Schaeffler is leaning on decades of automotive and industrial drive know-how. The lineup spans robot high-performance computers, a 48V low-voltage power controller (LVPC), tendon-driven … Read more

Raised $300M, Backed by Bill Gates — Robot Startup Vicarious Files for Bankruptcy

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In the midst of a global humanoid robot boom, a sobering reminder of how hard the robotics business actually is: Vicarious Surgical, a US surgical robot startup that raised $300 million from investors including Bill Gates and Jerry Yang, has filed for bankruptcy. Founded in 2014 by two MIT graduates, Vicarious set out to build … Read more