A robotics enthusiast accidentally unpacked Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) Android app package and discovered unreleased designs for the company’s third-generation Optimus humanoid robot, according to a now-deleted post on X. User @wholemars said in a post on Tuesday, which has since been deleted, that he extracted the material from Tesla’s app. The files included renderings labeled “gen3” and side-by-side images of Optimus 2.5 and Gen 3 to distinguish the two generations. The images were not concept sketches or fan renderings, but internal material Tesla embedded in a publicly distributed app package, according to the post. According to the leaked images, the Gen 3 Optimus appears more streamlined and designed for factory assembly lines rather than the laboratory. Compared with Optimus 2.5,...
PITTSBURGH, Sept 27 – The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026, a major robotics conference, opened in Pittsburgh on Sept. 27, with Chinese sensor maker LinkTouch showcasing a full product matrix that put Chinese-made robot core components in the spotlight. Six-axis force/torque sensors are a key sensing component for flexible robot manipulation and are often described as a crown jewel of high-end equipment manufacturing. Overseas companies long monopolized the technology, keeping prices high and delivery cycles long and limiting mass commercialization of humanoid robots. Chinese firms such as LinkTouch have pushed the mass-production cost of high-end six-axis sensors down to the tens of thousands of yuan level through independent innovation and scaled manufacturing, the company said, removing...
Boston Dynamics has introduced a new four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid, a 13-degree-of-freedom, directly actuated design intended for mass production. The hand marks a strategic shift. Earlier Atlas hands had seven degrees of freedom and were designed to grasp a wide range of objects. The new version focuses on manipulating them. “We considered many, many designs,” said Alberto Rodriguez, director of robot behavior for Atlas. “It boils down to a trade-off of competing objectives.” The design omits a pinky and is tailored for high-fidelity simulation and sim-to-real reinforcement learning. It uses a single actuator type, fully encapsulated joints and no fragile cables crossing joints. Boston Dynamics said the hand can slide the thumb tip along and across the other...
ZHUHAI, Sept 24 – China’s AGIBOT ranked first globally in humanoid robot shipments and revenue in the first half of 2026, as the global market extended explosive growth, according to a new report from IDC. Global humanoid robot shipments approached 25,000 units in H1 2026, up 432.1% year on year, IDC said, as the industry accelerates from technology validation to commercial application. China’s shipments exceeded 19,000 units, accounting for about 77.9% of the global total. AGIBOT shipped more than 8,600 units, giving it a runaway lead globally. The company is deploying flagship projects in factories, cultural tourism and retail, backed by its fully self-developed, full-stack “Three Intelligences in One” technology framework and large-scale mass production and delivery capabilities, IDC said. IDC’s...
A robotic hand developed by Chinese firm AGILINK has been taught foundational Suzhou embroidery techniques by master craftswoman Fu Xianghong, including separating silk threads, threading a needle, stretching fabric on an embroidery hoop and stitching. The demonstration puts a robotic hand to work with one of the most delicate and deformable materials it can encounter: silk. A silk thread can bend, slip and change shape with slight changes in contact. Splitting silk requires one finger to separate individual strands while others maintain support and tension; twisting thread requires opposing fingertips to maintain contact while allowing the thread to turn. Threading a needle and stitching add further demands on positioning, force and coordination. The OmniHand 3 Ultra combines 21 active degrees...
BEIJING, Sept 28 – Chinese embodied AI company Astribot announced the winning apps from the second stop of its Astribot OS hackathon, where 15 teams produced runnable robot applications in 36 hours under a format that generates robot apps from a single sentence. The apps covered elderly care, entertainment and scientific research. Astribot said all were deployed on real robots without teams writing low-level control systems from scratch, marking a step from embodied AI research toward scenario-based applications. Organizers and mentors said the event showed a shift from expert customization to platform assembly. Developers built on Astribot OS’s packaged Meta/Skill modules, SDK, motion control and safety capabilities, rather than handling motion control, communications and hardware drivers themselves. “This is not...
LimX Dynamics and Kyland Technology on Monday unveiled what they called China’s first humanoid robot equipped with a domestically developed electronic architecture, marking the first end-to-end integration of domestic industrial-grade real-time communications in a complex humanoid robot system. The launch event was held in Yichang, Hubei province. The companies said it was the first time a domestic electronic architecture had entered a complete humanoid robot system, calling it a milestone in the development of embodied intelligence. Humanoid robots need to transmit large volumes of data and commands among perception, decision-making and motion-control systems in real time to operate autonomously in complex real-world settings. Communication latency, jitter and system coordination efficiency can directly affect control precision, dynamic stability and task safety,...
SHANGHAI, Sept 23 – Maniformer Chairman and CEO Yao Maoqing launched Mifengpai, which the company calls the world’s first full-category, high-quality physical AI data crowdsourcing service platform, at a global launch event in Shanghai. Mifengpai opens physical AI data collection tasks to the public. Users take tasks through the Mifengpai app, wear MEgo devices to perform designated operations in real scenarios such as retail, warehousing, manufacturing and homes, and receive payment based on the duration of validated effective data, becoming “robot trainers.” “The best teacher of physical AI is everyone who lives life earnestly,” Yao said. Mifengpai aims to turn real operating experience scattered across daily life and industries into data that robots can learn, train on and reuse, he...
During the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo, Shenzhen-based embodied intelligence firm ASTRALL Dynamics emerged as one of the most talked-about exhibitors in the artificial intelligence pavilion. The company globally launched its new general-purpose medium-sized intelligent quadruped robot, the Hypertron-SW01, alongside an upgraded integrated solution combining robot hardware, self-developed AI software and ecosystem support. With a delivery standard of “deploy out of the box and operate upon site setup”, ASTRALL demonstrated a new commercial paradigm for Chinese embodied AI enterprises, moving beyond product exports toward full solution exports. Expanded product portfolio unlocks broad cross-industry potential The newly launched Hypertron-SW01 is positioned as a medium-sized intelligent quadruped robot with class-leading power performance. It delivers a 40-kilogram all-terrain payload and up to six hours of...
Toyota Motor Corp is launching a sweeping global factory upgrade that will put 400,000 robots to work, including a semi-humanoid model designed to learn tasks alongside humans, as the automaker seeks to build plants where people and machines coexist. The push includes ELEY, short for Embodied Learning robot for Enhanced Yield, a Toyota-developed semi-humanoid robot. ELEY has two fingers on each robotic hand, weighs about 50 kg, runs on battery or external power and moves on a wheeled base, according to Toyota’s website. Toyota said ELEY’s joints are designed on the same principles as human joints, with all dimensions based on the average Japanese adult male. The aim is to use large-model-based physical AI to let the robot directly imitate...
