robotics

NVIDIA and Unitree announced a jointly developed open humanoid robot reference design built on Unitree's H2 Plus chassis, with 75 total degrees of freedom and Jetson Thor compute, due from Unitree in late 2026.

Locus Robotics buys Vancouver-based Nexera Robotics, adding NeuraGrasp's patented soft-membrane gripper to its Locus Array autonomous fulfillment system.

Boston Dynamics engineers detail the five-step reinforcement learning pipeline that taught Atlas to lift over 100 pounds using whole-body control — from animation to factory floor in weeks.

A new national coalition of robotics and AI companies launched at the SCSP AI+ Expo, organized at the request of the White House and Congress to address the US manufacturing competitiveness gap.

Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and SK jointly invested in Config's $27M seed round to build neutral training-data infrastructure for robotic foundation models.

A new AI controller modeled on biological synapses lets soft robotic arms handle novel tasks and unexpected disturbances without retraining, achieving over 92% shape accuracy under real-world disruptions.

Figure AI's Helix-02-powered Figure 03 humanoids ran a public, multi-day sorting livestream from May 13, processing more than 100,000 packages in 81 hours with no teleoperation — though a leading roboticist calls the demo more 'science project' than commercial proof.

A May 13 deal pairs a Robot-as-a-Service deployment running through 2032 with a five-year actuator supply agreement that makes Schaeffler the preferred supplier for more than half of Humanoid's joint actuators.

Unitree unveils the GD01, a large manned mecha that transforms between bipedal and quadrupedal modes, carries pilots in a torso cockpit, and is priced around $650,000.

Figure AI reports its California BotQ line scaled from one Figure 03 per day to one per hour in under 120 days, shipping over 350 robots with 80% first-pass yield.

Meta acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence on May 1, 2026, folding cofounders Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang into Superintelligence Labs as it tries to become the operating-system layer for the humanoid race.

Matternet has launched commercial drone deliveries between two Central London NHS hospital campuses, marking its UK debut and the first urban deployment of an FAA Type-Certified delivery aircraft on British airspace.