humanoid robot
Digit’s first job will be moving totes around a Connecticut Spanx factory — which is most definitely not a euphemism.
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Humanoid robots are learning to fall well
The savvy marketers at Boston Dynamics produced two major robotics news cycles last week. The larger of the two was, naturally, the electric Atlas announcement. As I write this, the sub-40 second video is steadily approaching five million views. A day prior, the company tugged at the community’s heart strings…
Sanctuary AI often isn’t mentioned in the same breath as humanoid robotics firms like Boston Dynamics, Agility, Figure and 1X, but the Canadian company has been operating in the space…
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Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot goes electric
Atlas lies motionless in a prone position atop interlocking gym mats. The only soundtrack is the whirring of an electric motor. It’s not quiet, exactly, but it’s nothing compared to the hydraulic jerks of its ancestors. As the camera pans around the robot’s back, its legs bend at the knees.…
Mentee Robotics hasn’t been in stealth, exactly. The Israeli firm caught a small wave of press at the tail end of 2022, following Tesla’s initial humanoid robotics announcement. As that…
Atlas shrugged: Boston Dynamics retires its hydraulic humanoid robot
Now that humanoids are all the rage in the robotics industry, Boston Dynamics on Tuesday officially retired theirs. The Hyundai-owned firm has always marched to the beat of its own…
European car manufacturer will pilot Sanctuary AI’s humanoid robot
Sanctuary AI announced that it will be delivering its humanoid robot to a Magna manufacturing facility. Based in Canada, with auto manufacturing facilities in Austria, Magna manufactures and assembles cars…
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The loneliness of the robotic humanoid
Perhaps a few years from now, the halls of the Georgia World Congress Center will be peppered with humanoid robots the week of Modex. In 2024, however, Digit stands alone at the supply chain show. It’s a testament to Agility’s healthy head start over competitors like Figure, Tesla, 1X and…
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Figure rides the humanoid robot hype wave to $2.6B valuation
Today Figure confirmed long-standing rumors that it’s been raising more money than God. The Bay Area-based robotics firm announced a $675 million Series B round that values the startup at $2.6 billion post-money. The lineup of investors is equally impressive. It includes Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, Nvidia, Amazon Industrial Innovation…
The robotics industry loves a good, healthy debate. Of late, one of the most intense ones centers around humanoid robots. It’s been a big topic for decades, of course, but…
BMW will deploy Figure’s humanoid robot at South Carolina plant
Figure today announced a “commercial agreement” that will bring its first humanoid robot to a BMW manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The Spartanburg plant is BMW’s only in the United…
Elon’s Tesla robot is sort of ‘ok’ at folding laundry in pre-scripted demo
Elon Musk’s Optimus humanoid robot from Tesla is doing more stuff — this time folding a t-shirt on a table in a development facility. The robot looks to be fairly…
OpenAI-backed 1X raises another $100M for the race to humanoid robots
The race to perfect the humanoid form factor will be one of 2024’s defining tech stories. Last year saw the category heat up, as companies like Tesla, Apptronik and Figure…
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Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots
Announced amid a deluge of news at this week’s Delivering the Future event in Seattle was word that Amazon will begin testing Agility’s Digit in a move that could bring the bipedal robot to its nationwide fulfillment centers. It’s baby steps as these things go, and such early-stage deals don’t…
Amazon begins testing Agility’s Digit robot for warehouse work
At today’s Delivering the Future event, Amazon announced that it will begin testing Agility’s bipedal robot Digit in its facilities. Amazon Robotics Chief Technologist Tye Brady said the testing is…
In May of this year, TechCrunch ran a piece titled “Figure’s humanoid robot takes its first steps.” The story was a firsthand account of my visit to the startup’s South…
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Apptronik readies its humanoid robot for a summer unveil
Jeff Cardenas pulls out his MacBook. Apptronik’s co-founder and CEO has a slideshow he wants to show, running down the Austin startup’s seven-year history. It does, indeed, take a bit of contextualizing. Like many fellow robotics firms, the company was fueled by government contracts in its earliest days. First up…
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Figure’s humanoid robot takes its first steps
Toward the rear of the office, an engineer is working on a metal hand. It looks human enough — roughly the same size with four fingers and a thumb. The Figure team is methodically testing every piece of their robot skeleton before piecing them all together to watch the prototype…
I’m not sure I’d call this the golden age of humanoid robots, but they sure have been coming out of the woodwork since Tesla announced its intentions to build one…
Figure emerges from stealth with the first images of its humanoid robot
Humanoid robots are one of those ideas that never truly goes out of style — it does, however, tend to ebb and flow across the decades. Whatever you happen to…
Musk says robot, aimed for 2023, will be worth more than Tesla’s car business
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company’s robot, named Optimus, will be “worth more than the car business, worth more than FSD.” FSD, or “full self-driving,” is Tesla’s advanced driver…
If we can’t design autonomous robots, maybe they can design themselves
Delivering a humanoid robot capable of independently venturing out into public is likely a long way off.
CMU finds that even bad robot trash talk can throw you off your game
A commons tactic in both amateur and professional sports – and even in competitions as mundane as a casual board game night – is trash talk. But the negative effect…
Atlas the humanoid robot shows off a new and improved gymnastics routine
Boston Dynamics has been teaching its old bots new tricks — Atlas, its humanoid robot that walks on two legs, can now do a surprisingly elegant gymnastics routine, tumbling into…
Meet the robots Toyota is bringing to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games are fast approaching, and Toyota is playing a key role in on-site mobility and transportation. The Japanese automaker has unveiled five robots it’s…
These humanoid robots can autonomously navigate cinder block mazes thanks to IHMC
Programming robots to walk on flat, even ground is difficult enough, but Florida’s Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) is tackling the grander challenge of making sure bipedal robots…
Google is closing its Schaft robotics unit after failing to find a buyer
Sad news for anyone into giant robots: Google parent Alphabet is closing down Schaft, its secretive unit that develops bipedal robots aimed at helping out in disaster efforts and generally looking…
Here are all the robots we saw at TC Sessions: Robotics
Robots are coming. Are they overlords or friendly companions designed to help us perform the mundane tasks of our respective days? Perhaps it’s both. Whatever the purpose, they’re no longer…
PepperHealth can detect vitals and send out an emergency alert for elders in trouble
Pepper, the humanoid robot, is coming up with all sorts of ways to serve its human overlords, including in eldercare. The little rolling robot took to the stage at the…
If you’re flying via Haneda Airport, you can now ask this robot for directions
Robots are friends! Or at least, at Haneda Airport if you see one of the little buddies above, you can feel confident approaching it and ask it for help. The…
