Robotics Special: Scientists build shape-shifting robot

Humanoid robots may be coming to your home sooner than you think. With the successful launch of its Helix model last week, Figure AI is now working to bring its robots to homes later this year. Also: scientists have just built a shape-shifting robot that can change state on demand.

P.S. The Robotics Special is designed to help you stay on the cutting edge of the latest breakthroughs and products in the industry. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

Home Hustle: Robotics startup Figure is fast-tracking its humanoid robot for home use, with alpha testing of its Figure 02 robot set to begin in late 2025. The acceleration is powered by its newly-launched AI model, Helix, which helps the robot process visual and language inputs to learn tasks faster. While most humanoid robots are geared at industrial use, Figure is betting on home automation as a long-term play. Watch the robots in action here.

Smart Specs: Meta just dropped Aria Gen 2, the latest version of its research-focused AR glasses that can measure heart rate via built-in PPG sensors while performing AI tasks like eye tracking and hand recognition. The 75-gram device packs custom silicon, an 8-hour battery life, and can distinguish the wearer's voice from bystanders. Meta will bring them to research labs soon, with Envision already testing applications for the visually impaired.

Self-Made Robots: Robotics firm Apptronik has inked a deal with manufacturing giant Jabil to test its Apollo robot on factory floors. If this pans out, Jabil is expected to eventually mass-produce Apollo — setting the stage for the bots to create their own assembly line and build more humanoids. Backed by Alphabet DeepMind, Apptronik is looking to take a lead in the humanoids race, aiming to bring commercial units to the market by 2026.

Getting a Grip: Sanctuary AI has equipped its Phoenix humanoid robots with cutting-edge tactile sensors, enabling human-level dexterity for complex, touch-driven tasks. Unlike vision-only robots, Phoenix can grasp, detect slippage, and manipulate objects with precision — even in the dark. This breakthrough could revolutionize automation, filling labor gaps across industries like logistics, retail, and manufacturing.

Robo Ramblings: Researchers at Physical Intelligence have unveiled a system called the "Hierarchical Interactive Robot" (Hi Robot), which helps robots "talk to themselves" to break down complex tasks into simple steps. The two-part system functions as an inner voice, helping robots understand contextual feedback and adapt on the fly, enabling them to understand the messy, complicated way humans communicate in the real world

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FROM THE FRONTIER

Scientists create shape-shifting robots that flow like water and stand like steel

For decades, robotics has struggled with a fundamental challenge. Traditional robots are either rigid and strong or flexible but weak — but rarely both. While living systems, such as embryos, can naturally adapt their structure by shifting between solid and fluid states, robotic materials have struggled to replicate this dynamic ability, making them inefficient for tasks like navigating unpredictable environments or self-healing.

Scientists decided to bridge the gap between biology and robotics. Inspired by embryonic development — where cells self-organize into different structures like bones and organs — the team set out to create a robotic collective that could be both strong and fluid on demand, adjusting its properties based on internal signals. They built a swarm of hockey-puck-shaped robots that move using a combination of motorized gears and magnets.

The real breakthrough came in how the robots communicate and adapt. Instead of relying on direct commands, they use light sensors with polarized filters to interpret signals and adjust their shape. By exposing them to a constant light field, researchers could control the swarm’s movement, making them flow like a liquid. The magnets allowed the robots to latch onto one another, reinforcing the collective’s ability to act as a single material.

This has some significant implications:

• These swarms can potentially navigate collapsed buildings, flowing through tight spaces to locate survivors and then solidify into support structures.

• Adaptive robotic materials could lead to soft robots for surgery, prosthetics that dynamically adjust to the user, or self-healing implants.

• Self-assembling robots could build and repair structures in space, creating resilient materials for missions to the Moon or Mars.

ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

Healing Hands: CMR Surgical has announced that its Versius robotic system has now been used in over 30,000 surgical procedures, cementing its position in the soft-tissue surgical robot market. Having scored an FDA clearance, Versius is expanding its role in precision surgery globally.

Death Dogs: China is planning to roll out thermobaric robo-dogs for urban warfare, pairing them with drones for coordinated strikes. These vacuum bombs can vaporize human bodies and clear underground hideouts — a chilling glimpse into the future of warfare.

Marine Monitor: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have built a tiny swimming robot that mimics marine flatworms, using silent, flexible fins instead of noisy propellers. It can track pollution, study marine life, and inspect underwater machinery without disrupting ecosystems.

Curbside Cyborg: Serve Robotics has launched its autonomous food delivery service in Miami. Plans are in place to deploy 2,000 delivery robots nationwide, paving the way for faster and cheaper food deliveries with less traffic congestion in busy cities.

Heroic Hopper: Harvard’s new microrobot can jump 23x its length and is set to be used for search-and-rescue operations. Using a spring-loaded “furcula” for rapid ground strikes, the palm-sized bot navigates tight spaces by walking and jumping.

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ROBO REEL

Watch: Unitree G1 turns into Kung-fu master in new viral video

Unitree's compact G1 humanoid is on a fascinating learning curve. The company just dropped footage of the G1 performing complex martial arts moves like punches and roundhouse kicks with remarkable balance and precision — all from a robot that could barely walk 2 months ago.

The process:

• The robots train first in NVIDIA's virtual simulator before touching the physical world

• They use motion capture to observe human movements and replicate them

• A "Sim2Real" process transfers these learned skills to the physical robots

• Unitree has open-sourced its movement dataset to fast-track development

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in Robotics on socials this week

🚐 Robo Ride: An old video of Tesla’s self-driving Robovan just resurfaced on X, and it’s got users excited about the future.

🚖 Cab Cruise: Speaking of robo rides, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has said he was left "speechless" after he spent an hour this week being driven in a robotaxi in London. Catch his experience on video here.

🐙 Tentacle Touch: An octopus-inspired robotic arm has blown up on Reddit. The video shows the arm gripping and manipulating a wide range of objects with an impressive degree of freedom.

🚀 Helix Hustle: Figure AI provided an important update on its Helix model, which dropped last week. The company just announced a successful second customer use-case within an impressive 30 day timeframe.

🧠 Brain Barrier: Head of Research at Varda Space Industries Andrew McCalip claims that robotics has nailed actuators and motion planning for decades — the real bottleneck is AI that makes robots truly useful. For McCalip, hardware isn’t really the problem — software is.

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Acquisitions, investments, funding, and more

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

• Amazon has earmarked $35B for warehouse automation in an effort to cut costs and boost efficiency, with robots already slashing fulfillment expenses by 25% in its newest facility.

• Chinese fintech giant Ant Group is betting big on AI-powered humanoid robots, launching Shanghai Mayi Lingbo Technology with a $13.7M investment to drive automation in factories and homes.

• Polish robotics startup Nomagic just landed $44M to expand its AI-powered robotic arms beyond Europe, targeting North America next.

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is joining hands with Boston-based MassRobotics to accelerate robotics innovation across industries, offering expertise while gaining early access to emerging trends like physical AI.

• Yamaha Motor has acquired New Zealand’s Robotics Plus to launch Yamaha Agriculture, a new venture focused on autonomous farm equipment and AI-driven solutions.

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