Robotics Special: Sky cabs and spy bots

The robots aren’t coming — they’re already here and are clocking in for the morning shift. From factory floors to film sets, humanoid robots are leading the charge in industrial automation. Meanwhile, autonomous flying taxis are taking to the sky in China after getting the green light from state authorities.

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

Sky Cab: Two Chinese companies have officially received regulatory approval to launch autonomous passenger drones into the sky, starting with short-distance tourism routes before expanding into broader urban networks. Clocking in at speeds up to 81 mph, these flying taxis are part of China’s growing low-altitude economy, projected to be worth $207B by the end of this year. Watch them soar the skies here.

Work Warrior: Agility Robotics has made major upgrades to its Digit humanoid robot, including longer battery life, autonomous docking, and integration with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to boost efficiency at work. The humanoid's improved safety features show significant progress toward meeting industry standards for working alongside humans, positioning Digit as a key player in next-gen industrial automation.

Circuit Server: Shanghai-based robotics firm Keenon Robotics has unveiled the XMAN-R1, a humanoid robot designed to fast-track automation in the hospitality space. Capable of taking orders, preparing food, and interacting with customers, XMAN-R1 works seamlessly within the company's wider ecosystem of service robots, making it a good fit for the industry’s more personal, customer-facing roles. Watch it in action here.

Virtual Vanguard: Accenture and Schaeffler are teaming up to overhaul industrial automation. The collaboration uses NVIDIA Omniverse to simulate factory layouts and robot operations. Advanced humanoid robots learn tasks by observing humans, with movements captured and translated back into simulations. As nearly half of factory managers expect AMRs and humanoid robots to become standard in factories, this could make factory operations smarter, faster, and more adaptable.

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

Lights, Camera, Action: In a partnership with NVIDIA and Canon, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid is making its debut as a camera operator on a film set. Its ability to handle heavy equipment and repeat complex shots could have huge implications for virtual production, especially when it comes to shooting in tough locations.

007 of the Seas: Defense company Anduril has unveiled the Seabed Sentry, an AI-powered spy robot capable of operating in oceanic depths greater than 500 meters for months or even years. It improves real-time maritime awareness for both commercial and military applications.

Quality Check: Auto manufacturer Audi has introduced UBTech’s Walker S1 humanoid robot at its Changchun, China plant to handle essential quality inspections like detecting refrigerant leaks in air-conditioning systems. The Walker S1's precision and stability make it a key asset in hazardous environments.

Debris Detective: MIT engineers have developed SPROUT, a low-cost, flexible "vine robot" that can navigate through rubble to help rescue teams locate survivors after major collapse events. The robot's soft, inflatable body allows it to squeeze through tight spaces and map the best ingress routes into the debris. You can watch it in action here.

FROM THE FRONTIER

UC Berkeley researchers use magnets to power the world’s tiniest flying robot

Building a tiny flying robot has presented scientists with a paradox. As devices get smaller, batteries tend to become disproportionately heavy and bulky. Traditional solutions like tethering miniature robots to power sources cramped their movement and held them back in real-world applications. Engineers needed to find a way to power small flying robots without the weight penalty of onboard power systems.

Scientists at UC Berkeley decided to flip the script. The goal was to build a prototype that could fly anywhere without being tethered to a constant power source. To circle around the miniaturization challenge, the team used an external magnetic field to power the mini-drone and control its flight. The robot’s body is 3D printed and packs a pair of permanent magnets, which respond to the magnetic field to generate lift.

The design is surprisingly robust — it can right itself after collisions, and the lift force generated by the robot exceeded its own weight by approximately 14%. It’s also energy-efficient, converting power to lift more effectively than nearly all other flying robots and even outperforming natural flyers like fruit flies and hummingbirds.

But there’s still some ground to cover. The current range of these robots is limited to about 10 centimeters away from the magnetic field. However, future improvements could extend the robots’ operational range, potentially revolutionizing search and rescue operations, industrial machinery, and plant pollination.

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ROBO REEL

Watch: Figure AI’s humanoids put in the grind at a BMW factory

These are the world’s first commercially deployed humanoid robots.

Figure AI shipped fully autonomous robots to a BMW factory, claiming to successfully achieve end-to-end autonomy after overcoming significant technical challenges.

With a fleet of robots learning from real-world data, Figure AI is ramping up the practical impact of humanoid robots.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in Robotics on socials this week

👨‍⚕️ Distance Doctor: A video of a Chinese surgeon successfully carrying out a lung surgery on a patient located 5,000 km away resurfaced on X this week. The doctor removed a lung tumor from the patient by teleoperating a robot from an entirely different city.

⚔️ Walking Wars: Elon Musk posted Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot walking a lot like a human, and it’s got X users comparing it to Boston Dynamics’s Atlas humanoid.

🛞 Wholesome Wheels: In 2019, a toddler’s family couldn't afford his $20,000 electric wheelchair, and their insurance didn't cover it. So, a high school robotics team built it for them for free. The wholesome moment resurfaced on X this week.

✋ Grip Gain: Chinese robotics company Unitree knows how to break the internet. The company just went viral for a third week in a row for unveiling a dexterous robotic hand with more than 20 degrees of freedom.

MARKET MOVEMENTS

Acquisitions, investments, funding, and more

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

• Chef Robotics picked up $43.1M in Series A to ramp up the development of its meal assembly robots.

• German startup Beagle raised $5.5M in seed funding to expand its long-range drone operations, offering a more efficient way to inspect energy infrastructure like pipelines and power lines.

• Honda is automating its EV production process in China, cutting its floor staff by 30% at the Guangzhou factory. The move includes using AI for optimized welding and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to transport heavy components.

• Hyundai Motor Group is set to buy tens of thousands of robots, including the Atlas humanoid and Spot robot dogs, from Boston Dynamics to enhance its manufacturing capabilities.

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