Y Combinator has open-sourced a harness for running persistent agents in Minecraft, and has also released Olam Lab's multi-agent Mindustry and Harbor environments. Its newly launched Minecraft colony is run by 25 agents using GPT 6.1 Terra and can be followed on Twitch. Full game replays are available on the YC Labs project page.
The Robot Report has released the 2026 Robotics Handbook, available for free download, covering humanoid robots, AI, and engineering design choices. The handbook includes Plus One Robotics' discussion of cost, human-in-the-loop, and generalization versus specialization; the pace of humanoid development in the Jabil and Apptronik collaboration; and Boston Dynamics' end-effector approach for mass production of the Atlas humanoid robot.
On October 28, Trump issued a presidential proclamation determining that imports of foreign-made factory robots constitute a national security threat, ordering new negotiations with trading partners while keeping open the possibility of future tariffs on such robot imports. The proclamation states that industrial robots are critical to producing U.S. military weapons systems, and cites the findings of an investigation led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that these imports pose a risk to the U.S. industrial base. U.S. companies that rely on such robots, including General Motors, Ford, Tesla, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, could be affected.
A developer modified a desktop robot called Yeti using a 3D-printed shell and open-source code, adding 100+ emotions and behaviors, along with a gyroscope, microphone, light-dependent resistor (LDR), and touch sensor. Yeti works as a small robot and clock, and supports flashing new firmware directly via phone Bluetooth, with no Arduino IDE, computer, or cable needed. A companion app can connect automatically when nearby, and can also let two Yetis paired with different phones send each other messages, doodles, and sounds over the internet.
The Mino robot completed its first outdoor autonomous stroll test. Its ROS 2-based following app runs on a Jetson Orin Nano and has three states: finding people, following people, and companionship. The app uses YOLO-World to detect pedestrians and stereo vision depth estimation to generate 3D bounding boxes, combined with Kalman filter tracking, and continuously recomputes trajectories to control the base and head. The app was completed over a weekend using open-source software modules and a coding agent, and will be released as open source with the robot if the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign succeeds.
https://youtu.be/5NRNqjlmnKQ
PNP Robotics demonstrated a dexterous hand with more than 20 active degrees of freedom that can perform rich-contact manipulation tasks such as valve rotation. Its ample actuated joints allow all five fingers to fully conform to a curved valve wheel, dynamically adjusting its grasp posture during rotation to accommodate valves of different sizes, and integrated tactile sensing enables precise contact-force adjustment to avoid slipping or jamming. The company offers a complete research kit for high-DOF dexterous hands, supporting validation of continuous-contact manipulation algorithms.
The PhAIL team and Nebius have launched a robot policy competition. Participants package their policies as Docker submissions, which are first scored in two simulations: MolmoSpaces and RoboLab starting November 16. In December, the top 10 will run the same image on a real Franka. The tasks resemble the DROID benchmark but use a different dataset.
Jungheinrich and Italian warehouse automation company Automha, a Comau subsidiary, announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop the UP-Carrier GTJ two-way pallet shuttle for high-density pallet storage.
Pollen Robotics' Reachy Mini put on an NFC wizard hat and transformed into "Reachy Mini the Sorcerer," singing a Halloween song made with Suno. The video is live-action, not AI-generated, and the table can be seen shaking in the frame. The wizard hat accessory is not yet available in the store.
The study uses frozen-feature probes to examine ten visual foundation model representations across four levels—spatial structure, object persistence, predictive spatial update, and actionability—under streaming first-person observations of static indoor environments. Results show that strong readout of the visible scene does not guarantee accurate object persistence or future-feature retrieval, and a spatial reader trained on real features does not transfer unchanged to predicted features. Object persistence and actionability depend on camera pose readout, while feature prediction depends on visible-scene readout.
What can Pixar teach us about humanoid robots? Do Park, design lead at Lightberry, discusses designing Lumi around appeal, believability, and approachability. Full keynote from the Humanoid Hub conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGjzwFHe3tI
The PrismaX team shared its practice of transferring a π0.5 policy trained on one YAM device to another YAM device, covering three parts: fine-tuning ablations, latency troubleshooting, and VRAM compression. On fine-tuning, training only the action expert yielded a 51% grasp rate and a 12% drop rate; full fine-tuning gave 89% and 53%; r=128 LoRA gave 84% and 59% while using 32GB. Strong lighting roughly halved the performance of the checkpoint trained only on the action expert.
Why it matters: The original post provides details on fine-tuning ablations, latency troubleshooting, and VRAM compression for π0.5 policy cross-device transfer, which can be reused on existing equipment in small labs.
AgiBot has released WITA-Omni 1.0, an omni-modal interaction model that supports full-duplex dialogue with simultaneous speaking and listening, runs on-device with an end-to-end interaction latency of about 400ms, and integrates vision, speech, real-time dialogue, facial expressions, and physical actions into one continuous system. It currently ranks highly on multiple interaction benchmarks.
At its October 29, 2026 Innovation Day in Shanghai, Agibot unveiled its third-generation humanoid hardware architecture AHA3, the embodied foundation model GO-3 Preview, the omni-modal interaction model WITA-Omni 1.0, the industrial robot G2 Max, and Link-U OS 1.0, and proposed the Worken framework for measuring robots' actual productive output.
Bedrock Robotics announced the close of a $600 million Series C round at a post-money valuation of $4.1 billion, co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, bringing the company's total funding to nearly $1 billion.
https://careers.tether.io/?v=1
A team at CMU's Robotics Institute has proposed the Wiggle and Go system, in which a robot first briefly wiggles a rope or cable while an overhead camera records how the waves propagate; a computer vision algorithm then tracks the motion and estimates the object's physical properties, which are used to plan subsequent actions without repeated trial and error. The model is trained entirely in simulation, and properties are then estimated from the motion of real ropes being wiggled to improve prediction accuracy on real hardware. The research has been accepted to the 2026 Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) and will be presented next month in Austin; it is partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Why it matters: The method estimates a rope's physical properties from a single wiggle and then plans actions accordingly, offering a transferable approach to deformable object manipulation.
Google DeepMind has released Genie 4, a new-generation world model that extends single-session world coherence from 1 minute in the previous generation, Genie 3, to 2 minutes, and becomes Google's first real-time world model with native support for synchronized audio-video generation.
NASA has released the 2026 edition of its ISAM State of Play, a 368-page document recording in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing capabilities across 11 functional areas, covering areas such as robotic operations, refueling, and structural assembly. Published since 2021, the document includes only hardware that already has a ground prototype or an in-orbit demonstration; concept proposals must wait for the following year's review. The 2026 edition adds developer profiles and facility information, and is available for download on NASA.gov.
NASA has opened the "Journey to Titan" campaign, inviting the public to sign up to have their names written onto a microchip flying aboard the Dragonfly rotorcraft to Titan, along with a personalized digital boarding pass; registration closes January 15, 2027. Dragonfly is being assembled at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), with launch planned for 2028 and arrival in 2034, when it will fly to different locations on Titan to search for clues to prebiotic chemistry.
NASA's "Viaje a Titán" campaign is inviting the public to submit their names; selected names will be written onto a microchip and flown to Saturn's moon Titan aboard the Dragonfly rotorcraft, and participants will also receive a personalized electronic boarding pass.
The Arrow Electronics Technology Solutions Show 2026 will be held on November 4 at the Shanghai Baohua Marriott Hotel. In the tech conference session, onsemi, YAGEO, and NXP will respectively present on smart power and sensing, passive components, and a full-stack robotics semiconductor solution covering high-performance computing, real-time control, motor control, security, and connectivity.
Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management Dean Bai Chong-en spoke at the 2026 Shanghai Suhewan Conference, discussing the optimism and concerns brought by AI, how AI can serve humanity, the democratization of app development, and the intelligentization of supply chains. Cook said 95% of apps in China's app incubators already use AI, that Apple Watch launched a sleep apnea notification feature in China this week, and announced that 95% of China's supply chain has adopted renewable energy, with a goal of 100% by 2030. Bai Chong-en proposed the STAR framework, emphasizing that in an era when answers are easily available, asking the right questions matters more.
Unitree Technology and Sequoia China announced on October 28 the establishment of the 'Shanyu Innovation Program,' focused on early-stage startups in embodied intelligence, robotics applications, and key upstream and downstream technologies. The program adopts an 'engineer plus investor' collaboration model: Unitree provides technical roadmaps, cost-curve and engineering-implementation judgment, while Sequoia provides capital support and post-investment services, targeting young teams at the idea, code, or prototype stage.
WeRide disclosed that its subsidiary JingShuo Technology has completed a 70 million yuan pre-A funding round, with participation from Jiayu Capital, HKSTP (Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks), Sirius Capital and others; the investors together hold approximately 3.38%. JingShuo Technology has self-developed the integrated data-model platform WorldEngine, the world model GENESIS-Robotics and the data asset engine SkillForge, and has accumulated 500,000 hours of high-precision data, 50 million structured task segments and 200+ scenario skill packages.
Shandong-based flexible fabric tactile sensing company Juqiao Industries announced the completion of a hundred-million-yuan Series A funding round, led by Ant Group, with Lingyi Venture Capital, Weihai Gangrong, and Qingdao Hexin participating. The funds will be used for large-scale mass production and delivery of fabric electronic skin and for R&D in tactile and multimodal sensing technologies.
Tsing Standard released the automotive-grade first-person data collection solution Tsing-Ego PRO during SAECCE 2026. It uses 8-camera vision capture across the head and both wrists, supports 1080P global exposure and hardware synchronization, and achieves end-to-end synchronization accuracy of ≤1ms.
SWANCOR Advanced Materials has released its third-quarter report, with revenue of RMB 1.209 billion for the first three quarters and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 63.5181 million, up 4.91% year on year. R&D investment in its consumer-grade embodied intelligent robotics business reached RMB 360 million. As of the end of the reporting period, the robotics R&D team had 295 people and had filed 135 patent applications in total, but the consumer-grade embodied intelligent robotics business recognized no revenue during the reporting period. The company also announced executive changes: Zhao Gang as President and COO, Gao Quanzhong and Liu Dongfang as Co-Presidents, and Dong Hao as Chief Scientist and President of the Embodied Research Center.
Tesla plans to use the Optimus humanoid robot to plug and unplug charging cables for Robotaxi as an interim solution before wireless charging is deployed. Currently, Robotaxis at the Austin Supercharger station are still charged manually by staff, and the Cybercab supports only Supercharging and has a hidden NACS port.
Gu Jie, Vice President of XPeng Group, said at the SAECCE annual conference that the solid-state battery for the XPeng IRON robot has rolled off the line in small-batch production, and the robot is currently in the pre-SOP stage. The battery uses a high-energy-density design and, with a design to prevent thermal runaway propagation, has withstood impact and nail-penetration tests. XPeng plans to achieve mass production of humanoid robots by the end of 2026, begin deliveries in the first half of 2027, and first deploy them in commercial scenarios such as stores and shopping malls.
Ministry of Commerce commerce big data shows that in the first three quarters, sales of exoskeleton assistive devices on key platforms rose 46.4% year on year, sales of embodied intelligent robots rose 22.6% year on year, and smart glasses grew 1.1-fold. These growth rates reflect only year-on-year changes in sales of the relevant goods on key platforms and do not equal nationwide all-channel growth rates or industry size. Exoskeleton assistive devices are wearable mechanical assistive devices that can be used for rehabilitation training, mobility assistance, industrial work, and load-bearing walking; embodied intelligent robots cover some humanoid robots, service robots, and other systems with environmental perception and autonomous operation capabilities.
The Chongqing University "BOBOCUP" team won the national championship in the agricultural robot—harvesting robot category at the 2026 China Robot Competition and RoboCup China Open, which concluded on October 18. This is the university's first championship at the event since it began participating in 2013. The harvesting category requires robots to complete autonomous navigation, intelligent obstacle avoidance, target recognition, fruit and vegetable grasping and harvesting, and collection at a designated location. Another team from the university placed third in the five-finger dexterous manipulation artistic skills challenge, which assesses abilities such as multi-finger fine manipulation, force control, and hand-eye coordination.
ETH Zurich published a blog post on October 22 showcasing a biohybrid microrobot about 1.5 centimeters long, made from mouse skeletal muscle cells and a hydrogel scaffold, that can jump, run, swim, and grasp. The team used an algorithm to simultaneously optimize muscle tissue distribution, volume, and the hydrogel scaffold's shape and mechanical properties, achieving motion amplitudes up to 11 times greater than previous systems with similar muscle mass; the walking version reaches a speed of 6.2 millimeters per second, about 0.4 body lengths per second, which the study says is the highest speed reported to date for a walking biohybrid robot.
Peng Zhihui, co-founder, president, and CTO of Zhiyuan Robotics, disclosed at the 2026 Zhiyuan Innovation Day that in the first half of 2026 Zhiyuan shipped 9,700 humanoid robots, accounting for more than 43% of the global humanoid robot market, with revenue for the period approaching 2 billion yuan; as of September, cumulative output of general-purpose embodied robots surpassed 20,000 units.
Why it matters: Zhiyuan disclosed first-half shipments of 9,700 units and revenue near 2 billion yuan, and introduced a new metric measuring commercialization by effective intelligent work hours, offering a way to track the pace at which humanoid robots move from demonstrations to delivery.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tesla's Musk, and Unitree's Wang Xingxing have recently made aligned public judgments: physical AI is on the eve of an explosion, and humanoid robots are its most important deployment vehicle. Huang said that, relying on the Cosmos world model and the Isaac simulation platform, AI factory deployment cycles have been compressed to 14 days; Musk plans for Optimus to be supplied externally by the end of 2027 after resolving issues such as electromechanical reliability, and says early production has already begun at the Fremont factory.
Daxiao Robotics has released the ACE-Brain-0.6 API, opening its spatial grounding capability to external developers through the ACE Hub platform, so they can call it without deploying the model independently. A simultaneous upgrade expanded high-quality spatial grounding training data from about 1.1 million to 1.5 million entries, raised the model's average score on seven public grounding benchmarks to 75.41, and increased inference speed beyond that of GPT-6 Astra.
Ropedia held Ropedia Super Week from October 19 to 23, releasing six studies at once: Ropedia W0, HoliWorld, EgoXperience, DONIC, S-Agent 2.0, and Ropedia A0, covering human experience recording, world model prediction, and two-handed manipulation learning.
At the October 29, 2026 AgiBot Innovation Day, AgiBot proposed for the first time the Worken (effective intelligent work hours) metric for measuring a robot's effective workload, and released its third-generation hardware architecture AHA3, the heavy-duty embodied robot Genie G2 Max, and the embodied intelligence operating system Lingqu OS 1.0.
The 2026 Embodied Picking and Loading/Unloading Robotics Industry Forum is now 6 days away. The forum focuses on robotic applications of embodied intelligence in picking and loading/unloading scenarios; the specific agenda, participating companies, and exhibits have not yet been disclosed in the article.