Latest news with #humanoidrobot
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Unitree Robotics changes to joint stock limited company, fanning IPO speculation
China's top humanoid robot start-up Unitree Robotics has converted into a company limited by shares, a move that has fanned speculation around its public listing plans, as Chinese robotics firms rapidly expand amid the country's fervour for the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled machines. Advertisement Unitree has changed from a limited liability company into a joint stock limited company, an equivalent to a company limited by shares, according to records on Chinese corporate database Qichacha published on Thursday. In a letter to business partners, the company said the move was 'due to company development needs', according to a report by the state-run Chinese news outlet Securities Times. A robot dog from Unitree is seen at Zhejiang Overseas Talent Innovation Park in Hangzhou, China, April 23, 2025. Photo: Dickson Lee A joint stock limited structure lets a company issue and transfer shares, allowing it to raise more capital as it scales up its operations. Chinese media outlets have called Unitree's restructuring a move that paved the way for its initial public offering. Hangzhou-based Unitree did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During Hong Kong chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu's visit to Hangzhou in April, Unitree founder and CEO Wang Xingxing reportedly told him that a listing in Hong Kong was a possibility. Advertisement
TechCrunch
3 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Hugging Face unveils two new humanoid robots
AI dev platform Hugging Face continued its push into robotics on Thursday with the release of two new humanoid robots. The company announced a pair of open-source robots, HopeJR and Reachy Mini. HopeJR is a full-size humanoid robot that has 66 actuated degrees of freedom, or 66 independent movements, including the ability to walk and move its arms. Reachy Mini is a desktop unit that can move its head, talk, listen, and be used to test AI apps. Meet HopeJr, a full humanoid robot lowering the barrier to entry! Capable of walking, manipulating many objects, open-source and costs under $3000 🤯 Designed by @therobotstudio and @huggingface 👇 — Remi Cadene (@RemiCadene) May 29, 2025 Hugging Face doesn't have an exact timeline for shipping these robots. The company's co-founder and CEO, Clem Delangue, told TechCrunch over email that they expect to start shipping at least the first few units by the end of the year, and the waitlist is currently open. Reachy Mini Credit: Hugging Face Hugging Face estimates that the HopeJR will cost around $3,000 per unit and the Reachy Mini will cost around $250-$300, depending on tariffs. 'The important aspect is that these robots are open source, so anyone can assemble, rebuild, [and] understand how they work, and [that they're] affordable, so that robotics doesn't get dominated by just a few big players with dangerous black-box systems,' Delangue said via email. This robot release was made possible in part by the company's acquisition of humanoid robotics startup Pollen Robotics, which was announced in April, according to Delangue. He added that the Pollen team gave Hugging Face 'new capabilities' required to make these bots. Hugging Face has been making a concerted push into the robotics industry over the past few years. It launched LeRobot, a collection of open AI models, data sets, and tools to build robotics systems, in 2024. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW So far in 2025, the company has released an updated version of its 3D-printed and programmable robotic arm, the SO-101, which the company built in a partnership with French robotics firm The Robot Studio. It also expanded the training data on its LeRobot platform, through a partnership with AI startup Yaak, to include training data for self-driving machines.
Malay Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
CGTN: Sci-fi becomes reality: China's groundbreaking humanoid fighting championship captivates global audiences
China Media Group debuted the world's first humanoid robot combat event in Hangzhou on May 25, 2025, showcasing bots performing martial arts moves learned from motion-captured fighters. Celebrated as a tech milestone, the competition merges innovation with spectacle, signaling China's ambition to lead the robotics industry and pioneer real-world applications. Two robots fight on stage during the world's first humanoid robot fighting competition, Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 25, 2025. /China Media Group BEIJING, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 28 May 2025 -China Media Group (CMG) unveiled the world's inaugural humanoid robot fighting competition on Sunday in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, marking a milestone in robotics the "Mech Combat Arena Competition," this high-energy event showcased robots engaging in choreographed combat, performing moves like jabs, uppercuts and kicks. As part of CMG's broader World Robot Competition Series – which includes robot football and basketball – the tournament blends education and entertainment, aiming to popularize cutting-edge robotics through immersive, theme-based the robots' seemingly effortless martial prowess lies a meticulous development process: the bots learn from human "shifus."Engineers collaborated with professional fighters to capture motion data from key body joints during real combat maneuvers. This data was then integrated into the robots' AI-backed control systems, followed by extensive testing and refinement to ensure stability and result? Machines capable of dynamic, human-like agility under intense duress – a testament to advancements in motion planning and real-time balance competition has drawn praise from industry leaders for pushing technological boundaries. Liu Tai, deputy chief engineer at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, called the event "a thrilling demonstration of stability and coordination in high-intensity scenarios," highlighting its role in bridging scientific progress with industrial Sun Tizhong, an official in charge of future industries development in Zhejiang Province, emphasized the region's strategic focus on humanoid robotics, citing its "explosive potential" and noting Zhejiang's 2024 action plan to foster cross-sector collaboration in the tournament resonated far beyond the Chinese mainland. Media outlets in China's Taiwan region hailed it as turning "sci-fi into reality," while Taipei youths praised CMG for transforming complex topics like productivity innovation into accessible public discourse. On social media, international viewers flooded CGTN's YouTube channel with enthusiastic reactions:"This is just the start. Imagine in five years with all the crazy tech advancements.""Soon this will become a new world sporting event.""The fact that they chose to include kicks... and generally pull it off is impressive.""American dreams, all comes true in China."The Hangzhou showdown follows April's historic humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing, where the Tiangong Ultra robot completed 21 kilometers in under three still a collaborative experiment rather than a pure competition, the race underscored broader ambitions. As engineer Cheng Xuemei noted, the technology behind these feats could revolutionize elder care, hazardous environment operations and industrial China projected to produce over 10,000 humanoid robots by 2025 – claiming more than half the global market – the nation's robotics sector appears poised to reshape both industry and daily life more information, please click:Hashtag: #CGTN The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- The Independent
Elon Musk showcases ‘biggest product ever' Tesla Optimus robot doing household chores
Footage of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's humanoid robot Optimus carrying out everyday tasks by obeying human voice commands has gone viral. In a video shared by Tesla (21 May), Optimus is seen doing household chores with human-like dexterity. The footage shows Optimus stirring a pot, vacuuming, and cleaning a table with a brush and dustpan. Tesla claims each task was learned using videos from humans by employing real-time machine learning and object recognition. Posting on X, Musk dubbed Optimus the company's 'biggest product ever'. The breakthrough will allow Tesla to widen their robots' capabilities beyond pre-programmed tasks, and bettering adaptation to real life.
Digital Trends
21-05-2025
- Digital Trends
The Tesla bot isn't superhuman yet, but it can make dinner
A week ago we saw Tesla's Optimus robot showing off some nifty dance moves. This week, you can watch it performing a bunch of mundane tasks, though admittedly with a great deal of skill — for a humanoid robot. Instructed via natural language prompts, the so-called 'Tesla bot' is shown in a new video dumping trash in a bin, cleaning food off a table with a dustpan and brush, tearing off a sheet of paper towel, stirring a pot of food, and vacuuming the floor, among other tasks. I'm not just dancing all day, ok — Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) May 21, 2025 The performance may not shake the world of humanoid robotics to its core, but it nevertheless shows the kind of steady progress that Tesla engineers are making, with the bot's actions and movements becoming evermore complex. Recommended Videos Commenting on the latest clip, Optimus team boss Milan Kovac said in a post on X: 'One of our goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans doing tasks.' Just to be clear, that doesn't mean the robot will literally watch videos like a human. Instead, it suggests that the robot will learn from the vast amount of data available in those videos, such as demonstrations of tasks, movements, or behaviors. Kovac said that his team recently had a 'significant breakthrough' that means it can now transfer 'a big chunk of the learning directly from human videos to the bots (1st- person views for now),' explaining that this allows his team to bootstrap new tasks much more quickly compared to using teleoperated bot data alone. Next, the plan is to make Optimus more reliable by getting it to practice tasks on its own — either in the real world or in simulations — using reinforcement learning, a method that improves actions through trial and error. Tesla boss Elon Musk, who has spoken enthusiastically of Optimus ever since the company first announced it in 2021, has claimed that 'thousands' of the robots may one day be deployed alongside human staff at Tesla factories, taking care of 'dangerous, repetitive, [and] boring tasks.' The company, better known for making electric cars than humanoid robots, is racing against a growing number of tech firms globally that are intent on commercializing their humanoid robots, whether for the workplace, home, or perhaps some entirely new human-robot ecosystems yet to be imagined.
