🤖 Figure Scales Production
Good Morning, Roboticists!
Robots are leaving the lab, not as prototypes, but as systems that can act, adapt, and integrate.
Figure Scales Humanoid Production
TL;DR: Figure CEO Brett Adcock announced that in March 2026, its BotQ factory in California produced more robots than the company had built in its entire history. The facility is now manufacturing Figure 03 humanoids at a rate of one every 90 minutes, using redesigned components and high-volume processes as the company ramps toward large-scale production targets.
DNA Robots Enter Early Stage
TL;DR: Researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology of China reported progress in building microscopic robots from DNA that can move, respond to signals, and perform controlled tasks using techniques like DNA folding and strand displacement. These experimental systems can be guided by chemical reactions or light and magnetic fields, with potential applications in drug delivery, virus targeting, and nanoscale manufacturing, though they remain at an early stage.
China Tests First Flexible Space Arm
TL;DR: A Chinese tech-demonstration satellite successfully tested a flexible robotic arm in orbit after its March 2026 launch. During the mission, the arm performed multiple tasks including autonomous movement, remote-controlled operations, visual docking, and force-guided manipulation, validating its ability to handle precision tasks and operate reliably through coordinated space-ground control systems.
Zero-Shot Robotic Hand Demo
TL;DR: Sanctuary AI demonstrated a robotic hand completing a complex cube reorientation task using a control policy trained entirely in simulation, with no prior real-world testing. The hydraulic, five-fingered hand successfully performed repeated manipulations on physical hardware, showing that its simulation closely matches real-world dynamics and reduces the need for additional real-world training.
Legged Robot Speeds Space Exploration
TL;DR: Researchers from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich, and ESA tested a semi-autonomous quadruped robot equipped with a robotic arm, camera, and spectrometer in a Mars-like environment. The robot navigated terrain, located targets, and collected data on its own, completing multi-target missions in 12–23 minutes, compared to 41 minutes when operated through traditional human-guided control.
Humanoid Integrates with SAP Systems
TL;DR: UK startup Humanoid completed a live logistics trial with SAP and Martur Fompak, where its HMND 01 Alpha robot was directly controlled by SAP’s warehouse system. The robot autonomously handled picking tasks—navigating, retrieving boxes, and delivering them—while receiving real-time instructions from enterprise software.
Flexible Robot Precision Breakthrough
TL;DR: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar developed a new control method called virtual actuation space (VAS) for flexible, tendon-driven robots. By simplifying motion control into direction and magnitude, the system reduced complexity and enabled precise movements, achieving less than 1% error in tests, including complex paths, while allowing different robot sections to operate independently in tight spaces.
AI Robots Target Road Repairs
TL;DR: A $1.2 million partnership between Charles Darwin University, Civiltech Solutions, and the Additive Manufacturing CRC is developing an AI-powered robotic system to detect and repair road cracks. Combining LiDAR scanning, robotics, and additive manufacturing, the project aims to replace manual inspections with automated detection and precise repairs, improving efficiency across Australia’s extensive road network.
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