🤖 Human-Level Dexterity

Good Morning, Roboticists!

The age of physical AI is no longer theoretical. It is assembling itself in plain sight.

Figure’s 7th-Gen Hand Targets Human-Level Dexterity

TL;DR: Figure unveiled a teaser of its 7th-generation humanoid hand, showcasing advanced finger abduction, adduction, and full thumb opposition in pursuit of “human parity.” The upgrade signals a strategic pivot from solving locomotion to mastering manipulation, widely seen as the true bottleneck for useful humanoids. While still demonstrated only in silhouette, the rapid iteration cycle and planned mass production hint that dexterous hands, not legs, may determine who wins the humanoid race.

Humanoids Took Over the Spring Gala

TL;DR: At China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala, humanoid robots took center stage as Unitree’s machines performed kung fu routines, spun nunchucks, executed flips, and recovered from falls with striking precision. The nationally televised showcase demonstrated how rapidly robotics is moving from laboratory demonstrations into mainstream cultural visibility, bringing embodied AI closer to public imagination and everyday normalization at scale.

Robot Swarms Fight Fires

TL;DR: Researchers in Australia demonstrated an AI-powered firefighting robot swarm trained through multi-agent reinforcement learning. The system achieved a 99.67% success rate navigating obstacles and extinguishing simulated fires. Robots self-organized into teams and coordinated tasks autonomously, reducing human reliance. While deployments remain remote-controlled, the breakthrough points toward fully autonomous emergency response in high-risk environments.

Another Kung Fu Robot

TL;DR: Agibot unveiled its Expedition A3 humanoid performing aerial kicks, spins, and mid-air kung fu without CGI to showcase balance and flexibility. The robot runs on an eight-hour dual-battery system with lightweight exoskeleton legs and conversational AI for retail and events. Yet like many humanoid debuts, spectacle arrives first while everyday utility remains the open question.

Factory Worker or Battlefield Bot?

TL;DR: In a Fox Business interview, Foundation Robotics CEO Sankaet Pathak presented the Phantom humanoid as a dual-use platform designed for industrial labor while also adaptable for military deployment. The same system pitched for factory logistics and maintenance is being explored for reconnaissance and supply missions in Ukraine.

Open-Source Humanoid Shift

TL;DR: Beijing startup RoboParty fully open-sourced its 1.25-meter Roboto Origin humanoid across hardware and software layers. The release includes blueprints, control code, supplier networks, and Sim2Real engineering insights. Positioned as “Embodied Infrastructure,” it aims to cut development costs and unify fragmented designs. The move shifts competition from closed hardware toward open ecosystem iteration as the primary acceleration driver.

The Elephant’s Secret Sensor Tech

TL;DR: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute found elephant trunk whiskers use a stiffness gradient to sense touch location. Rigid bases and soft tips allow precise contact detection through structure alone. Unlike rodent whiskers, perception is encoded materially rather than neurally. The discovery points toward robotic sensors that embed intelligence directly into hardware design.

Robot Fingernails Unlock Human-Like Precision

TL;DR: Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Sony Group Corporation unveiled the PLATO Hand, a robotic hand that embeds a rigid fingernail within a soft fingertip to shape contact forces. The nail shifts deformation to the contact point instead of the whole finger, boosting pinching stability (up to 78%), increasing force sensitivity (up to +20 dB), and enabling thin-object tasks like paper singulation and card picking. The work signals smarter material design can drive a new class of physically embodied robotic dexterity.

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