🤖 Optimus Gen3 Loves You
Good Morning, Roboticists!
Robots are being taught to feel, adapt, and quietly replace us.
Optimus Gen3 Loves You
TL;DR: Tesla China shared an image of what appears to be the next-generation Optimus robot, likely Gen3, highlighting its redesigned hands. The hands show slimmer fingers, more human-like proportions, and smoother joints, forming a heart gesture in the teaser. Compared to earlier versions, the design looks more refined and less mechanical, emphasizing improved structure and articulation in the hand system.
Air Muscles Lift 100x
TL;DR: Researchers at Arizona State University led by Eric Weissman developed air-powered artificial muscles that let robots lift up to 100 times their own weight. These flexible HARP actuators mimic real muscle contraction using small amounts of air, replacing bulky motors. The system enables lightweight robots to move, grasp, and operate in extreme environments, including heat and confined spaces.
Humanoid Robots Become Interns
TL;DR: A smart factory in Guangxi, China is training around 120 humanoid robots as “interns,” including UBTech Walker S1 units working alongside human supervisors. The robots practice real tasks such as sorting parts, moving bins, and picking up small components in dedicated training areas, using visual navigation to operate across simulated industrial environments.
KAIST Robot Plays Soccer
TL;DR: Engineers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) showcased a humanoid robot that can run across a soccer field, track the ball, kick it toward goal, and quickly change direction with stable control. Built with custom hardware and a quasi-direct drive system, it reaches about 7.3 mph and maintains balance. Trained using reinforcement learning and human motion data, it performs smooth, repeatable movements without relying on cameras.
UBTech Drops $18M Offer
TL;DR: UBTech announced it is offering a $18 million compensation package to recruit a Chief Scientist focused on embodied intelligence. The role will lead work on vision-language-action models and real-world robot deployment. The move comes as UBTech reports 53.3% revenue growth and expands humanoid robot use in industrial settings, including Airbus factory deployments.
Robot Hand Feels Itself
TL;DR: Researchers from Zhejiang University and partners developed a humanoid robotic hand with a soft bending sensor that lets fingers sense their own posture in real time. The system tracks flexion and side motion using optical fibers and RGB light signals, achieving stable, repeatable performance across tasks like using scissors, a mouse, and playing piano.
Optimus Gen3 Draws Crowd
TL;DR: Tesla Optimus lead Konstantinos Laskaris spoke at ETH Zurich to a crowd of around 400, where he appeared wearing Optimus Gen3 and demonstrated its basic capabilities live. The robot was shown interacting with students during the session, while Laskaris highlighted that Gen3 is designed to be the first mass-manufacturable version of Optimus.
EgoNav: 5 Hours to Navigate
TL;DR: Stanford researchers introduced EgoNav, training a humanoid robot for zero-shot navigation using just five hours of human walking data. Without any robot-specific training, the model enabled a Unitree G1 to navigate unseen indoor and outdoor environments for over 37 minutes and 1.1 km, handling crowds, glass, and obstacles with up to 99% autonomy.
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