Robotics Daily · Archive
Robotics Daily archive, 6 issue
- 112026-11Agibot Releases Embodied Interaction Model; Hesai Robot Modules Scale UpTwo main threads in today's robotics sector: First, Agibot released WITA-Omni, which adds touch and body-state inputs and cuts interaction response to about 600 milliseconds, as embodied intelligence's "interaction brain" moves from demos toward deliverable metrics. Second, Hesai's Q3 report shows robot power modules delivered 23,405 units in the quarter, up 96.8% quarter-on-quarter, with upstream joint modules entering mass production. In addition, Disney and Field AI are testing a non-humanoid parking robot, and a Caltech robot autonomously assembled a truss in space for the first time.
- 102026-11Embodied AI Moves From Competition Arena to the Shop FloorThe top 15 teams in the Embodied Large Model Challenge are announced, and a 48-hour on-hardware final will test the full chain from data to deployment. DEEP Robotics launches the X50, pushing a quadruped's payload to 50 kg while sustaining 3 m/s. Apple's advanced manufacturing center in Turkey will fold robotics into SME training. Three threads point to one trend: robot capability is shifting from lab benchmarks to deliverable field work.
- 092026-11Humanoid Robot Capacity and Personal Robot Mass Production Both AccelerateGAC and Huilun Technology sign an agreement to advance humanoid robot production lines, targeting 10,000-unit annual capacity by 2029; Shangwei New Materials' Qiyuan robots roll off the line at unit 10,000 just one month after mass production began, doubling output in 14 days, with monthly active rate above 98%. Consumer-grade personal robots are beginning to show verifiable mass-production and usage data, while automotive production lines remain the main landing ground for humanoid robot scale-up.
- 082026-11Apple's humanoid robot hits 91% success rate as Tesla's Optimus shifts to rent-onlyApple unveiled HALO, its humanoid robot control system, completing 360 single tasks across six unmapped real-world environments with an average 91% success rate—but long-sequence compound tasks fell as low as 50%, with missing tactile sensing the weak link. Tesla's Optimus is pivoting to a rental model at roughly $30,000 initial cost, targeting 1 million units of annual capacity, though full ramp-up is at least a year away. In China, cooling signals are emerging: humanoid robots are gathering dust in warehouses, and daily rental prices have fallen below 1,000 yuan.
- 072026-11Robot unified coding expands to all categories as embodied AI heats up in academiaMIIT is soliciting public comment on interim rules for robot product identification codes, planning to extend the "one machine, one code" system from humanoid robots to industrial, service, special-purpose and other robots across all categories, bringing industry safety governance and full-lifecycle management into a unified coding phase. In academia, CoRL 2026 accepted 687 papers, up from about 200 the previous year, with Chinese institutions' share of authorship rising to 37%; ACM MM added two standalone tracks, Embodied and Immersive Multimedia and Multimedia Reasoning, as the research boundaries of embodied AI are being redrawn.
- 062026-11China Said to Block SoftBank's $5.4 Billion ABB Robotics DealChinese authorities have told SoftBank they will not approve its $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB's robotics business, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. If confirmed, the move would mark a key setback for the largest cross-border robotics deal of the year and signal tighter regulatory scrutiny of cross-border consolidation involving core industrial robotics assets. The report rests on a single source, and none of the parties has publicly responded.