Robots

A year and a bit into Figure's push toward humanoid robot laborers, founder Brett Adcock talks to us about how they'll enter the workforce, how they're being trained, how language model AIs will be used, and why now's the right time.

Humanoid robot laborers will soon hit the workforce, powered by AI and designed eventually to take over any task a human worker can do. Figure's Brett Adcock is one of the people driving this seismic shift, so we asked him what the future holds.

Agility Robotics is well into construction of a 70,000-sq-ft facility in Salem, Oregon, with the capacity to produce more than 10,000 units per year of the company's Digit humanoid robot – which will work alongside humans on the factory floor.

Humanoid robots: so hot right now. Apptronik out of Austin, Texas, has pulled the covers off Apollo, a friendly-faced general purpose humanoid designed to hit the workforce and start making a useful impact as quickly as ... inhumanly possible?

China's consumer technology giant Xiaomi has unleashed the second iteration of its robot pooch. The CyberDog 2 looks much less business-like and more like a family companion, comes packed with sensors, and can still do back flips.

Robots often struggle to adapt to changing conditions. Now engineers at Caltech have designed a new robot that can roll around on four wheels, flip them into rotors to fly, or transform for six other types of motion.

In 10 years, Brett Adcock has gone from founding an online talent marketplace, to selling it for nine figures, to founding the third-ranked eVTOL aircraft company, to going after one of tech's greatest challenges: general-purpose humanoid robots.

Canada's Sanctuary AI has revealed a new humanoid robot, shooting for the "world's first human-like intelligence in general purpose robots." Phoenix builds on some very impressive earlier work and a neat "piloted" approach to training.

As the number of EVs on our roads increases, so does the need for charger-accessible parking spots. Instead of having to create more EV-specific spots, parking garage operators could soon utilize Autev charging robots that come to people's cars.

Humanoid robots built around cutting-edge AI brains promise shocking, disruptive change to labor markets and the wider global economy – and near-unlimited investor returns to whoever gets them right at scale. Big money is now flowing into the sector.

Although it is possible to control devices using brain waves, doing so involves having electrodes and conductive gel applied to one's head. Now, however, scientists have developed a new type of "dry" electrode – and it's been used to control a robot.

Researchers have created a micro-robot the size of a single biological cell that navigates using both electricity and magnetic fields and can identify and capture a single cell, opening the door to a vast array of applications.