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Plus: Almost $2.5 trillion has been wiped off tech stocks. I watched a humanoid robot clean my apartment. It felt like a taste of the future. When I saw an X post about a new humanoid-robot cleaning service in San Francisco, I immediately signed up for the waitlist. I wanted my apartment to feel like, even if just for an hour. The device that arrived at my building belongs to Tau Robotics, a local startup.

I'm not the sort of person who typically pays for a house cleaner. I'm too frugal, and I kind of enjoy putting on a podcast and going to town on my tub with a Magic Eraser. But when I saw an X post about a new humanoid-robot cleaning service in San Francisco, I immediately signed up for the waitlist. I wanted my apartment to feel like, even if just for an hour. I was also motivated by journalistic interest.

AIhub coffee corner: Are humanoids the future of embodied AI? This month we ask whether humanoids are the future of robotics. How has the technology evolved recently, and what can we expect in the years to come? Joining the conversation this time are: Joydeep Biswas (University of Texas at Austin), Sanmay Das (Virginia Tech), Rina Dechter (University of California, Irvine), Ioannis Erripis (AIhub), Sabine Hauert (University of Bristol), Ella Scallan (AIhub), and Marija Slavkovik (University of Bergen). There have been huge advancements in humanoid robots over the past couple of years. Today's topic is particularly timely, as RoboCup 2026 recently took place. I thought it would be interesting to start with an overview of recent developments at RoboCup. This all started snowballing a couple of years ago, and we suddenly started to see this huge inflection on the capabilities. New humanoid robots were showing up at RoboCup that didn't fall down as much. Suddenly we were able to deploy robots without humans following them around. I want to highlight that this is not just one key technical innovation, it required the confluence of a wide number of things: much better hardware, significant advances in algorithms, and advances in how we train and learn. Once upon a time, humanoid robots required classical control. However, most modern humanoid robots are using learned controllers for walking.

A report said the company is already working on the second version that's codenamed Max 2. As part of its push into robotics, Meta has built a prototype humanoid robot that's meant to help out around people's homes, according to The Information . The report said that the robot, internally codenamed Max, was built with the help of a Chinese robotics company called Fourier in roughly three months. According to's sources, the robot weighs roughly 106 lbs and is about 1.5 meters tall, or approximately five feet tall. On the outside, the prototype reportedly has a display that can show facial expressions, a built-in speaker and hands designed to pick up small objects. Internally, Meta went with NVIDIA's Jetson Thor chips to power the robot, according to the report.

You're viewing the US edition You can switch to the UK, AU or IE homepage at any time using this menu. Taylor Swift's wedding dress recreated: See the stunning off-the-shoulder design, cinched waist and massive veil Vivek Ramaswamy's explosive attack ad against Democratic rival Amy Acton in Ohio governor race backfires after horrifying claims from her long-lost stepsister that father also raped another daughter Kamala Harris' phone calls that have'repulsed' top Democrats: Party leaders and donors in'panic mode' as her secret 2028 comeback plot is laid bare PhD student Nicole Virzi admits murdering friend's newborn baby and hurting his twin Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox's'shocking' snub to Netflix leaves TV bosses scrambling The truth about Trump's sudden fixation with other men's bodies, revealed by JAMES ROSEN Man searched for missing cousin for months... then the FBI unearthed a trove of horrifying videos in a suspected serial killer's home US launches nuclear readiness drills with'doomsday planes' and bombers airborne nationwide Brigitte Macron's defamation lawsuit against Candace Owens over ludicrous transgender claim suffers first legal defeat Revealed: Grief-sick parents whose glam college friend came to stay, slaughtered one of their newborn twins... then confessed to police her secret lifelong urges to'cause pain' I walked in and saw my father with my childhood best friend... now I wish I could unhear the details of his post-divorce rebound: DEAR JANE Behind my glamorous life of cocktail parties was a life-wrecking alcohol addiction and I spent most of my time drunk or unconscious. Here's how I hid it for a decade... and warning signs to watch out for in your loved ones Jaw-dropping new photos reveal most detailed look yet at Taylor Swift's wedding: See inside the reception... and how they hid elaborate planning for months Where did Earth's water come from? Luxury'cruise for life' operator'begged customers for money' before leaving them stranded in Cambodia How Taylor Swift's entire wedding decor was incinerated: Insider reveals how every last piece of her MSG set was sent to secret location... with an order not to leave'any trace' Unimpressed iPhone Duo buyers are returning Apple's £2,000 foldable device just days after buying it - as'crackgate' sends fans into a frenzy Alexander brothers assaulted in prison: As rapist siblings are each jailed for 30 years, LUKE KENTON's devastating front-row account of day that sealed their fate - and moment the courtroom laughed in their faces Realbotix's latest humanoid robot features silicone skin and eerily lifelike movements - but it costs $60,000 Realbotix has unveiled a new line of humanoid robots - and they're eerily lifelike. The Echo bots feature ultra-realistic silicone skin and 39 degrees of freedom, meaning they can move around just like real people.

At the recent World Humanoid Robot Games 2026 in Beijing, robots sprinted, boxed, played football and tackled tasks inspired by factories, restaurants and emergency situations. The robot Tiangong Ultra even completed the 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, quicker than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record. But if we really want to know whether humanoid robots are ready for everyday life, a far less glamorous challenge may tell us more: doing the laundry. Can a robot take a crumpled T-shirt from a laundry basket, work out which way round it is, fold it neatly and recover when the sleeve slips from its hand? No robot system can yet reliably handle the whole laundry process, from carrying a basket to the washing machine and sorting clothes for different programmes to taking them out, hanging them to dry, folding and ironing them.

Kodiak's self-driving trucks are hitting the highways, and I took a ride in one Kodiak is preparing to put fully driverless semis on highways, starting with Ikea. We took a ride to see the technology in action.

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More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. NASA has been working on bipedal robots for over a decade. Valkrie, its early prototype, was completed in 2013. Humans won't be the only ones aboard future NASA missions . At Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, researchers on the agency's Dexterous Robotics Team are working on the next generation of advanced robots to aid crews during their increasingly uncharted journeys to the moon and possibly even Mars .