Minnesota Twins star Byron Buxton says he's not in favor of automated ball-strike system becoming an MLB fixture. Robots used to need our help to keep going. They had to be plugged in or manually recharged. Now, UBTech is changing that. The company's new humanoid, the Walker S2, has a feature that could reshape the future of factory work.

It might come as a surprising fact that there are presently 14 Chinese AI organizations valued at $1 billion. These unicorns worth consolidated comes to $40.5 billion, as per a report China Money Network released during the World Economic Forum's Summer Davos gathering in Beijing. Just to place these numbers in context. Google purchased DeepMind for over $500 million in 2014. Chinese voice recognition giant iFlytek Co. has a market capitalization of 63 billion yuan ($9.2 billion).

A robot cat designed to ferry plates of food to restaurant customers has been unveiled at the CES tech expo in Las Vegas. BellaBot, built by the Chinese firm PuduTech, is one of a number of wacky robotic inventions being shown off at the event this year. There is also UBTech's Walker, which can pull yoga poses. It speeds a roll of toilet paper on demand to bathrooms that have run out of the stuff. One expert said it was likely that robots exhibited at CES would only continue to get more bizarre in the future. BellaBot, the table-waiting robot cat, is a service bot with personality.

One of the big trends at this year's Consumer Electronics Show was the ever noticeable presence of robots on the showroom floor. As a kid growing up, I always wanted my own Johnny 5 robot, but at the time the idea was too farfetched, given the limitations of technology in the late '80s. But with the recent advancements in modern robotics, a childhood dream is now a reality. This year, multiple companies from all over the world flocked to CES 2019 to showcase their small wonders to attendees. While I was at the show, I made it my mission to check out as many robots as I possibly could, and here's my list of the best of the best.

Welcome to day three of our CES 2019 liveblog. Wednesday is the mid-point of the big show. The expo halls have been open for a full day, and most attendees are heading back for seconds. We saw a great number of wacky gadgets yesterday and Monday--some of them innovative, some of them ridiculous. Expect more of the same today.

This week at CES 2019, UBTECH Robotics (which was valued at $5 billion as of mid-2018) is announcing a major update to a walking robot first demonstrated at CES 2018. UBTECH's Walker has gained a torso, arms, hands, and a head, and is now as humanoid as bipedal robots get. UBTECH has posted a couple of new videos, and answered some questions about Walker's capabilities and where our expectations should be. "Walker is your agile smart companion--an intelligent, bipedal humanoid robot that aims to one day be an indispensable part of your family. Standing 4.75 feet (1.45 m) tall and weighing 170 lbs (77 kg), the new version of Walker is more advanced than ever, including arms and hands with the ability to grasp and manipulate objects, a refined torso with improved self-balancing, smooth and stable walking in difficult environments, and multi-modal interaction including voice, vision, and touch. Walker has 36 high-performance actuators and a full range of sensing systems that work together to insure smooth and fast walking."

Ubtech is best known for its toy-sized robots and STEM kits, but in recent years, it's been building bigger machines as well. At CES 2019, the Chinese manufacturer is once again bringing out its Walker bipedal robot, except this time it's gained a pair of arms, and it's able to grab and pass objects to you thanks to its hand-eye coordination. Standing at 4.75 feet tall, Walker is more huggable for adult humans -- and you might as well start hugging one since it does face recognition, so when the robots turn against humans, you'll have a slightly better chance of surviving. Compared to last year's model, this updated Walker comes with improved self-balancing thanks to its retooled torso, with the trade-off being a weight bump from 82 pounds up to a whopping 170 pounds. To tackle complex terrain and external impact, the machine relies on 36 "high-performance" actuators along with sensors to help stabilize itself while walking smoothly.

There are a number of robots designed to help kids learn the basics of coding, but this is the first we've seen that comes equipped with a purple mane and a light-up horn. Meet UnicornBot, a programmable robot kit that UBTECH Robotics is launching today. Recommended for children age 8 and up, it is on sale for US $120 on UBTECH's site and retailers like Target and Amazon. UBTECH, headquartered in Shenzen, China, with offices in Los Angeles, says UnicornBot "is for all children, but is especially designed to spark an interest in STEM among young girls." UnicornBot has an accompanying app for Android or iOS that helps you put the robot together by following step-by-step 3D instructions.

Twenty-seven startups were funded in May for a total of $2.5 billion. This month's $2.5 billion in fundings doubles the January thru April total of $2.5 billion. Four acquisitions occurred in May. The most notable was SPX Corp., the large inspection equipment components manufacturer, which acquired CUES, a Florida robotic pipeline video inspection and rehab company, for $189 million. Look at all those LiDARs!

As part of the quad of companies that were identified by China's Ministry of Science and Technology to develop the next generation of AI technologies, Tencent is forging ahead with new tech investments, research and development. Tencent is a top investor (reported to be $120 million) in robotics start-up UBTech, a firm that focuses on humanoid robots. Quite possibly UBTech's most famous contribution is Walker, a bipedal robot unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show that can walk downstairs. Of the Chinese tech firms known collectively as BAT (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent), Tencent participated in the greatest number of AI equity deals and made the most AI investments in the United States. In partnership with several industry players including the Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC), Tencent is invested in developing AI technologies to be used in autonomous-driving vehicles.