Toyota plans to invest $6.42 billion annually beginning in 2028 to add 150,000 robots at its own auto plants and 250,000 more at group facilities making parts and materials, according to Nikkei Asia. Workers are already helping train Toyota's wheeled ELEY humanoid robots by wearing finger-shaped jigs to teach precise hand movements. Executive vice president Hiroki Nakajima said the goal is for robots to coexist with humans rather than replace them.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-22
XPENG announced on September 7 that its Iron humanoid robot autonomously walked off its newly operational assembly line right after being built, with CEO He Xiaopeng marking the moment by giving it a staff badge. The company says more than 80 percent of the line's core processes are automated, using quality-control methods borrowed from its car manufacturing operations, as it targets mass production of Iron by year's end.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-22
Robotics company REK released video of what it calls the first human-versus-robot mixed martial arts match, pitting a six-foot-tall humanoid robot against TikTok personality Frankie LaPenna in a padded octagon. In the 44-second clip, the robot repeatedly strikes LaPenna and ultimately throws him with a kick, appearing to end the fight decisively in the machine's favor.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-21
Agility Robotics has launched Digit 5, a general-purpose humanoid robot built with proprietary AI and sensor systems that detect nearby people and respond by moving aside, stopping, or dropping into a seated crouch. The behavior, shown in a promotional video, is powered partly by Nvidia's Thor IGX chip alongside vision sensors that continuously track human presence. Agility already deploys robots with companies like Amazon and Toyota and is positioning this safety-first design to broaden commercial adoption.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-20
San Francisco startup Foundation, backed by Eric Trump, has signed a $24 million contract with the Pentagon to advance its Phantom MK1 humanoid robot for military use. CEO Sankaet Pathak says the machines aren't yet capable of combat but envisions a future where they could enter buildings to complete missions instead of airstrikes, and hasn't ruled out arming them. The company has already deployed about ten robots, including with the Air Force and in logistics support roles in Ukraine.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-15
A Caijing Magazine investigation, translated by ChinaTalk, details how Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing personally controls minute product decisions—from material colors to screw lengths—to drive down costs. This hands-on, cost-obsessed approach has helped Unitree sell some of the cheapest humanoid and quadruped robots on the market, including a $13,500 G1 model and a $4,900 R1 model, though employees say it has come at the expense of quality control.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-14
Mecka AI, a startup that pays people to record themselves performing everyday tasks to generate motion data for training humanoid robots, is close to finalizing a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital valuing the company at roughly $500 million. The deal comes just three months after Mecka raised $60 million in a round led by Framework Ventures, though the exact size of the new round remains unknown and terms could still change.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-11
Advocacy group Democratism organized a demonstration outside Poland's digital affairs ministry using about 30 humanoid and quadrupedal robots that marched, held signs, and played pre-recorded chants calling for stricter rules on AI and automation. Organizer Grzegorz Kuliś said the goal was to spotlight how robotics and AI increasingly threaten human jobs, including cognitive work, and to push lawmakers to act before displacement worsens.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-10
Roughly 30 humanoid robots marched and held signs outside Poland's Digital Affairs Ministry in a demonstration organized by the group Democratism. Organizers said the display was meant to illustrate how far robotics and AI have already progressed and to push for faster regulation addressing job losses in cognitive work.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-09
At the IFA trade show in Berlin, multiple humanoid robots, including the EngineAI T800 and the PrimeBOT Q1, were shown performing punches, kicks and mock boxing matches, some unrestrained and untethered on the show floor. A reporter had a close encounter with one robot's simulated strikes and witnessed another accidentally march into a bystander's knee.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-07
Days after the World Humanoid Robot Games concluded in China, the PLA's official newspaper urged researchers to speed the shift of humanoid robot technology from labs into military training. A Reuters review of over 100 Chinese procurement notices, patents, academic papers and defense-company documents found the country is actively researching combat applications for these machines and planning for eventual battlefield use alongside robot dogs and unmanned vehicles.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-07
CCTV footage from a store in Saratov, Russia shows a Unitree G1 humanoid robot reacting to a light shove from a customer by launching into a kickboxing-style routine, complete with fighting music, before store clerks intervene. One of its kicks appears to connect with a clerk, and the robot eventually halts and raises its arms into a T-pose before being sent for a reboot.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-06
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