Recently, Shenzhen introduced a humanoid robot that attracted a large audience while strolling on the streets and quickly gained popularity overseas. This robot, named SE01, has a walking style, speed, and stability that closely resembles that of a human, even moving as gracefully as a model on a runway over a distance of several meters. Nvidia scientist Jim Fan expressed skepticism, suggesting that its gait seemed to be artificially generated, but upon verification, it was proven that this robot is indeed real. Zhongqing Robotics' emergence in the robotics field is remarkable.

OpenAI recently announced the launch of its robot project to further explore the development of robotics technology. On January 11, Caitlin Kalinowski, the director of OpenAI's hardware department, revealed on social media that OpenAI would begin developing robots equipped with custom sensors and published related job openings on its official website. This recruitment covers three key positions: Electronic Perception Engineer, Robotics Mechanical Design Engineer, and Technical Project Manager. The primary responsibility of the Electronic Perception Engineer is to design and develop...

ZhiYuan Robotics, in collaboration with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and other institutions, has launched the AgiBot World dataset, the world's first million-level robot dataset based on real-world scenarios. Compared to Google's Open X-Embodiment, the scale of long-range data has increased tenfold, the scene coverage has expanded one hundredfold, and the data quality meets industrial standards. This open-source project, hailed as the 'ImageNet moment' in the field of embodied intelligence, showcases remarkable robotic capabilities, from arranging flowers in the living room to cooking in the kitchen and handling checkout in supermarkets.

According to technology media The Information, ChatGPT developer OpenAI is exploring the development of its own humanoid robots. Although OpenAI closed its robotics division in 2021, the company has actively engaged in the robotics field through investments in recent years. Currently, OpenAI has invested in three robotics companies: Figure, 1X, and Physical Intelligence. Among them, Figure AI, founded in 2020, focuses on autonomous general-purpose robotics.

Colin Angle, co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, has announced his return to the robotics field by founding a new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, focused on developing an innovative home health and wellness robot. According to the Boston Globe, this robot may take the form of an animal or 'pet', aiming to provide companionship to family members while assisting in health management. Familiar Machines & Magic

On December 16, ZhiYuan Robotics announced the official launch of commercial mass production of general-purpose robots, marking the company's transition from the startup phase to industrialization. Since its establishment in February 2022 in the Shanghai Lingang New Area, ZhiYuan Robotics has rapidly grown and released its first humanoid robot, 'Yanzheng A1'. This year, the company plans to achieve large-scale production of robots by 2024 and has built Shanghai's first humanoid robot mass production facility in Lingang Fengxian. Founder Peng Zhihui expressed on social media: 'In two years, we've forged a sword, from inspiration to blueprint, from prototype to mass production, ZhiYuan.'

Colin Angle, co-founder of the renowned Roomba vacuum maker iRobot, is raising funds for his new home robotics startup Familiar Machines. According to documents filed with the SEC, Familiar Machines is aiming to raise $30 million and has already secured $15 million from eight investors. Image source note: The image is AI-generated and licensed from service provider Midjo.

According to reports from Intelligent Emergence, Jiang Xu, the former senior algorithm lead at OpenAI, has announced the establishment of a new company, Light Robotics, focused on the development of embodied smart companion robots. Jiang Xu is a key contributor to GPT-4 and left OpenAI in 2023, founding Light Robotics in August of the same year. Image credit: Image generated by AI, image licensed through Midjourney. Throughout his career at OpenAI, Jiang Xu participated in several important projects.

In the United States, despite the apparent benefits of recycling, the recycling rate has stagnated in recent years. To address this challenge, AMP Robotics has launched an AI system called AMP ONE to help waste processing plants sort garbage more efficiently. Recently, the company completed a $91 million Series D funding round to further advance the adoption of this technology. Image source note: Image generated by AI, image licensed from MidjourneyAMP Robotics.

In Pasadena, California, the world's first fully automated AI restaurant - CaliExpress - is set to open in the coming weeks. Located at 561 East Green Street near Madison Avenue, the restaurant is dedicated to driving innovation in the food service industry. CaliExpress collaborates with leading tech companies Miso Robotics and PopID, utilizing advanced automation and artificial intelligence technologies. The kitchen of CaliExpress is equipped with Miso R

San Francisco-based startup Physical Intelligence recently announced that it successfully raised $400 million, bringing its post-money valuation to $2.4 billion. This funding round attracted the attention of several prominent investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Thrive Capital, and Lux Capital. According to a company spokesperson, Bond Capital also participated in this investment.

The world's largest technical professional organization, IEEE, recently released a research report titled 'Technology Impact Beyond 2025'. This report surveyed 355 technology leaders from Brazil, China, India, the UK, and the US to explore future technology development trends. The survey revealed that 58% of respondents believe that smart technologies will be the most influential technology area in 2025, marking its second consecutive year at the top. Following closely are cloud computing (26%) and robotics (24%). Other noteworthy fields include extended reality.

Kind Humanoid is a robotics startup based in Palo Alto, founded by Christoph Kostol, who has a background in Silicon Valley. The company's workspace is filled with various electronic components and fabrication tools, reflecting the spirit of DIY computing that has characterized Silicon Valley. The design of Kind Humanoid's robots is inspired by the surrealistic art style of Belgian painter René Magritte. The company's designer, Yves Béhar, stated that he hopes to convey a message through the design of the robots.

Recently, a study from the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) made its debut at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Rotterdam. This research aims to explore how robotic hands can break existing limitations to grasp more objects. The research team noted that deep learning models significantly enhanced the dexterous manipulation capabilities of multi-fingered hands, but the grasping guided by contact information in cluttered environments has not yet been fully explored. To address this issue, the researchers designed an inspired hand that can bend backward to pick up various objects and detach itself to climb.