Real-world deployments of humanoid robots are ramping up, with Texas Instruments leading the charge by purchasing and testing UBTECH's industrial Walker S2 on its production lines, paving the way for deeper integration of Texas Instruments components into future UBTECH humanoids. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Weave Robotics' Isaac humanoid has gone live at a local laundry service, marking another step toward commercial viability in service sectors. Chinese firm NOETIX is scaling fast too, announcing a strategic partnership with data provider HCR that includes an order for 1,000 Bumi robots, on top of thousands of preorders since the model's late October launch. These moves highlight a broader surge in humanoid mass production across multiple companies this year, shifting from prototypes to factory floors and customer sites.
Humanoids aren't just working—they're entertaining. At Figure's holiday party, dubbed the "Robot Rave Cave," F.02 and F.03 robots took the stage alongside DJs Gryffin and Deadmau5, blending robotics with high-energy festivities. Similarly, two Tesla Optimus bots were caught dancing in a viral clip, showcasing fluid motion that's capturing public imagination. Looking ahead, Tuo Liu predicts humanoid robots teaming up as bandmates with human musicians is inevitable, while robot stores could soon mimic car dealerships within 3-5 years, complete with showroom displays.
This ecosystem is bolstered by talent flows, as Tuo Liu mapped out how alumni from DJI have spawned a wave of hardware and robotics startups, including favorites like Bambu Lab, driving innovation from consumer drones to advanced bots.
Robotic dexterity saw major leaps, with MIT researchers unveiling loop closure grasping, a novel technique for handling heavy yet fragile objects without crushing them. The system uses inflatable "vine" beams that grow from the tip to snake around clutter, then lock into a closed loop like a soft sling, distributing load via tension for gentle yet strong holds—lifting a 6.8kg kettlebell from a bin or even a 74.1kg person from a bed at pressures below standard slings.
"Grasping has 2 stages, first create the grasp, then hold it, and the robot switches its shape in between by fastening the tip to the base." - Rohan Paul
Complementing this, Lukas Ziegler demonstrated motion profiles critical for smooth robotic arms and legged bots: rectangular for speed-focused tasks like abrupt starts, and trapezoidal for precision, akin to carefully handling a pint of beer. On the simulation front, Dilum Sanjaya built a robot arm sim with Nano Banana Pro and Gemini 3 that stacks cubes into walls, advancing vibe-based coding for engineering systems.
Hardware advancements are proliferating. LimX Dynamics teased a major upgrade to its TRON series, adding arms and a head for enhanced humanoid capabilities.
Wheeled humanoids like AgiBot G2 demonstrated subway navigation using a key metal plate, expanding mobility options. In quadrupeds, DEEP Robotics deployed China's first robot dog patrol team for wildfire prevention in West Lake, leveraging embodied AI for early detection and monitoring. Industrial arms got a boost too, with Kawasaki Robotics highlighting its delta robots for ultra-fast, hygienic pick-and-place in food, pharma, and electronics.
These developments underscore a robotics landscape maturing rapidly, from dexterous grippers solving real-world tradeoffs to humanoids entering patrols, laundries, and parties—signaling deployments at scale and hardware refined for diverse environments.
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