Robotics and Embodied AI Digest

• Fraunhofer HNFIZ's five-level model classifies humanoid technical capabilities across mobility, manipulation, cognition
• Design-driven three-level...

LeRobot integrates the full robot learning pipeline, from motor controls to large-scale dataset handling, accelerating progress via open tools.

Key...

OpenClaw framework races from digital agents to physical robots, fueling rapid hardware adoption amid rising risks.

• China leads charge: Robotics...

NVIDIA's Thor family (Jetson Thor, DRIVE AGX Thor, IGX Thor) enables edge-first LLMs for low-latency physical AI in robotics:

• MoE and hybrid...

Amazon acquires kid-sized humanoid maker Fauna Robotics, adding Sprout—a 42-inch bot for chores, dancing, and kid/pet-safe interactions—to its...

NVIDIA's GTC push accelerates physical AI from lab to factory via integrated ecosystem:

• Simulation & models: Unveils Cosmos 3 world models, Isaac...

High-res tactile sensors are trending toward rugged 'digital fingertips' for dexterous manipulation:

• UT's sensors detect air pressure for slip-free...

Claude-level agent smarts at fraction of cost: MiMo-V2-Pro scores 81 on ClawEval (near Claude Opus 4.6's 81.5) and 78% on SWE-bench, priced at $1/M...

Key hurdles stalling Waymo's driverless taxi beta in Portland:

• No AV laws: Lacks ordinances for driverless taxis; many cities unregulated.
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Breakthrough in human-robot hand coordination:

• Ultrasound tracking: Images wrist muscles/tendons; AI translates to real-time finger/palm...

Meta's V-JEPA 2.1 tackles the core challenge in world models: capturing global video dynamics for action prediction while preserving fine-grained...

Emerging open datasets are tackling robotics' data bottleneck for embodied intelligence:

• BONES-SEED (Bones Studio): 142k high-fidelity human...

H-CoRE framework enables UAV, UGV, PTZ cooperation for exploration and inspection:

• GCS orchestration: Dispatches tasks; robots execute autonomously...

• MHA architecture fuses visual-haptic info into compact representations for tiny FPC targets, overcoming self-occlusion.
• DWA strategy balances...

New VRL framework uses LLM actor and VLM critic for interpretable robotic planning under uncertainty:

• Refines Behavior Trees iteratively via...

Breakthrough in human-centric smart manufacturing:

• Robust 3D Reconstruction: Point clouds from RGB-D with 6.9cm Chamfer distance accuracy
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NVIDIA's open Isaac platform accelerates generalist-specialist robots—broad skills plus task mastery—via cloud-to-robot workflows.

Key...

Breakthrough in embodied AI: ABot-PhysWorld, a 14B Diffusion Transformer, generates visually realistic, physically plausible, action-controllable...

Breakthrough in embodied AI perception:

• LCSFusion fuses multi-modal data (RGB + auxiliaries like thermal/depth) via luminance fusion + learnable...

Amazon acquires Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup Rivr in a major push to dominate the final 100 yards of e-commerce with delivery robots.