🦾 HardTech Reads: The AI & Robotics Revolution vol.59
Welcome to the exploration of the world where founders embark on bold quests and solve non-obvious problems🤘
Two more issues this year? Thank you for hanging in with me and reading all this year’s breakthroughs! It’s definitely been the best one yet! 🤔
I heard this quote recently — love how it frames robotics as something not just serious, but also a form of art and imagination!💫
‘The most intriguing robots aren’t built to work, but to make us imagine other worlds.’
(MIT Press)
What’s in today?
🚀 HARDTECH NEWS: Robotics & AI Innovations
🔬 STARTUPS FUNDING: Game-Changers in HardTech & AI
📚 FAVORITE RESOURCES
🎤 EVENTS — let’s meet in person!
Nebius Robotics & Physical AI Awards is almost here!
Nebius Robotics & Physical AI Awards celebrate emerging startups and scale-ups that use AI to shape the future of the industry. Join us on December 9 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
👉 Feature your company in HardTech Reads!
🚀 HARDTECH NEWS: Robotics & AI Innovations
🤖 UMA.bot humanoid, 🖐️ Clone Robotics’ realistic hand, ⚙️ AILOS Robotics’ patented gearbox, 💥 EngineAI’s T800 humanoid, 🛡️ MIT’s safe soft robots, 🇨🇳 China’s robotics bubble warning, 🧠 Google DeepMind hires Boston Dynamics’ former CTO, 📦 DHL’s Robust.AI partnership, 👁️ EyeVLA robotic eyeball, 🤖 Flexion Robotics’ humanoid brain, ✈️ Wisk Aero’s pilotless air taxi, 🦾 87% success in complex object manipulation, 🔬 Tiny reconfigurable robots for CO2 management, 🔥 Soft robots powered by ambient heat, 🏥 Oversonic’s Robee in healthcare, ✈️ Schiphol’s ARC robot, 🚇 Boring Company’s reusable TBM, 🚕 Uber’s driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi, 💊 Grain-of-sand drug delivery robot, ⚛️ Quantum teleportation breakthrough, 🏭 Ford’s new manufacturing HQ, 🌧️ Rainmaker’s cloud-seeding drones, 🏛️ Robotic arms restoring Pompeii, 🌳 AI-powered tree-planting robot, 🤖 Disney’s interactive Olaf robot!
Again in Tokyo! It’s been a busy end of the year — lots of trips, new investments (stay tuned!), and exciting plans for 2026.
…and Pepper says hi! :)
🤖 UMA.bot — New EU Humanoid on the Market
UMA.bot, a new startup, is developing AI and robotics to shape a new economic and societal era. The company is designing general-purpose mobile and humanoid robots with human-level dexterity and a deep understanding of the physical world, with plans to launch pilot programs in logistics and manufacturing in 2026. Love being part of it! 🙃
🖐️ Clone Unveils ‘Creepy-Realistic’ Humanoid Hand
Polish startup Clone Robotics (proud of Poland!🇵🇱) has demonstrated a new robotic hand that mirrors human movements with ultra-realistic grip strength and speed. The hand uses a neural network trained on hours of human hand footage and water-powered Myofiber muscles that have weathered 650,000 test cycles without fatigue.
💥 EngineAI Launches T800 Humanoid
EngineAI has launched the T800 humanoid with 14,000W peak power and 360° LiDAR at a starting price of $25,000. The full-size platform features 450N·m peak torque with four tiered versions, addressing diverse industrial applications at accessible commercial pricing.
🛡️ MIT Develops New Control System for Safe Soft Robots
MIT researchers have developed a mathematically grounded system that lets soft robots deform, adapt, and interact with people and objects without violating safety limits. This “contact-aware safety” framework blends advanced soft-robot modeling with high-order control barrier and Lyapunov functions to ensure a robot stays within safe force limits.
🇨🇳 China Sounds Alarm on Robotics ‘Bubble Risks’
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has flagged that over 150 companies churning out nearly identical humanoids could create a bubble that squeezes out genuine innovation. The concern comes as the sector has exploded since Unitree’s dancing robots stole the show at this year’s Spring Festival Gala.
🧠 Google DeepMind Hires Boston Dynamics’ Former CTO
Google DeepMind has recruited Aaron Saunders, former CTO of Boston Dynamics, as VP of hardware engineering to advance its vision of making Gemini a universal robot operating system. Saunders brings decades of experience building legged robots and humanoid machines.
📦 DHL Supply Chain Expands Robotics with Robust.AI
DHL Supply Chain has launched a multi-year strategic partnership with Robust.AI to deploy Carter collaborative robots across its supply chain operations. Following successful North American deployments, the alliance will scale to Mexico and beyond. Congrats, Anthony Jules!
👁️ EyeVLA: Robotic Eyeball Enables Active, Human-Like AI Vision
Chinese researchers have developed EyeVLA, a robotic eyeball that provides active, human-like visual perception for embodied AI systems.
Unlike static RGB-D cameras, EyeVLA can rotate and zoom to capture fine details across a wide field, using reinforcement learning to autonomously adjust viewpoints.
🤖 Flexion Robotics Unveils New Robotic ‘Brain’
Flexion Robotics has unveiled a new robotic “brain” that lets a humanoid navigate rough terrain and pick up litter on its own using vision and language models.
✈️ Wisk Aero Launches Pilotless Air Taxi
Wisk Aero, a Boeing-owned eVTOL company, is developing an autonomous air taxi that can fly without a pilot, with plans for operation by 2030. The company is committed to full autonomy from the start, meaning the aircraft must meet the same airworthiness standards as any plane.
🦾 Humanoids Achieve 87% Success in Complex Object Manipulation
In case you are still skeptical about humanoids (and so am I) but…researchers have demonstrated humanoid robots reliably manipulating diverse objects with an 87% success rate using new manipulation frameworks. This breakthrough in dexterous control brings commercial humanoid deployment closer to reality for manufacturing, logistics, and industrial tasks.
🔬 Tiny Reconfigurable Robots for CO2 Management
Researchers have developed micro-scale reconfigurable robots capable of managing carbon dioxide levels in isolated environments. The technology demonstrates how modular robotics can address environmental challenges at scales previously inaccessible to traditional systems.
🔥 Soft Robots Harvest Ambient Heat for Self-Sustained Motion
Researchers have created soft robotic systems that convert ambient thermal energy into autonomous motion, eliminating the need for external power sources. This breakthrough in passive energy harvesting opens pathways for long-duration, untethered robots.
🏥 Oversonic’s Robee Humanoid Targets Healthcare Worker Shortage
Italian startup Oversonic Robotics has introduced Robee, a humanoid robot engineered to address Europe’s critical healthcare worker shortage. The robot is designed to transform care delivery by assisting with patient care tasks in hospitals and long-term facilities.
✈️ Schiphol Airport Deploys ARC Autonomous Robot
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM, and NEURA Robotics have unveiled ARC, an autonomous robot that connects aircraft to ground power, reducing delays, emissions, and worker strain. The deployment demonstrates how robotics can automate airport infrastructure tasks.
🚇 Boring Company’s Reusable Tunnel Boring Machine Revolution
The Boring Company’s Prufrock-5 tunnel boring machine (TBM) will launch operations by December 1st with a game-changing innovation: reusable TBMs. Unlike traditional units abandoned underground, these machines can be retrieved, upgraded, and redeployed, mirroring SpaceX’s reusable booster strategy.
⚙️ AILOS Robotics Announces Patented Gearbox
AILOS Robotics, a VUB spinoff, has announced a patented gearbox delivering superior torque density and efficiency. This breakthrough addresses core robotics challenges of delivering power and precision in compact, human-scale form factors without excessive weight.
🚕 Uber Deploys Fully Autonomous Robotaxis in Abu Dhabi
Uber has begun operating fully driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi through its partnership with autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide. This commercial deployment marks a critical inflection point beyond controlled testing environments.
💊 Grain-of-Sand-Sized Robot for Drug Delivery
Scientists have created a grain-of-sand-sized robot that can be guided by magnets to deliver drugs to precise locations in the human body.
⚛️ Quantum Teleportation Breakthrough
Researchers have demonstrated quantum teleportation between photons originating from independent light sources, a critical breakthrough for distributed quantum networks.
🏭 Ford Reimagines Manufacturing Headquarters
Ford has opened its new “The Hub” headquarters in Dearborn, replacing rigid 1950s-era corporate structures with dynamic collaborative “neighborhoods” and high-end amenities to attract next-generation engineering talent.
🌧️ Rainmaker’s AI-Enabled Cloud-Seeding Drones
Rainmaker Corporation is executing the largest cloud seeding project in U.S. history, deploying drones, advanced sensors, and radar-based AI systems to modify precipitation patterns.
🏛️ Robotic Arms Restore Ancient Pompeii Frescoes
Want to see even more cool robotics applications? Here is another one! 😯 Researchers at Pompeii are using twin robotic arms powered by AI and vision sensors to reassemble ancient Roman frescoes destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and WWII bombardment.
🌳 AI-Powered Robot Plants Trees in Fire-Ravaged Forests
Teenage students from Lisbon have developed a six-legged autonomous robot capable of planting trees on steep terrain too dangerous for humans or heavy machinery. The AI-powered system analyzes soil conditions before planting and achieves an 85–90% sapling survival rate.
🤖 Disney Brings Olaf to Life as Interactive Robot
Disney has developed a lifelike robotic version of Frozen’s Olaf capable of holding conversations, making eye contact, and moving with on-screen fluidity. Built on NVIDIA and DeepMind’s Newton open-source simulation framework, the robot will greet guests at Disneyland Paris’s World of Frozen.
👉 Want to see your company in HardTech Reads?->Apply here!
🔬 STARTUPS FUNDING: Game-Changers in HardTech & AI
➡️ Tutor Intelligence is an MIT CSAIL spinout that has secured $34M in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered warehouse robot fleet trained on real-world data.
➡️ Mujin has closed a $233M Series D funding round led by NTT Group to accelerate its unified intelligent automation platform, MujinOS.
➡️ Brookfield Corporation has launched a $100B global AI infrastructure initiative, anchored by the Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund (BAIIF), to build gigawatt-scale compute centers.
➡️ Moonshot AI is a Chinese AI startup that is reportedly approaching a funding round at a $4B valuation with IDG Capital and other investors.
➡️ PicoJool has raised $12M in Seed funding to commercialize its pixel-level photonics technology that enables optical interconnects as inexpensive and compact as traditional copper connections.
➡️ Amperesand has raised $80M in Series A funding co-led by Walden Catalyst Ventures and Temasek to scale its Medium Voltage Solid-State Transformer (MV SST) platform for AI data centers.
➡️ Gravis Robotics is an autonomous earthmoving startup that raised $23M to accelerate its AI-driven platform for construction and mining operations.
➡️ Intology has unveiled Locus, an autonomous AI research agent capable of running continuous experiments for multiple days while outperforming leading human ML researchers.
➡️ Sortera is an Indiana-based aluminum sorting company that raised $45M for its advanced materials science technology, led by T. Rowe Price Associates and VXI Capital.
➡️ X-Energy is a leading nuclear reactor company that completed a $700M Series D financing round to advance its modular reactor technology.
➡️ Enerin is a Norwegian high-temperature heat pump company that closed a €15M Series A to scale its industrial heating solutions.
➡️ Flux Marine is developing electric propulsion technology for watercraft and raised $15M to expand production.
➡️ AlixLabs is a semiconductor manufacturing solutions company that closed a €14.1M Series A to accelerate the development of advanced fabrication tools.
➡️ Interface is an industrial safety startup that raised $3.5M in Seed funding to scale its AI platform that prevents workplace accidents.
📚FAVORITE RESOURCES
Physical AI Fellowship by AWS, NVIDIA and MassRobotics
The Physical AI Fellowship, powered by AWS, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics, is an 8-week program designed to support the development of the next generation of physical AI and robotics. The fellowship provides access to cutting-edge hardware, software, and mentorship from industry experts.
Apply here!
Aurelia Prize in Design for Space Urbanism
To honor the 50th anniversary of the 1975 NASA Summer Study, the Aurelia Institute has announced the Aurelia Prize in Design for Space Urbanism. The prize aims to inspire the next generation of space architects to design future space stations, lunar settlements, and orbital industries.
The judges are out of this world!
Ariel Ekblaw — CEO, Aurelia Institute
Olga Bannova — Director of the Space Architecture Graduate Program, University of Houston
Victor Glover — NASA Astronaut
Thomas Heatherwick — Founder, Heatherwick Studio
Bjarke Ingels — Founder, BIG
Andrew Zuckerman — Visual artist
🎤EVENTS — Let’s meet in person!
🇦🇪 Dec 8–12 — Deep Tech Week Dubai 2025
🦿 Dec 11–12 — Humanoid Summit (Mountain View, CA) — ping me if you are there!
🇸🇬 Dec 18–20 — RAAI 2025 — Robotics, Automation & AI (Singapore)
🇯🇵 Dec 19–21 — ICRAI 2025 — Robotics & AI (Nagoya, Japan)
🧠 Jan 11–16, 2026 — Robotics GRC — Embodied Intelligence in Robots & Animals (Ventura, CA, USA)
🇮🇹 Mar 26–28, 2026 — Robotics-2026 Summit (Rome, Italy)
🇯🇵 May, 2026 — Humanoids Summit (Tokyo, Japan) — Modar is taking it global!
🇦🇹 Jun 1–5, 2026 — IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics & Automation (Vienna, Austria)
🤖 Jun 22–25, 2026 — Automate — Automation & Robotics Show (Chicago, IL, USA)
🇦🇺 Jul 13–17, 2026 — RSS 2026 — Robotics: Science and Systems (Sydney, Australia)
⚛️ Jan 28 — Deep Tech New York, NY
🇬🇧 Mar 16–19, 2026 — Intl. Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Edinburgh, Scotland)
🤝 Passionate about HardTech?
Have comments, want to share some thoughts or ask about sponsorships?
👉 Want to feature your company in HardTech Reads?
If you are interested in AI, Robotics & HardTech, check my previous posts:
➡️The Physical AI Revolution: Mapping the $60 Trillion Transformation
➡️19 Robotic Hands Startups to Watch
➡️ The world doesn’t fix itself. These startups are trying /Top 100 HardTech Startups
➡️ Will we have a chatGPT moment for Robots?
➡️ The Coming Scarcity of Humanity
➡️ The Art and Science of Venture Capital Investing
➡️ Deep Thinkers & Builders in Tech, Science and Bio
➡️ Humanoids Don’t Exist in Isolation / It Takes an Ecosystem to Bring Them to Life!
➡️ Clone Alpha: The Next Leap in Humanoid Robotics
➡️ ‘Made in China’-Robotics Market Overview
➡️ The Science of Networks: From Theory to New Realities
#AI #Robotics #Humanoids #HardTechReads #Startups #DeepTech #Automation
If you’re interested, we’ve released a new piece about robotics. We looked at RobCo’s revenue team and noticed that the company has shifted from hardware profiles to software-native profiles.
https://thebigbyte.substack.com/p/robco-deeptech-revenue-team
The DHL/Robust.AI partnership is interesting because it shows warehouse automation finally moving beyond proof-of-concept into multi-year operational commitments. If Carter can handle the messiness of real supply chain variability at scale (seasonal peaks, SKU changes, layout shifts), that's going to push the rest of the industry to stop treating robots like science projects. Congrats to the team on actually shipping instead of just demoing.