RobotHOT posts

Chinese marine robotics startup Weilan Deep Sea has completed a new funding round, with investment from Shenzhen Capital Group, Oriza Origin, Guoce Capital and other institutions, while existing shareholder Inno Angel Fund followed on, the company said. Founded in September 2021 and formerly the Weilan Deep Sea equipment team at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi Weilan Deep Sea Information Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on marine embodied intelligent robots, specializing in marine embodied intelligence platform technology and industrial applications of underwater robots. The company aims to expand the boundaries of human ocean capabilities and replace costly and dangerous manual underwater operations, it said.

Anhui province unveiled an embodied intelligence innovation center on Oct. 10 at a conference held at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei. The conference, themed “AI Empowers Jianghuai, Embodied Future,” focused on technological innovation, commercialization, talent cultivation and industrial applications in embodied intelligence. It brought together academicians, university research teams, executives from leading companies, investors and alumni from home and abroad. Embodied intelligence is a key direction in the deep integration of artificial intelligence and robotics, enabling intelligent systems to move from the information space into the physical world and to perceive, decide and act in real environments. The Anhui Embodied Intelligence Innovation Center is an open ecosystem platform for embodied intelligence and robotics in...

Chinese startup NewFMEA said on Saturday it has completed its first funding round of tens of millions of yuan, led by Zhongguancun Capital, with Zhongguancun Science City Company participating. Proceeds will be mainly used to build its core team, continue iterating its AI-agent platform for scientific research and its industrial-grade cross-scale intelligent computing engine, develop an automated experimental validation system, and further expand and deploy industrial application scenarios.

Geekplus (02590.HK) said in a filing that its wholly owned subsidiary Beijing Geekplus has signed an investment agreement to subscribe for a 20% equity interest in SEEN·E Robotics after a capital increase, for 50 million yuan. SEEN·E Robotics, founded on Jan. 26, 2026, focuses on physical AI and aims to build a general-purpose embodied brain for real-world tasks. Based on the investment amount and the 20% stake, SEEN·E Robotics’s post-money valuation would be about 250 million yuan.

U.S. warehouse robotics startup Ultra said it has raised $62 million and will deepen its partnership with robotics company Physical Intelligence. The financing consists of a $50 million Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with Y Combinator participating, and a $12 million seed round led by Y Combinator and Next View. Founded in June 2024 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, Ultra focuses on industrial and warehouse applications. Its OP1 industrial robot can load and seal various types of mailing bags and perform packing, sorting and kitting, the company said.

The California State Athletic Commission has sent a letter to technology startup REK ordering it to stop staging unapproved fights after it held a human-versus-robot match last month. On Sept. 18, Frankie LaPeña faced one of REK’s humanoid robots. The robot was remotely controlled by a human through a virtual reality system, according to the report. REK describes itself on its website as a “humanoid robot fighting league.” The robot in the match may have been an EngineAI product fitted with a head resembling the robot in “The Terminator.” REK CEO Sixx Liiv posted the commission’s notice on X on Sept. 30. The commission determined the earlier match was unapproved and told Liiv and REK not to hold, promote or...

Shenzhen-based consumer embodied AI company KNOWIN said it has completed an Angel+++ round worth hundreds of millions of yuan, led by a JD.com-linked fund, with Loyal Valley Capital, Nanshan Strategic Emerging Investment and Walden International participating. Proceeds will focus on expanding training data to improve GLOW’s generalization across tasks, objects and home environments; deepening robot hardware R&D and advancing engineering validation and mass-production preparation for KNOWIN-X1; and recruiting senior embodied AI talent. KNOWIN has now completed five financing rounds: seed, Angel, Angel+, Angel++ and Angel+++. Its Angel++ round raised 500 million yuan, with Matrix Partners China and Redpoint China among investors. Founded in 2025, KNOWIN targets consumer home scenarios and aims to build embodied AI systems with physical bodies that...

China’s National Intellectual Property Administration has published an appearance-design patent for an “embodied intelligent robot,” naming BYD Co Ltd as the patent holder, in the first official look at the automaker’s self-developed humanoid robot. The patent description says the design is for an intelligent robot capable of walking, balancing and interaction, with potential applications in service, education or industrial settings. Patent drawings show a humanoid robot with a black-and-white body. Its head is rounded and curved, with no display screen. The torso, arms and legs feature multiple joint structures, suggesting high motion flexibility. The design closely resembles “Xiaodi,” the humanoid robot BYD previously teased.

Shenzhen-based tactile robotics startup AGIMind Robotics said it has raised tens of millions of yuan in an angel funding round, with investors including Lihe Capital, Hefei Industrial Investment and other institutional investors. The proceeds will be mainly used for production line construction, mass-production capacity optimization and R&D of tactile intelligent systems, the company said. Founded in 2025, AGIMind Robotics focuses on tactile sensing and fine manipulation skills for robots. It has launched the Lux visuotactile sensor series. Founder and CEO Zhang Yazhan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China and a PhD in robotics from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics has launched a new five-fingered dexterous hand, the Dex5-S, featuring 22 degrees of freedom per hand and a design that matches the size of a human hand. It is priced from 39,900 yuan. In a demonstration video released by Unitree, the Dex5-S picked up a spoon, cut paper with scissors and tossed and caught a lemon, showing capabilities in fine object manipulation, multi-finger coordination and dynamic grasping. The Dex5-S upgrades the earlier model in both degrees of freedom and dimensions. All 22 motors support direct drive, backdriving and dual-encoder control, according to Unitree. It also adds a roll degree of freedom for the little finger, which the company said improves whole-hand dexterity. Unitree said the...