Motion Control & Actuation

LEJU Robot, Heyman unveil general-purpose humanoid hand system for industrial use - RobotHOT

LEJU Robot, Heyman unveil general-purpose humanoid hand system for industrial use

Chinese robotics firms LEJU Robot and Heyman have jointly launched a scene-oriented solution centred on a general-purpose humanoid robot body and a multi-fingered dexterous hand, aiming to eliminate the need for custom end-effector swaps across diverse industrial tasks. The system addresses common pain points such as trade-offs between payload and precision, low gesture-development efficiency, and difficult redeployment, the companies said. The integrated dexterous hand features a variable-configuration design that supports seven plus grip modes – including two-finger pinch, internal expansion, enveloping grasp, and two-handed hold – on the same hardware. It delivers a payload of at least 24 kg and a repeated positioning accuracy of ≤0.03 mm, outperforming the industry norm of 0.2 mm. This allows a single manipulator to...

Lyte raises $165 mln in Series C, hits $1.6 bln valuation - RobotHOT

Lyte raises $165 mln in Series C, hits $1.6 bln valuation

Lyte, a U.S.-based physical AI perception infrastructure startup, has raised $165 million in a Series C funding round, valuing the company at $1.6 billion post-money, the company said. The round was led by Maverick Silicon, with participation from existing investors including Fidelity Management & Research, Atreides Management, Key1 Capital, and Ora Global. Proceeds will be used to boost sensor chip production, scale its LyteVision integrated perception platform, and expand its workforce. Founded in 2021, Lyte emerged from stealth in January this year and had previously raised approximately $107 million. The company develops chips, multimodal sensors, and spatial perception software to help robots navigate environments more safely. Its flagship unified spatial intelligence platform, LyteGalaxy, integrates sensors, compute, software, and algorithms into...

Briefs

  • ASD warns on share volatility, says new embodied AI robot business in early stage

    ASD Co., Ltd. said in a stock exchange filing that its shares had surged more than 20% over two consecutive trading days on Sept 3 and Sept 4, triggering an abnormal fluctuation alert, while clarifying that its newly launched embodied intelligence robotics collaboration project remains in a nascent stage with revenue of only 137,200 yuan ($19,000) and is not expected to have a material impact on this year's financial results, as the company reported a net loss of 93.4 million yuan for the six months ended June 30 on operating revenue of 1.351 billion yuan, with cookware and small appliances accounting for 84.46% of total revenue and industrial robots contributing 12.20%, while the robotics partnership is a newly explored business facing uncertainties in technology iteration, project implementation and commercialisation.

  • Simple AI secures hundreds-of-millions-yuan Pre-A round to advance embodied robot development

    Chinese general embodied AI robotics developer Simple AI has closed a multi-hundred-million-yuan Pre-A financing round backed by investor Kexi Capital and other institutional backers. Positioned as an AI-native embodied intelligence system provider, the firm has launched an in-house data production engine that has processed over 20,000 hours of robotic scenario data. From August 19 to 23, its new-generation service robot Xiaopu successfully completed a wide range of household workflows and fine manipulation tasks in hotel settings, demonstrating steady progress in real-world embodied AI deployment.

  • OpenAI to build in-house humanoid robots and data-center machines, Altman confirms

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed during a recent podcast appearance that the company will develop its own humanoid robot hardware alongside specialized robots for data center operations. The firm has upgraded its former world-simulation project into OpenAI Robotics, targeting short-term robotic solutions to support infrastructure workers while pursuing the long-term vision of ubiquitous personal robots for everyday users. OpenAI also plans to launch its first screen-free portable AI device as early as 2027. Featuring a donut-shaped form factor, the upcoming gadget is expected to retail for more than $300.

  • IFA 2026 opens in Berlin with expanded content zone, new innovation stage

    The 2026 IFA consumer electronics trade fair kicked off at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds on Friday, running through Sept 8, with an expanded content creation zone and a new ICC Innovation Dialogue stage highlighting AI future tech, smart home, and mobility.

    Founded in 1924, the event is one of the world's longest-running consumer electronics exhibitions. This year's edition underscores the industry's pivot toward AI-driven applications and cross-sector integration.

  • Building data base, Maniformer joins robotics standards push

    During the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo, the Shanghai Robotics Industrial Technology Research Institute, together with Maniformer and other industry leaders, issued a joint initiative on data quality and standards for the robotics sector, aiming to improve data quality, refine industry norms, and foster a shared ecosystem. The initiative targets key challenges in embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics, rallying consensus around three pillars: establishing unified data standards, sharing compliant high-quality data resources, and driving innovative commercial applications.

  • Dobot, CAS institutes' MoE paper accepted by EMNLP 2026

    A research paper co-authored by Dobot, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Nanjing College of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Nanjing Information High-Speed Rail Research Institute, and two other CAS-affiliated schools has been accepted for publication at the Findings of EMNLP 2026, the top-tier international conference on computational linguistics and natural language processing, which will take place in Budapest from 24–29 October. The study, titled “Meta-Learning Where to Allocate Experts: Task-Conditioned Layer-Wise Compression for MoEs,” proposes a novel compression method for mixture-of-experts models, marking a collaborative research achievement among the Chinese academic and industrial partners.
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