Humanoid Games: Glory meets glitches

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. In Beijing, the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games delivered a spectacle of speed, stunts, and spectacular wipeouts.

Crowds roared as the machines sprinted, tumbled, and struggled to stay upright, culminating in a high-tech comedy of errors. But how long before the glitches are patched and the competition gets scary serious?

In today’s robotics rundown:

• Chills and spills at China’s ‘robot olympics’

• ‘Pregnancy bot’ is too weird for the world

• Apple preps Pixar-inspired tabletop bot

• A ball-shaped bot that can roll around the moon

• Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES

🤖 Chills and spills at China’s ‘robot olympics’

The Rundown: Beijing’s debut World Humanoid Robot Games brought more than 500 bipedal robots, with teams from 16 countries, all pitting their best humanoids against each other in 26 competitions spanning football, track, and even hotel housekeeping. 

The details:

• The Games adopted a full Olympic format with a torch relay, medal ceremonies, and packed crowds.

• Teams ranged from AI giants and robotics startups to elite university labs, catalyzing international collaboration and competition in humanoid R&D.

• Events covered 26 categories, including football, gymnastics, track-and-field staples, martial arts, and applied tasks like medical sorting and hotel cleaning.

• Unitree emerged as the clear winner, topping the medal table with four gold medals in track events and 11 medals overall.

Why it matters: This type of spectacle would have been unthinkable a decade ago, even if stumbles and wipeouts stole the show. But next year’s games are already in the books, and China continues to heavily invest in this sector, making the 2026 games a platform offering deeper insights into the progress and potential of humanoids.

CHINESE ROBOTICS

👶🏼 ’Pregnancy bot’ is too weird for the world

The Rundown: China’s Kaiwa Technology is reportedly pulling a page from dystopian sci-fi, developing a prototype humanoid robot designed for artificial pregnancy — slated for debut in 2026.

The details:

• The concept is a sealed, fully robotic “mother” with an artificial amniotic chamber designed to carry a human fetus from conception through birth.

• Priced below 100K yuan (about $13,900), the robot reportedly aims to be more affordable than surrogacy or repeated IVF cycles.

• Led by Dr. Zhang Qifeng in Guangzhou, the project arrives just as China’s ban on surrogacy generates fresh demand for alternative reproductive technologies.

• Yet details about the mechanics of fertilization, embryo implantation, and robot-human interaction have yet to be revealed, with some saying it’s just fake news.

Why it matters: The media devoured the story, but Snopes uncovered serious holes. Still, it looks like it’s at least being talked about here. In any case, the idea itself — automating not just work or care but the creation of life — sparks a tangle of ethical questions, making you wonder how ready we are to wake up in our own Matrix.

APPLE

🍎 Apple preps Pixar-inspired tabletop bot

The Rundown: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is prepping a Pixar-inspired tabletop robot — resembling an iPad on a movable arm — that swivels, follows your every move, and brings an advanced Siri to life as a digital sidekick.

The details:

• Set for a 2027 debut, Apple’s tabletop robot project integrates an advanced Siri dubbed “Bubbles,” designed to respond with more human-like timing.

• The robot’s tracking tech lets it follow users’ faces during FaceTime calls, keeping everyone in the frame, and lets callers remotely control its view.

• It’s positioned as a multitasker, designed with kitchen counters and desks in mind, that could help users set reminders, manage schedules, or find recipes.

• Bloomberg reports that Apple is also exploring other bots, including a wheeled mobile bot and a large robotic arm for manufacturing.

Why it matters: The real question isn’t whether Apple can build a smart home robot; it’s whether it can power it with advanced AI to make it truly useful. To succeed, the Cupertino giant will need its signature “it just works” magic to turn a talking, swiveling sidekick into the next must-have gadget, not another passing novelty.

TEXAS A&M

🌗 A ball-shaped bot that can roll around the moon

The Rundown: Two decades after its NASA brainstorm, Dr. Robert Ambrose’s RoboBall — a perfectly spherical robot built to conquer moon craters and shifting sands — is finally rolling into reality at Texas A&M.

The details:

• RoboBall was conceptualized at NASA in 2003 as a robot with no fixed top or bottom, aiming to navigate jagged lunar craters that defeat traditional rovers.

• A new prototype of the robot is currently being tested on the Texas A&M campus, with the team testing its ability to handle complex, real-world terrain.

• Internally, RoboBall uses a mix of drive mechanisms and embedded sensors, allowing it to roll in all directions and adapt to unpredictable surfaces.

• Ambrose and the RAD Lab crew are now chasing ambitious goals of deploying the robot into unexplored environments and eventually sending it to space.

Why it matters: RoboBall’s spherical chassis solves a classic robotics dilemma: if the entire surface is a wheel, the concept of flipping over vanishes, making the robot nearly unstoppable on uneven terrain. The latest design adds a robust internal drive mechanism and versatile sensors, prepping RoboBall for future lunar adventures.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

California-based FieldAI raised $405M to build foundational embodied AI models to enable humanoids and autonomous vehicles to operate in unfamiliar environments.

The U.S. Navy’s push for autonomous surface vessel swarms hit a snag, Reuters reports, with two test accidents off California, with one drone boat being left disabled.

Figure AI released a video of its Figure 02 humanoid walking over obstacles using a new locomotion system called the Helix walking controller.

Foxconn will reportedly unveil a humanoid with an “LLM-powered brain” this year, set to be deployed in its new Houston plant producing NVIDIA’s GB300 servers.

South Korea’s WIRobotics launched ALLEX, a humanoid featuring highly dexterous hands with 15 DOF, capable of both precision tasks and 30kg+ lifts.

Unitree Robotics teased a 31-joint, 180 cm-tall humanoid — its next flagship — expanding beyond the current lineup as it targets China’s premium robotics market.

Serve Robotics acquired Vayu Robotics to strengthen its urban delivery fleet with advanced, large-scale AI models for smarter, more adaptive autonomous robots.

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See you soon,

Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team