Week 45, 2026
What happened in robotics this week, explained in plain words, with the source every time.
The news, explained
- Agility is on the Nasdaq. Now Digit has to deliver.Agility Robotics started trading as AGLT on 5 November with about $465 million in capital and over $300 million in conditional Digit orders. The next milestone is a robot doing contracted work.
- XPeng's IRON walked off the line. Mass production is still a target.XPeng says its humanoid completed assembly on an automated line and walked away on its own. Volume production is planned for the end of 2026, with no throughput figure yet.
- Figure fills its headquarters with Figure 03 robots, but the workload stays unclearCEO Brett Adcock posted two videos of dozens of Figure 03 humanoids around the campus, while the company still gives no count of robots doing paid work.
- Midsize factories use cobots and robot cells to reach high-precision productionThe Robot Report describes four midsize manufacturers that used robot cells from SCHUNK, Universal Robots and FANUC to ease labor shortages and raise machine use.
- Atlas battery pack reportedly built from 70 Samsung SDI cellsThe Elec says each Boston Dynamics Atlas carries about 1.3 kWh from 70 Samsung SDI cells, with LG Energy Solution also chosen as a supplier.
- Unitree still builds most of its robots by hand, an investor's factory visit findsInvestor Josef Chen says Unitree's Hangzhou plant relies on manual work, and he argues US wages and trade rules make factory automation worth far more in America.
- Point One Navigation CEO joins podcast ahead of its FUSE 2026 physical AI eventAaron Nathan of Point One Navigation is the guest on Episode 269 of The Robot Report Podcast, and the company's FUSE 2026 event follows on 19 November in San Francisco.
- Boston Dynamics launches Stretch Gen 2 with 81% less internal cablingBoston Dynamics unveiled Stretch Gen 2, a truck unloading robot built for uptime, with a new gripper, faster repairs and up to 1,000 cases per hour.
- China blocks SoftBank's $5.3 billion purchase of ABB Robotics over data worriesChinese regulators stopped SoftBank's $5.3 billion deal for ABB Robotics, fearing AI training data could leave the country, The Robot Report writes.
- Cable-driven home robot Stringman is priced at $795IEEE Spectrum's 6 November roundup lists the cable-driven Stringman tidying robot at US $795 and says Agility Robotics now trades publicly as AGLT.
- Physicl raises $10M seed round to build simulations that robots can learn fromPhysicl, founded by Alex de Vigan, raised $10 million led by Inovia Capital and launched Studio, a tool for making synthetic training data for robot AI.
- Swiss startup Embodied AI shows AIR, a cage-free wheeled robot for factory linesEPFL spin-out Embodied AI unveiled AIR, a two-armed wheeled robot for shared factory work, citing 95% task success in paid pilots but no price or delivery date.
- University of Tokyo prints robot leg muscles and tendons from one plasticUniversity of Tokyo researchers built life-size robot legs from one printed flexible plastic, but the prototype only steps while held up by an external support.
- Serve Robotics will sell its robot software to other companies building machinesServe Robotics, known for sidewalk delivery robots, announced a Physical AI Services unit offering connectivity and data tools to other robot makers, with Bedrock as a customer.
- Ambi Robotics adds eight sites and spare parts to prepare for peak seasonAmbi Robotics expects customer volume to rise 9% to 10% this peak season and is installing eight new systems, pre-placing spares and adding operator training.
- China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion purchase of ABB RoboticsChinese regulators have prohibited SoftBank's $5.375 billion deal for ABB Robotics, citing worries about robot data going abroad to train AI models.
- Nabtesco adds a FLUX inductive encoder to its new RDS-C Link gearboxNabtesco Precision Europe and FLUX GmbH built an encoder into the RDS-C Link cycloidal gearbox to read absolute position at the output, with a debut at SPS in Nuremberg.
- Apple's HALO humanoid handles unseen rooms using simulated training dataApple researchers got a Unitree G1 to finish 91% of 360 real-world tasks in unmapped rooms, learning mostly from generated motion rather than teleoperation.
- Carnegie Mellon shows Pixel, a two-armed robot with a sub-$15,000 build costCarnegie Mellon researchers built Pixel, a wheeled two-armed robot that learns from human demonstrations, with a reported build cost under $15,000.
- NEURA, E.ON and enviaM plan humanoid robots for power grid workNEURA Robotics, E.ON and enviaM will train humanoids for grid inspections and monitoring, with first practical experience at pilot partner MITNETZ STROM in 2027.
- XPENG backs a vision model that helps robots learn with fewer demonstrationsXPENG highlighted GroundingPI, a four-billion-parameter vision model that beat rivals in a simulated humanoid test while using less demonstration data.
- Agility lists on Nasdaq as AGLT after a smaller SPAC raise than plannedAgility, maker of the Digit robot, began Nasdaq trading on 5 November 2026 after its SPAC merger raised about $465 million, down from over $600 million planned.
- Agility goes public through a SPAC with $465 million in new capitalAgility Robotics will list on the stock market via a SPAC merger, raising $465 million while its Digit robots earned only $174,000 in the first half of 2026.
- Agility Robotics goes public after completing its merger with Churchill Capital XIAgility Robotics closed its SPAC deal with Churchill Capital Corp XI, and its shares were set to begin trading on Nasdaq on 5 November 2026 as AGLT.
- Delivery drone hubs in US suburbs meet growing resident pushback over noiseNeighbors of Amazon's Baton Rouge site complain about drone whine, while Wing, Zipline and Amazon plan fast expansion and states challenge the FAA in court.
- GlobalLogic and Haystack Robotics build a hospital UV disinfection robotGlobalLogic engineered an autonomous UV disinfection robot for Haystack Robotics, built as a reusable platform, and says hospital adoption still faces cost and safety hurdles.
- Beijing startup LiberAI trains a robot model on human video and reaches 36% zero-shot successLiberAI's new Liber-0 model learns from human video and glove recordings, and completed 36% of 60 unseen tasks in 600 trials without task-specific robot demonstrations.
- Korea's KAPEX humanoid reportedly relies on domestic parts for over 90% of core componentsA Seoul Economic Daily report says KIST's KAPEX humanoid is mostly built from Korean core parts as LG and Robostar prepare for commercialization.
- ST launches STM32G5 chips with twice the speed for robot hands and datacentersSTMicroelectronics says its new STM32G5 microcontrollers double the compute of the G4 series and can drive up to 20 motors in one humanoid robot hand.
- UK insurer and broker launch home cover for domestic humanoid robotsTokio Marine HCC International and Adrian Flux have launched what they call the UK's first household insurance policy for domestic humanoid robots, with individual pricing.
- Boston Dynamics rebuilds Stretch with a tougher second generationBoston Dynamics has launched Stretch Gen 2, a trailer unloading robot redesigned to fail less often and to be repaired far faster, handling up to 1,000 cases an hour.
- LiberAI trains its Liber-0 robot model on 2.2 million hours of human experienceBeijing startup LiberAI says its Liber-0 model, pretrained on human video and glove data, reached 36.0% success on 60 unseen manipulation tasks.
- WiBotic CEO says opportunity charging is now needed as robot fleets growWiBotic CEO Ben Waters says fleets of 20 to 40 robots hit charging bottlenecks, making short wireless top-ups a practical way to keep robots running around the clock.
- Schaeffler to cut 3,460 European jobs while betting on humanoid roboticsSchaeffler will cut a net 3,460 European jobs and close five sites, saying humanoid robotics and defense should offset part of the loss, without giving numbers.
- Meta reportedly built a humanoid called Max with Fourier in three monthsHumanoids Daily's 3 November newsletter covers Meta's reported Max humanoid with Fourier, factory robot trials, funding news and Lumi's next certification step.
- Agility Robotics wins shareholder backing for its Nasdaq listing through a SPAC mergerChurchill Capital Corp XI investors approved the Agility Robotics merger on November 2, with closing expected November 4 and trading as AGLT on November 5.
- Chery's AiMOGA opens global pre-orders for MOBO, its first home robotChery's robotics brand AiMOGA has opened worldwide pre-orders for MOBO, a 22-joint companion robot, but has not published a price or delivery dates.
- Neura's CEO says he will keep civilian robots and skip military workNeura Robotics CEO David Reger told DW he will not build military robots, betting that factory and home automation will do more for Europe's economy.
- A3 publishes ISO 21423, a shared standard for mixed-vendor mobile robot fleetsThe Association for Advancing Automation released ISO 21423:2026, which sets common rules for how industrial mobile robots from different makers communicate.
- Xiaomi shows two humanoids at an eight-hour sorting shift in its car factoryXiaomi posted a video of two humanoids sorting console side covers for eight hours, but gave no throughput, intervention or battery figures.
- Agility Robotics wins SPAC vote but raises $465 million instead of the planned $620 millionChurchill Capital XI shareholders backed the Agility Robotics merger, but redemptions cut expected proceeds to about $465 million, with Nasdaq trading due on 5 November.
- Humanoid robot batteries seen as an $850 million market by 2037IDTechEx forecasts 34.2% yearly growth for humanoid batteries, driven by new robots and spare packs for swapping, while Agility and XPENG take different routes.
- Figure shows new Figure 03 humanoids walking out of its BotQ factoryBrett Adcock posted a 19-second clip on 2 November of fresh Figure 03 robots walking across campus from BotQ, but gave no new production or delivery numbers.
- Chery's AiMOGA opens global pre-orders for MOBO, its first home robotChery Group's AiMOGA opened worldwide pre-orders for MOBO, a home companion robot aimed at older adults, children and daily family life, at an event in Wuhu.
- DEEP Robotics puts humanoid traffic helpers on the route of the Hangzhou MarathonDEEP Robotics deployed Hangxing No.2 humanoids at four spots around the 36,000-runner Hangzhou Marathon on November 1 to help with traffic duties.
- Lightberry's Lumi humanoid wins a conditional FCC exemption tied to US manufacturingThe FCC cleared Lightberry's Unitree-based Lumi from its Covered List on conditions, but certification and a shipping date are still open.
- FFR passes 1,000 robots delivered after its U.S. stock market listingFF EAI Robotics Ecosystem's FFR shipped 351 devices in October, bringing its total since late February to 1,168 units, and opened a New York regional office.
- 1X staff test home integrations with spare NEO heads, starting with a TVA 1X employee shared a clip of a detached NEO head choosing and starting a film on a television after a spoken request, ahead of full robots reaching homes.
- AGIBOT puts six G2 robots on a 24-hour convenience store shift, live on YouTubeAGIBOT is streaming six G2 robots running a convenience store for a full day, from 2 to 3 November, though how well they work without help is still unclear.
Also this week
- Figure’s HQ Is Crawling With Figure 03 Robots. What Are They All Doing? Humanoids Daily, Sat 7 Nov
- The impact on robotics of geopolitics Robots & Startups (Andra Keay), Sat 7 Nov
- Robot integration brings high-precision production to midmarket manufacturers The Robot Report, Sat 7 Nov
- Atlas Battery Pack to Use 70 Samsung SDI Cells, Report Says Humanoids Daily, Sat 7 Nov
- Inside Unitree's Hangzhou Factory, Robots Are Still Mostly Built by Hand Humanoids Daily, Sat 7 Nov
- How Point One turned GPS accuracy into a robotics platform The Robot Report, Fri 6 Nov
- Boston Dynamics built Stretch Gen 2 for reliable, consistent performance The Robot Report, Fri 6 Nov
- Industry experts discuss China blocking SoftBank acquisition of ABB Robotics The Robot Report, Fri 6 Nov
- Video Friday: Room-Scale Cable-Driven Home Robot Tidies Up IEEE Spectrum Robotics, Fri 6 Nov
- The Download: a humanoid cleans house and Samsung builds for the AI boom MIT Technology Review, Fri 6 Nov