Israel's Headless Humanoid

Israel’s Mentee Robotics has just unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled household chore robot, Menteebot. After two years of research and development, the new robot certainly looks impressive.

Developed by Amnon Shashau (the former founder of Mobileye), Professor Shai Shalev-Shwartz, and Professor Lior Wolf, the new robot is gearing up for official orders in the first quarter of 2025. The unit’s price is still a mystery, but it is being marketed as “affordable.”

“We are on the cusp of a convergence of computer vision, natural language understanding, strong and detailed simulators, and methodologies for transferring from simulation to the real world,” explains Mentee Robotics.

“Menteebot represents a significant leap forward in humanoid robotics, designed for comprehensive functionality across diverse environments,” Mentee Robotics explains in a promotional video on LinkedIn.  READ MORE...

A Chinese Humanoid Robots Sets Record

The human body isn’t really an ideal template for a robot. Out of the entire family of primates, Homo sapiens are the only ones who spend a majority of their time on two feet—a biological outlier that isn’t exactly easy to replicate in artificial form. In the past decade, many companies have created impressive facsimiles: robots that can run, jump, and stumble just like a real boy. But none of them have been able to generate very much speed while doing so. That’s beginning to change.

Earlier this month, the Chinese robotic company Unitree uploaded a sizzle video to Youtube that highlighted the impressive attributes of its H1 humanoid robot. Chief among those impressive attributed is the robot’s startling speed, clocking in at an impressive 3.3 m/s, or roughly 7.4 mph. That beats the previous record holder, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, which can book it at a steady 5.59 mph. Unitree claims that its artificial creation can even reach speeds of up to 11 mph.     READ MORE...

Optimus Gen Two

Tesla has unveiled “Optimus Gen 2”, a new generation of its humanoid robot that should be able to take over repetitive tasks from humans.

Optimus, also known as Tesla Bot, has not been taken seriously by many outside of the more hardcore Tesla fans, and for good reason.

When it was first announced, it seemed to be a half-baked idea from CEO Elon Musk with a dancer disguised as a robot for visual aid. It also didn’t help that the demo at Tesla AI Day last year was less than impressive.

At the time, Tesla had a very early prototype that didn’t look like much. It was barely able to walk around and wave at the crowd. That was about it.  READ MORE...

Robots Doing House Chores

Imagine the biggest market for a physical product you can. Are you thinking of mobile phones? Cars? Property?


They are all chunky markets but in the coming decades a new product will be rolled out that will dwarf those giants, says Geordie Rose, the chief executive of Sanctuary AI.


The Vancouver-based firm is developing a humanoid robot called Phoenix which, when complete, will understand what we want, understand the way the world works and have the skills to carry out our commands.


"The long term total addressable market is the biggest one that's ever existed in the history of business and technology - which is the labour market. It's all of the things we want done," he says.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, he qualifies that statement: "There is a long way to go from where we are today."


Mr Rose is unwilling to put a time frame on when a robot might be in your house, doing your laundry or cleaning the bathroom. But others I have spoken to in the sector say it could be within ten years.


Dozens of other firms around the world are working on the technology.


In the UK, Dyson is investing in AI and robotics aimed at household chores.   READ MORE...

NASA's Humanoid Robot

NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot is heading to Australia from its home base at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for extensive testing. The move is part of a reimbursable Space Act Agreement with Woodside Energy in Perth, Western Australia.

This is according to a press release by NASA published on Thursday.

Woodside Energy will test the machine’s software and provide data and feedback to NASA particularly as it relates to developing remote mobile dexterous manipulation capabilities to accommodate remote caretaking of uncrewed and offshore energy facilities.

“Valkyrie will advance robotic remote operations capabilities which have potential to improve the efficiency of Woodside’s offshore and remote operations while also increasing safety for both its personnel and the environment. In addition, the new capabilities may have applications for NASA’s Artemis missions and for other Earth-based robotics objectives,” said the NASA statement.

NASA hopes that the tests conducted in Woodside’s facilities will teach the agency how to better design robots for work in dirty and hazardous conditions like those found on the Moon and other planets.

Some activities to be undertaken by the robot include inspection and maintenance of infrastructure and plants that leverage resources and materials to produce new items. These activities could one day enable astronauts to live off the land in space.

“We are pleased to be starting the next phase of development and testing of advanced robotic systems that have the potential to positively impact life on Earth by allowing safer operations in hazardous environments,” said Shaun Azimi, lead of the dexterous robotics team at NASA Johnson.  READ MORE...

Robot Writes Poetry

Last week at the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, Aidan Miller unveiled the world’s first highly-realistic humanoid robot artist, Ai-Da, who wrote poetry inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. 

Using algorithms programmed with Dante’s epic, the robot integrated his speech patterns alongside her lexicon of vocabulary to produce her own deeply moving work. 

The poetry debuted in conjunction with Eyes Wide Shut, an exhibit on surveillance, which was created by the robot as a response to an incident in Egypt when Ai-Da was detained by security. 

“The Ai-Da project was developed to address the debate over the ethics of further developing AI to imitate humans and human behavior,” Miller says. 

But in this undertaking, the creator realized that the project isn’t about finding the human in AI so much as locating how robotic humans are. 

He continues, “Ai-Da allows us to gain a new insight into our own patterns and our own habits, as we see her imitate them right in front of us.” Read more this enlightening project at CNN.