I Spent a Week Recording Myself Doing Chores for Money. Who's the Robot Now? - WIRED
After getting over my initial pangs of disappointment, I felt a twinge of pride. Perhaps I was helping build a better future—one where my grandkids would be blissfully unaware of the cleaning habits I had to cultivate.
Key takeaways
Figure announced that its BotQ facility has boosted output of the Figure 03 humanoid from one unit per day to one unit per hour—a 24‑fold increase achieved in under 120 days—while reporting more than 350 third‑generation robots produced and a first‑pass yield above 80 percent, along with new “System 0” whole‑body control that fuses visual and proprioceptive data to navigate stairs and uneven terrain without real‑world fine‑tuning. Boston Dynamics demonstrated that its Atlas robot can now sense its own body, lifting loads up to 45 kg and performing cable‑free joint rotations that enable continuous, unrestricted movement, a capability built on millions of simulated reinforcement‑learning runs. Singapore‑based Doozy Robotics expanded its physical‑AI platform to the United States, GCC and Asia, pairing an industrial super‑humanoid with autonomous mobile robots and forklifts under its Eywa‑OS orchestration layer, with the super‑humanoid slated for launch later this year. Humanoid (formerly SKL Robotics) secured a phased partnership with Schaeffler Technologies and Bosch to integrate its HMND platform into German manufacturing sites before the end of 2026, marking one of the largest disclosed humanoid rollouts and committing Schaeffler to supply over half of its joint actuators through 2031. In China, government‑backed humanoid robot learning centers such as the Beijing‑based Humanoid Robot Data Training Center are training machines on a wide range of workplace scenarios, with industry leaders saying autonomous operation is only a matter of time. The 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston featured a “State of Humanoids” panel with executives from Schaeffler, Intel RealSense, Boston Dynamics and others, underscoring rapid progress in AI‑edge perception, standardized interfaces and fleet‑management tools that are shaping the emerging humanoid ecosystem.
After getting over my initial pangs of disappointment, I felt a twinge of pride. Perhaps I was helping build a better future—one where my grandkids would be blissfully unaware of the cleaning habits I had to cultivate. My pride quickly dissolved, though, the more I considered how I was potentially training the very humanoid robots that could replace humans at jobs beyond the tedious household chores. This was my existence for a full week last month as I performed data collection from the comfort of my apartment, teaching humanoids how to scrub dishes, fold laundry, and pour drinks, among other menial tasks. If robots are ever going to live with us and help out around the house, they need to develop fine motor skills. I performed my household chores with pride (I’m not usually contributing to mass datasets when I put away my jockstraps). And I was glad to make some money too. Reece Rogers
The Big Story
I Spent a Week Recording Myself Doing Chores for Money. Who's the Robot Now?
Cooking. Doing laundry. Tidying up. All your household tasks can be turned into data to train future humanoids—if you’re prepared for the consequences.
I am no longer a mere human being. I am a conduit of reality, a medium of messages. I hold a knife in my hand and slice into an organic cucumber, hunching so the iPhone strapped to my forehead can capture all 10 fingers. I throw the slices into a salad bowl and end the recording. Somewhere, a baby robot is a tiny bit smarter.
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