QNX to bring hands-on demonstrations and new research to the Robotics Summit - The Robot Report

The most recent headlines on humanoid robots show a surge of activity across both hardware and software fronts. In early May, Figure AI released a video of two of its Helix 02 humanoids making a bed, demonstrating new capabilities such as opening doors, pushing furniture and draping clothing after a fresh round of training; the company, valued at $39 billion, remains in direct competition with Tesla’s Optimus project. Around the same time, Genesis AI unveiled its GENE‑26.5 “robotic brain,” a foundation model that uses a glove‑based data system to capture human‑hand movements and has already enabled a robot to solve a Rubik’s Cube and perform dexterous tasks like ice‑skating and roller‑blading; the startup, backed by investors including Eric Schmidt and Khosla Ventures, plans to launch a general‑purpose humanoid based on this technology later this year. In Shanghai, DroidUp introduced Moya, a 1.65‑metre, 32‑kilogram biomimetic robot that mimics human tissue movement with pneumatic muscles, achieves 92 percent walking‑posture accuracy and maintains a lifelike skin temperature, targeting institutional buyers with a commercial release slated for late 2026. Meanwhile, the Institute of Science Tokyo opened an unmanned lab populated by ten robots, including the Maholo LabDroid humanoid, to automate medical experiments and plans to scale the fleet to roughly 2,000 units by 2040. Finally, Hugging Face launched an open‑source “App Store” for its low‑cost Reachy Mini humanoid, offering more than 200 apps that let developers and hobbyists quickly add new functionalities to the 299‑dollar robot. Together, these developments underscore rapid progress in humanoid design, AI‑driven manipulation, and ecosystem tools that aim to bring such robots from labs to broader markets.

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