Pi wins humanoid olympics then Figure drops new Helix 02 brain in challenge
Addverb is hosting the next "Bots, Bevs & Devs" on Feb 11th and Women in Robotics scholarship entries close on Feb 1st
Is it surprising that the secretive Figure has released some amazing dexterity and full body control videos just as Physical Intelligence wins Benjie Holson’s Humanoid Olympics? Make up your own mind via some detailed posts below.
New tasks!
Of course, the question is, are we asking the right questions!! I’m working with NIST and many others to show a range of humanoid challenges at the upcoming IEEE Humanoids conference Dec 6-9 2026 at Santa Clara Convention Center. It’s a great opportunity to bring industry and academia together and we’ll be looking for additional competitions, challenges, benchmarking activities and workshops.
Meanwhile, it’s a hot discussion topic. Is it about the AI, the data, the hardware or something else altogether?
Introducing Helix 02 from Figure with full body autonomy
One year ago, Helix showed that a single neural network could control a humanoid upper body. Today, Helix 02 extends that capability to the entire robot.
With S0 providing learned whole‑body control, S1 connecting all sensors to all actuators, and S2 enabling semantic reasoning over extended tasks, Helix 02 achieves something new: continuous, room-scale autonomy that seamlessly blends walking and manipulation.
The results are early - but they already show what continuous, whole-body autonomy makes possible. A 4-minute autonomous task with 61 fluidly executed loco-manipulation actions, dexterous behaviors enabled by tactile sensing and palm cameras, and whole-body coordination that uses hips and feet alongside hands and arms. Read more on Figure blog
Valued at $39 billion, the world’s most expensive humanoid robot company is researching how to use feet to turn off the dishwasher.
Detailed analysis by LiYuan aka GeekPark reprinted by KRAsia
PI didn’t didn’t need fancy sensing or actuation. When I selected the tasks I tried to think of things where I thought current approaches would not work. Tasks like peanut butter spreading or wiping glass need force feedback. Tasks like key manipulation or sock inversion need dextrous many-fingered hands. Tasks like cleaning your gripper would require building a robot that wasn’t worried about getting wet. I was wrong on all those counts: PI solved all of them with pure vision and pincer grippers.
Moravec’s Paradox and the Robot Olympics
We wanted to see how many of these tasks we could tackle just by fine-tuning our latest model, based on π0.6. This is a good test of generalist capability: the tasks were not selected by us, they test a variety of manipulation capabilities, and they have not been demonstrated with previous robotic systems. We've been able to demonstrate initial solutions for "gold medal" tasks in 3 out of 5 proposed categories, with "silver medal" for the other 2. The two gold medal tasks that we did not solve were physically impossible for our robot, though one of them could be solved with a small modification (using a metal tool). We did all this simply by fine-tuning our latest model. This was not a focused research project, and most of the work consisted of collecting data for each task (under 9 hours for most tasks).
Read more at Physical Intelligence blog
Silicon Valley Robotics Investor/Startup Database
Are you a startup fundraising atm? Fill out our "For Investors Eyes Only" sheet.
These investors write checks anywhere from angel and seed stage to $5-50 million.
Feedback from the startups - high quality inbound interest from investors.
Feedback from the investors - incredible depth and range of robotics startups.
If you’re an accredited investor and haven’t already signed up for the spreadsheet - Sign up here for great robotics deal flow!
Robotics News
FedEx CEO wants super humanoid robots
“Truck unloading and truck loading are a very difficult problem for robotics to solve — packages come in every size, shape, and weight,” he said.
He added, “We’re not looking for humanoid robots — we’re looking for super humanoid robots, because maybe they need to have a couple of elbows. More degrees of freedom.”
The executive said that FedEx is still in the pilot stage for these robots, and was “not ready for prime time yet.” from NYTimes via Business Insider
Boston Dynamics CEO told us how the humanoid robot revolution begins
"We're starting with the simpler stuff, which is parts sequencing," Playter said in an interview with Business Insider. Eventually, the tasks get more complex, and Atlas will be on the assembly line. Then, the CEO said, perhaps in five to 10 years' time, the robots will enter our homes. Detailed interview on Business Insider
Round it out with Business Insider interview with 3 robotics experts at Davos on the next big challenge for humanoid robots.
Chinese company launches automated production line for robot joints, step toward humanoid robots’ mass production - Global Times
Tesla says production-ready Optimus robot is coming soon - The Verge
As Tesla reports smallest profit since pandemic, company plans to shift Fremont factory to production of Optimus robots - SiliconValley
Ocado says Canadian partner closing robotic warehouse in latest setback - The Guardian
Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides to and fro San Francisco International Airport - TechCrunch
I’ve Seen It With My Own Eyes: The Robots Are Here and Walking Among Us -CNET
Singapore-based Sharpa surfaces as robotics venture linked to Hesai founders - KRAsia
Hadrian’s Robot-Packed Mesa Mega-Plant To Bring 350 Jobs - Hoodline
Send me your 2025 progress and 2026 plans for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups.
Robotics Events
The next SVR Robotics Leadership Event is coming in early 2026 followed by another IEEE Hard Tech Venture Summit in Silicon Valley!
Bots, Bevs & Devs at Addverb in Fremont on Feb 11
!! NOT the first Wednesday this month !!
Drones and Robotics AI Summit - New York - March 26
European Robotics Forum - Norway - Mar 23 - Mar 27
IEEE Haptics Symposium - Reno - March 29 to Apr 1
IEEE Hard Tech Venture Summit and Robotics Manufacturing Workshop (with Silicon Valley Robotics) - SRI International - April 16-17
SVR Robotics Leadership Event - TBC April
Robotics Invest - Boston - May 26-27
ICRA 2026 - Vienna, Austria - Jun 01 - Jun 05
Robotics: Science and Systems - Sydney, Australia - Jul 13 - Jul 16
IROS 2026 - Pittsburgh - Sep 27 - Oct 1
IEEE Humanoids 2026 - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9
The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.
Join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org
The real signal isn’t flashier demos but continuous whole-body autonomy under messy sequences plus shared benchmarks that make claims falsifiable—because that’s what will separate dataset-shaped “generality” from reproducible, safe, cost-effective deployability.