#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league day 2

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano/NX-based Mekotronics AI Box targets humanoid robots, Smart Cities management, transportation applications

Mekotronics has launched an AI Box based on NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano (4GB/8GB) and Jetson Orin NX (8GB/16GB) modules, targeting humanoid robots, smart transportation (V2X), Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, and medical imaging. The compact embedded computer (136×79mm PCB) offers standard industrial interfaces including HDMI, six USB Type-A ports, dual Gigabit Ethernet (one with PoE), a 40-pin GPIO header, CAN Bus, UART, two camera connectors, and dual M.2 NVMe slots. It supports up to 157 TOPS with the Orin NX 16GB module and runs JetPack 7.x on Ubuntu 24.04. The design appears cost-optimized compared to rugged competitors like IBASE EC3100 and Forlinx FCU3011, though pricing has not yet been announced.

Web Tool Lets You Take Steam Controller For A Drive

Một công cụ web điều khiển Steam Controller di chuyển trên bàn như robot bằng cách kích hoạt động cơ rung thông qua trình duyệt Chromium dựa trên WASD. Dự án khả thi nhờ tài liệu phần cứng công khai từ Valve.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để khám phá cách ứng dụng cơ học vật lý và cơ chế cảm biến của thiết bị hardware (như motor rung) qua giao diện web, mở rộng khả năng tương tác người dùng với thiết bị IoT và tạo ra những giải pháp sáng tạo cho giao diện người dùng.

The other Dyson empire, measured in acres

James Dyson, known for vacuum cleaners, is also one of Britain's largest landowners with 36,000 acres and a cutting-edge robotic strawberry farm in Lincolnshire. The glasshouse uses 16 robotic arms with machine vision, UV mould-killing robots, Ferris-wheel crop systems, and an on-site anaerobic digester — effectively a self-contained robotics and energy R&D lab that pays for itself in fruit. The piece traces how Dyson's engineering competencies (motors, batteries, vision, robotics) flow directly from consumer products into agriculture, while also examining the financial logic: farmland as a tax-sheltered asset class, £5bn+ in dividends funnelled through a Singapore holding company, and millions in UK agricultural subsidies. A pointed irony runs throughout — Dyson championed Brexit, which cut the seasonal farm labour supply, then built robots to replace those workers. Now proposed inheritance tax reforms on agricultural land threaten his estate with a ~£120m bill, making him the loudest critic of a loophole he benefited from enormously.

Videos: A Lunar Mars Rover, Floating Robots, and More

IEEE Spectrum's weekly Video Friday roundup covers a range of robotics highlights: NASA's PROMISE mission concept for a nuclear-powered lunar rover based on Mars rover testbed hardware, soft floating companion robots designed for safe indoor human interaction, the launch of Weave Robotics' Isaac 1 home robot at $500/month, Figure's F-03 humanoid at BMW, Apptronik's Robot Park training facility for Apollo 2, UBTech's lifelike silicone-skinned humanoid with emotional AI, Georgia Tech's Spherephones for spatial audio awareness in human-robot collaboration, and several other humanoid and field robotics demos and research projects.

Alva Industries raises €16M to scale its ultra-compact electric motors

Norwegian deep-tech company Alva Industries has raised €16 million in a funding round led by Nysnø Climate Investments, Sandwater, and Emerald Technology Ventures. The company makes ultra-compact electric motors using its patented FiberPrinting process, which weaves conductive fibres into a motor's stator instead of winding copper wire around an iron core. This produces ironless, slotless motors that are lighter, cogging-free, and offer high torque density — properties valued in robotics, aerospace, medical devices, and defence applications. The capital will fund expanded manufacturing in Norway, product development, and international growth. Alva has hundreds of active customer projects and has previously worked with Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Weave Robotics Isaac 1: a $7,999 home robot

Weave Robotics has unveiled Isaac 1, a $7,999 wheeled home robot that handles laundry-related chores like folding clothes, making beds, and tidying shoes. Unlike humanoid rivals such as 1X's Neo (~$20,000) or Tesla's Optimus, Isaac 1 uses a wheeled base and claw grippers instead of legs and fingers, deliberately limiting its scope to reduce cost. The Y Combinator-backed startup offers it at $449/month as an alternative. Deliveries begin in September 2026 in California only, with the rest of the US following in 2027. Partial autonomy is supplemented by remote teleoperation, and privacy concerns exist around whether home footage is used for training data.

UiPath shares rebound as Wall Street warms to its AI-agent pivot

UiPath ghi nhận mức tăng 15% trong 5 ngày sau khi báo cáo lợi nhuận hoạt động GAAP đầu tiên ($28 triệu) và doanh thu tăng 17% (418 triệu USD) trong Q1 FY2027. Công ty đang chuyển hướng từ RPA truyền thống sang điều phối AI agent, đồng thời mở rộng sang tuân thủ chống tội phạm tài chính thông qua việc mua lại WorkFusion. Phố Wall vẫn thận trọng khi các mô hình AI lớn có thể chiếm lĩnh thị trường.

Những nhà phát triển AI và tự động hóa nên theo dõi để hiểu cách UiPath chuyển hướng sang AI agent và cách nó cạnh tranh với các công ty lớn như Microsoft, Google, hay Meta trong tương lai.