Nineteen Unitree humanoid robots participated in the opening ceremony of WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 on September 22. According to Unitree, the performance, given alongside 120 dancers, is the world’s largest involving full-size general-purpose humanoid robots, performed in front of over 10,000 spectators.
- Dix-neuf robots humanoïdes Unitree ont participé à la cérémonie d’ouverture de WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.
- Universal Robots a dévoilé la g-Series, qui se connecte directement aux caméras, aux outils et aux systèmes de contrôle.
- Le drone F10 de Skydio utilise un bras robotisé pour décoller et atterrir, mais sa vidéo semble accélérée.
- Unitree propose aussi une main dextre biomimétique, à partir de 6 500 dollars américains.
The show also included a set of robots entirely piloted by an autonomous artificial intelligence, broadcast live and in real-time worldwide. These humanoids, robots with a human silhouette, are among the most visible demonstrations in IEEE Spectrum’s weekly Video Friday selection.
Drones, Robotic Arms and Hands
Universal Robots unveiled the g-Series, presented as the evolution of the UR Series line. It connects more directly to cameras, end-of-arm tooling (EOAT), meaning the tools attached to the end of the robotic arm which have higher power, as well as to control systems. By removing external wiring and hardware, the company claims it enables cleaner and faster deployment of advanced automations.
Skydio presented the F10, a fixed-wing drone that relies on a robotic arm for autonomous takeoff and landing. However, comments accompanying the video suggest it was sped up, with the frequency of the drone’s blinking light indicating that the capture phase, and probably the takeoff phase, were shortened.
The Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich (UZH) is exploring another approach for training drones. According to its work, simply telling a device whether you like its flying style is enough to teach it to perform acrobatics. Unitree, for its part, is offering a biomimetic dexterous precision hand, priced from US $6,500.
At Boston Dynamics, mechanical engineer Diane Heinle answers questions about endurance testing for the Stretch robot. She explains how her team simulates, in the lab over a short period, years of wear on robot parts, and why the robots are equipped with bird heads.
Finally, the ULOHA project applies learning from demonstration to two robotic arms operating underwater. The researchers have developed leader-follower hardware and software, meaning a control arm and a follower arm that replicates it, extending LeRobot to combine teleoperation, demonstration collection, and autonomous manipulation. They are also studying the influence of bubbles and the timing of action execution on learned behaviors.
