Flashy humanoid robots that have awed attendees at Web Summit in Lisbon this week are still far from revolutionizing physical labor in factories and warehouses, Amazon's chief roboticist told AFP.

The 3rd Annual Women in Robotics Medal Gala lit up Boston last week as MassRobotics honored two trailblazing women advancing the frontiers of robotics: Professor Tania Morimoto of UC San Diego and Professor Maja Matarić of the University of Southern California.

We have long been fascinated with our own image. In the 1920s play Rossum’s Universal Robots, Czech writer Karel Čapek coined the term robot to describe human-looking creatures forced to work in factories. Since then, we have built many humanoid robots that can move and interact with the world in anthropomorphic ways.

Reasons for the honor include increased fiber optic access, Amazon's robotic fulfillment center, John Deere's tech innovation center and small business innovations.

Now, researchers at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) have trained a Unitree G1 robot to pull a 1,400-kilogram car along a flat surface. The robot itself weighs just 35 kilograms and stands at 132 centimeters, so the feat does look rather remarkable. You can watch it in the clip below:

Nov. 6, 2025 – Humanoid Robotics Technology is proud to announce the winners of the Humanoid Robotics Industry Awards 2025, recognizing the remarkable contributions of individuals, organizations, and technologies advancing the humanoid robotics industry.

LITHUANIA: The national railway's freight business LTG Cargo is testing the use of a robot dog which autonomously walks around a train and uses artificial intelligence to search for wagon faults.