Robotics
Sony's AI robot Ace beats professional table tennis players
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Sony AI's table tennis robot Ace has challenged and sometimes defeated professional human players at an expert level. A study published Wednesday in Nature details how it learned via reinforcement learning and performed on an Olympic-sized court at Sony's Tokyo headquarters. The robot uses nine camera eyes to track the ball's spin by its logo.
Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco startup founded in 2024, is advancing robot control systems that learn multiple tasks using vision-language-action models derived from large language models. The company has demonstrated robots performing varied activities such as making coffee, folding clothes and cooking sweet potatoes based on verbal instructions.
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Researchers have found that packed rice grains weaken under rapid compression but remain stronger under slow pressure. This unusual property has been used to create a metamaterial that automatically adjusts its behavior based on the speed of applied forces.
South Korea has conducted a test delivery of fried chicken to a remote island using a drone combined with a four-wheel robot. The operation, dubbed the world's most elaborate takeaway, aims to explore innovative logistics for isolated areas. It was reported on April 30, 2026.
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Japan Airlines plans to deploy humanoid robots for sorting luggage and loading cargo at Tokyo's Haneda Airport starting in May 2026. The three-year trial addresses a severe labor shortage amid rising passenger numbers. Partnering with GMO AI & Robotics, the airline will test models from Chinese firms Unitree and UBTECH.
Scientists from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich, and the European Space Agency have tested a quadrupedal robot equipped with a robotic arm to explore planetary surfaces more efficiently. The robot navigated rocky terrain autonomously, identifying targets and collecting data faster than traditional human-guided methods. The findings, published this week, suggest it could accelerate resource prospecting and searches for signs of life on the moon and Mars.
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Nvidia's GTC event at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center featured demonstrations of several robots, including those from IntBot, Humanoid, and Noble Machines. Attendees interacted with AI-powered bots providing directions and fetching items via fleet control. The displays illustrated potential advancements in robotics, as predicted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
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