Robotics & Embodied AI
Physical embodiment, VLA models, manipulation, navigation, and real-world interaction. AI that can move and interact with the physical world.
Key Benchmarks
Recent Papers
Explore with Long-term Memory: A Benchmark and Multimodal LLM-based Reinforcement Learning Framework for Embodied Exploration
Sen Wang, Bangwei Liu, Zhenkun Gao +4 more
Future Optical Flow Prediction Improves Robot Control & Video Generation
Kanchana Ranasinghe, Honglu Zhou, Yu Fang +7 more
Depth Any Panoramas: A Foundation Model for Panoramic Depth Estimation
Xin Lin, Meixi Song, Dizhe Zhang +6 more
Posterior Behavioral Cloning: Pretraining BC Policies for Efficient RL Finetuning
Andrew Wagenmaker, Perry Dong, Raymond Tsao +2 more
SceneDiff: A Benchmark and Method for Multiview Object Change Detection
Yuqun Wu, Chih-hao Lin, Henry Che +4 more
VLSA: Vision-Language-Action Models with Plug-and-Play Safety Constraint Layer
Songqiao Hu, Zeyi Liu, Shuang Liu +3 more
DrivePI: Spatial-aware 4D MLLM for Unified Autonomous Driving Understanding, Perception, Prediction and Planning
Zhe Liu, Runhui Huang, Rui Yang +6 more
MoCapAnything: Unified 3D Motion Capture for Arbitrary Skeletons from Monocular Videos
Kehong Gong, Zhengyu Wen, Weixia He +8 more
Evaluating Gemini Robotics Policies in a Veo World Simulator
Gemini Robotics Team, Coline Devin, Yilun Du +18 more
Evaluating Gemini Robotics Policies in a Veo World Simulator
Gemini Robotics Team, Coline Devin, Yilun Du +3 more
Recent Milestones
Nvidia DreamZero Pushes Shared Robot World Model
On February 9, 2026, Chinese outlet Machine Heart Pro detailed Nvidia GEAR Lab’s DreamZero, a 14‑billion‑parameter world action model built on a video diffusion backbone. The system reportedly enables 7 Hz real‑time closed‑loop control and over 2x better generalization than state‑of‑the‑art vision‑language‑action baselines on unseen robotic tasks, with code and demos released publicly. ([k.sina.com.cn](https://k.sina.com.cn/article_5952915705_162d248f906702hlvi.html))
Skild AI raises $1.4B for universal robot brain
US robotics startup Skild AI raised about $1.4 billion in new funding, led by SoftBank, valuing the company at over $14 billion. The round, announced January 14 and reported by Caixin on January 16, will fund development of Skild Brain, a general-purpose AI ‘brain’ designed to control many kinds of robots.
OpenAI backs $250m Merge Labs BCI seed
OpenAI disclosed on Jan 15, 2026 that it is investing in Merge Labs, a new brain-computer interface (BCI) startup focused on linking biological and artificial intelligence. Separate reporting says Merge has raised a $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation, with OpenAI writing the largest check.
Hyundai’s Atlas humanoid set for factory work by 2030
Hyundai Motor Group’s Atlas humanoid robot, developed by its U.S. robotics subsidiary Boston Dynamics, was named Best Robot of CES 2026 by CNET and other global media, according to reports on January 9, 2026. The fully electric humanoid is slated for phased deployment in Hyundai manufacturing plants starting around 2028–2030 to handle parts sorting, sequencing and heavy material handling.
Nvidia Opens Reasoning AV Stack with Alpamayo
Nvidia introduced the Alpamayo family of open-source AI tools for autonomous vehicles at CES on January 5, including a 10‑billion‑parameter Alpamayo 1 reasoning VLA model, the AlpaSim simulation framework and over 1,700 hours of driving data. The company says these tools will help developers build safer, reasoning‑based level 4 autonomy by distilling Alpamayo into production AV stacks.
Nvidia Physical AI Stack Becomes Robotics OS
On January 5 at CES 2026, Nvidia announced a suite of physical AI tools including Cosmos world models, the Isaac GR00T N1.6 robot VLA model, the Isaac Lab-Arena evaluation framework and the Jetson T4000 edge module. Partners such as Boston Dynamics, Caterpillar, LG Electronics, NEURA Robotics and surgical robotics firm LEM Surgical showcased new robots built on this stack.
Humanoid robots flagged as cyber-physical threat
Fierce Network reported on December 31, 2025 that a Recorded Future analysis warns humanoid robots could become major cyber-physical attack vectors as countries like China and the US deploy tens to hundreds of millions of units. The report cites real vulnerabilities in Unitree robots and argues telcos will play a key role in securing robot networks. ([fierce-network.com](https://www.fierce-network.com/cloud/hacked-humanoid-robots-are-emerging-security-threat-report))
Tesla Optimus Gen 2 Demo
Tesla demonstrates Optimus Gen 2 with improved dexterity and mobility.
Physical Intelligence $400M Funding
Physical Intelligence raises $400M at $2B valuation for general-purpose robot foundation models.
Physical Intelligence Pi0 Model
Physical Intelligence releases pi0, a general-purpose robot foundation model.
Boston Dynamics Atlas Electric
Boston Dynamics reveals all-electric Atlas humanoid robot for commercial deployment.
Figure 01 OpenAI Partnership
Figure demonstrates Figure 01 humanoid robot powered by OpenAI with natural language interaction.