Humanoid games, robots fighting in San Francisco, and bulldozers with brains
The Humanoid Games get real … and robots struggle
The second World Humanoid Robot Games are almost here, and they are getting huge.The Beijing event starts August 22 with 666 teams, 2,056 robots, and 51 events … almost double last year’s event count.
We’re starting to see some pre-competition now, including in firefighting.
Twenty-three teams entered a firefighting and emergency rescue competition. The robots had 30 minutes to identify a hazardous substance, shut three assigned valves, find a fire extinguisher, and put out an actual fire.
Three completed the entire course.
Rain, changing light, clutter, uneven conditions (in other words the real world) caused problems for perception, precision, and manipulation. Even robots that were successful were, of course, far slower than a human firefighter.
They did, however, do better at plugging in a USB cable.
You laugh (and I did too) but it’s actually a bit challenging: orient it right (USB-A, right, not USB-C, which has no up/down), line it up with precision, and insert with just the right amount of force.
Fourteen of 24 teams made it through the preliminary cable-connection challenge.
The Games run August 22 through 26 in Beijing.
If you’re laughing now, just remember the delta between the first robot marathon and the second. In 2025, 20 humanoid teams started the 21.1-kilometre race. All were teleoperated. 6 robots finished. Only 1 was under the 3 hours and 10 minute cutoff. ONE YEAR LATER … more than 100 teams started. 40% were fully autonomous. The winning autonomous robot finished in 50 minutes, 26 seconds. That’s 69% improvement in 1 year. It was also faster than the human half-marathon world record.
So … keep watching the Humanoid Games
Unitree teases a robot “Superman”
Meanwhile, Unitree has previewed a new humanoid it is calling … very modestly … “Superman.”
Unitree showed the robot doing a two-meter standing high jump and hitting a top running speed of 12.66 meters per second (that’s about 46 kilometers per hour or 29 miles per hour).
The company says the machine has only been under development for a little over three months, so there is still significant room for improvement. And we’ll see this, or descendents, at the Humanoid Games pretty soon, I’m guessing.
The Olympic Games are about national pride.
The Humanoid Games are going to be about corporate pride.
A robot barista serves 202 coffees an hour
One place robots are already looking considerably more employable? Coffee shops.
A 24-hour robot-run coffee shop has opened in Beijing, where a humanoid system handles grinding, brewing, mixing, and serving. And it has already set a Guinness World Record for a robot barista: 202 cups in one hour.
That’s roughly one completed drink every 18 seconds, with customer wait times averaging under 30 seconds per cup.
Does that mean baristas are doomed? Probably not tomorrow.
Coffee shops sell more than caffeine. They sell atmosphere, conversation, community, and human service. And I like people. I like to chat, briefly, with people if there’s no line behind me.
But for airports, hospitals, office towers, train stations, or anywhere else where people coffee 24/7 with consistent output? Yeah, this is going to be normal real soon.
REK2: Six-foot robots enter the ring
And full-size robot fighting is going international.
On the weekend we saw EngineAI T800 humanoids battling in the ring in San Francisco, including a Japanese competitor who reportedly took the win.
Organizer Cix Live described it as the first six-foot-tall robot fight in the West and the first international competition. He also said that right now these robots are basically glass cannons: they can hit, but sophisticated dodging, blocking, and lock-on capabilities are still coming. And their ability to take hits is limited.
(There was even a simultaneous double knockout.)
It seems that full-scale humanoid fighting is becoming an actual robotics sport. At least no humans will get brain damage …
Number of the day: $200 million
Finally, our number of the day is $200 million. SoftBank is investing $200 million into Swiss construction autonomy company Gravis Robotics in its Series A.
It’s the largest Series A in construction robotics history.
The goal: giving bulldozers brains.
Gravis turns the giant machines already on construction sites — excavators and other heavy equipment — into autonomous robots.
Thanks for watching or reading!
Sources
World Humanoid Robot Games and firefighting challenge
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Humanoids-flop-in-first-real-firefighting-drill-at-World-Robot-Games.1370784.0.html
https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/6087050-robots-show-off-dexterity-in-cable-connection-challenge-for-2nd-world-humanoid-robot-gamesUnitree “Superman” robot preview
https://x.com/UnitreeRobotics/status/2089240553682809175Robot barista coffee-serving record
https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/chinese-coffee-robot-breaks-record-are-baristas-next-on-the-automation-chopping-block/news-story/6d02bb79112b763fe263e6908b49b42fSix-foot robot fighting event
https://x.com/cixliv/status/2088942233169076639
https://x.com/REK/status/2088853922505175380
https://x.com/cixliv/status/2089125776344166811Gravis Robotics $200 million Series A
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2026/08/17/excavators-meet-ai-gravis-nabs-200-million-from-softbank-to-give-construction-equipment-brains/
Written by
I tell stories with data and build startups. I've raised angel and VC funds, led software companies and startups, and chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. Currently I write for Forbes, host several podcasts, and am starting up HumanoidMegaHub. I was TUNE's mobile economist and Singular's VP of Insights, built the research team at VentureBeat, and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In past lives I built websites, e-learning platforms, and mobile apps, and, a long time ago, was named to Folio's top 100 of the media industry's "most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.”