Tag: robots

Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline

An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn’t consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers’ IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.

He sent it to the service center multiple times, wherein the technicians would turn it on and see nothing wrong with the vacuum. When they returned it to him, it would work for a few days and then fail to boot again. After several rounds of back-and-forth, the service center probably got tired and just stopped accepting it, saying it was out of warranty. Because of this, he decided to disassemble the thing to determine what killed it and to see if he could get it working again.

Since the A11 was a smart device, it had an AllWinner A33 SoC with a TinaLinux operating system, plus a GD32F103 microcontroller to manage its plethora of sensors, including Lidar, gyroscopes, and encoders. He created PCB connectors and wrote Python scripts to control them with a computer, presumably to test each piece individually and identify what went wrong. From there, he built a Raspberry Pi joystick to manually drive the vacuum, proving that there was nothing wrong with the hardware.

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Chinese ‘golf carts’ repurposed as remote-controlled battlefield robots by Russia 

Russian forces have converted Chinese-made all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) into remotely operated battlefield platforms. The 36th Guards Combined Arms Army of Vostok carried out this experiment, converting the Desertcross 1000-3 utility vehicles into remote-controlled battlefield systems.

The adapted systems were reported in early October 2024, with operations occurring on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine. The vehicles have been designed to reduce troop exposure by automating dangerous roles like laying fiber-optic communication cables.

The vehicles are modified using commercially available components and 3D-printed parts, enabling troops to control them remotely and minimize the risk of casualties from artillery, drones, or small-arms fire.

A safety concern

Signal troops are highly vulnerable at the front while establishing communication lines. The modified ATVs aim to mitigate this risk by helping lay fiber-optic cable through remote control. It can lay up to five kilometers of cable across varied terrain.

By deploying modified Desertcross platforms, the Russian military aims to maintain secure network connectivity while reducing frontline exposure and logistical bottlenecks.

From golf carts to battlefields

Built in China, the Dessertcross 1000-3 was never intended for war. It was positioned as a recreational off-roader and commercial utility vehicle. Manufactured by Shangdong Odes Industry, it features a 72-horsepower gasoline engine, a 50-liter fuel tank, a 916 kg mass, and a cargo capacity of around 300 kilograms.

According to Russian reports, the country purchased thousands of dessert crosses in 2023. Their affordability, availability, and adaptability have made them a cost-effective option for a military struggling to balance cost with operational necessity.

In practice, the vehicles are already being used not only for logistical roles but also during assault operations on Ukrainian positions.

According to some defense reports, some of these ATVs have been fitted with weapons like PKM machine guns, NSV or Kord heavy machine guns, and AGS-17 grenade launchers.

In some cases, units have also added anti-drone gear such as nets or cages to protect against aerial attacks.

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Explosive-Laden Robots Pour Into Gaza City: ‘More Devastating Than Airstrikes’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday, “We have poured a lot of money into this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages” amid the ongoing Gaza military operation. Importantly, he further described “the demolition” of Gaza City as “the first stage in the city’s renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.”

But how does Israel’s military plan to do this? First, as we’ve detailed before, the IDF is utilizing airstrikes involving powerful missiles hitting the bases of high-rise buildings in order to collapse them in their own footprint. But for other buildings and structures in tightly-packed urban areas, there’s increased reliance on explosive-laden robots, or something that might look straight out of Terminator 2 and Skynet.

Walla news outlet says “unprecedented” number of explosive-laden, remote-controlled vehicles are being prepared to invade Gaza City alongside the ground infantry troops.

The Israeli military commonly refers to them as “suicide APCs” – and they are capable of being driven deep into urban environments before causing huge explosions.

They’ve been able to cause ‘mega-blasts’ so powerful that in some instances they can be heard as far away as central Israel. Palestinians have described “earth-shaking” explosions, with one eyewitness recently telling Middle East Eye that “they are far more devastating than air strikes.”

Gaza’s Government Media Office has said over one hundred of these explosive robots have been used in about the past month alone. Hundreds of residential units and small business buildings have been destroyed.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor details the following on how large the explosives can get:

Each of these robots is loaded with highly explosive materials, sometimes weighing up to seven tonnes, and is directed to detonate in Jabalia al-Balad and Jabalia al-Nazla north of Gaza City; the Zeitoun, al-Sabra, al-Shuja’iyya, and al-Tuffah neighbourhoods south and east of Gaza City; as well as the al-Saftawi and Abu Iskandar areas northwest of Gaza City.

The unprecedented pace of destruction of residential neighborhoods in Gaza City using explosive-laden robots indicates Israel’s determination to wipe the city off the map. At the current rate, the rest of the city could be destroyed within two months, a timeline that may shorten further given the Israeli army’s massive firepower and the absence of any pressure to halt its crimes against Palestinians.

Often it is outdated M113 armored personnel carriers that are turned into autonomous vehicles and strapped with the large explosives. The fact that they are modified personnel carriers means that they can carry a very large payload.

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These Are The World’s Top Industrial Robotics Companies

The global industrial robotics market is on a sharp growth trajectory, projected to hit $10.2 billion in sales by 2025.

As factories automate and smart manufacturing expands, robotics play an increasingly vital role in production. By 2025, industrial robots are expected to handle nearly 60% of new installations in the automotive and electronics sectors alone.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, breaks down the market share of leading industrial robotics manufacturers.

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CIA and Mossad-linked Surveillance System Quietly Being Installed Throughout the US

Launched in 2016 in response to a Tel Aviv shooting and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Gabriel offers a suite of surveillance products for “security and safety” incidents at “so-called soft targets and communal spaces, including schools, community centers, synagogues and churches.” The company makes the lofty promise that its products “stop mass shootings.” According to a 2018 report on Gabriel published in the Jerusalem Post, there were an estimated 475,000 such “soft targets” across the U.S., meaning that “the potential market for Gabriel is huge.”

Gabriel, since its founding, has been backed by “an impressive group of leaders,” mainly “former leaders of Mossad, Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic intelligence agency], FBI and CIA.” In recent years, even more former leaders of Israeli and American intelligence agencies have found their way onto Gabriel’s advisory board and have promoted the company’s products.

While the adoption of its surveillance technology was slower than expected in the United States, that dramatically changed last year, when an “anonymous philanthropist” gave the company $1 million to begin installing its products throughout schools, houses of worship and community centers throughout the country. That same “philanthropist” has promised to recruit others to match his donation, with the ultimate goal of installing Gabriel’s system in “every single synagogue, school and campus community in the country.”

With this CIA, FBI and Mossad-backed system now being installed throughout the United States for “free,” it is worth taking a critical look at Gabriel and its products, particularly the company’s future vision for its surveillance system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, much of the company’s future vision coincides with the vision of the intelligence agencies backing it – pre-crime, robotic policing and biometric surveillance.

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NVIDIA’s new “robot brain” could reshape humanity’s future — or seal its fate

Step inside a modern fulfillment center, and you’ll witness a revolution unfolding in real time. The workers aren’t human. They’re Digit, Agility Robotics’ latest generation of humanoid machines — sleek, bipedal, and eerily fluid in their movements. They stack pallets with surgical precision, sort inventory without hesitation, and adapt to new tasks on the fly. But here’s the chilling part: their “brains” aren’t outsourced to some distant server farm. They’re embedded inside each robot, processing terabytes of data in real time, making split-second decisions, and—most alarmingly—learning as they go.

This isn’t a dystopian screenplay. It’s happening now. And the architect of this seismic shift? Nvidia’s Jetson Thor, a $3,500 desktop-sized supercomputer that doesn’t just accelerate artificial intelligence — it gives it a body.

Key points:

  • Nvidia’s Jetson Thor, a $3,499 “robot brain,” delivers 7.5x the AI compute power of its predecessor, enabling real-time reasoning in humanoid robots like Agility’s Digit and Boston Dynamics’ Atlas.
  • The chip runs generative AI models locally, reducing reliance on cloud computing and allowing robots to process complex tasks—from warehouse logistics to surgical assistance—instantly.
  • Major players like Amazon, Meta, and Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute are already integrating Thor into their systems, with Nvidia positioning robotics as its next trillion-dollar growth market after AI.
  • While Nvidia insists this is about augmenting human work, critics warn it could accelerate job displacement, AI autonomy, and even military applications — all while centralizing control in the hands of a few tech giants.
  • The Blackwell-powered Thor is just the beginning. Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Thor, a variant for autonomous vehicles, is also launching, hinting at a future where AI doesn’t just assist us—it replaces us.

The birth of the physical AI: When code gets a body

For decades, artificial intelligence has been confined to the digital realm — a ghost in the machine, answering questions, generating images, even writing news articles (yes, the irony isn’t lost on us). But AI has always had one glaring limitation: it couldn’t do anything. It could suggest, predict, and simulate, but it couldn’t act. That’s changing.

Jetson Thor is Nvidia’s answer to the physical AI revolution, a term the company uses to describe machines that don’t just process the world but interact with it. Think of it as the difference between a chess computer and a robot that can pick up a chess piece, move it, and then explain its strategy to you in real time. That’s the kind of fluid, multi-modal intelligence Thor enables.

At the heart of this leap is Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, the same tech powering its latest AI data center chips. Blackwell isn’t just faster; it’s designed for concurrent processing, meaning a robot can run vision models, language models, and motor control algorithms all at once without slowing down. Previous generations of robotics chips, like Nvidia’s own Jetson Orin, could handle one or two of these tasks at a time. Thor does it all — simultaneously.

“This is the first time we’ve had a platform that can truly support agentic AI in a physical form,” said Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s vice president of robotics and edge AI, in a call with reporters. “We’re not just talking about robots that follow pre-programmed paths. We’re talking about machines that can adapt, learn, and make decisions in real-world environments.”

Most advanced AI today relies on remote servers to crunch data. Thor changes that by bringing server-level compute directly into the robot. That means lower latency, better security, and — critically — no need for a constant internet connection. A warehouse robot powered by Thor could keep working even if the Wi-Fi goes down. A military drone could operate in a warzone without relying on a potentially hackable data link.

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Automating Pregnancy through Robot Surrogates

The most human of experiences has been automated as China unveiled a new AI robot that is capable of carrying a fetus to full term, replicating the entire pregnancy process from conception to birth. Kaiwa Technology in Guangzhou plans to release these robots in 2026 for $1,400, or a small fraction of what couples pay for surrogates. Has science gone to far in the quest to play God?

These “pregnancy robots” are vastly different from traditional incubators that are utilized for premature or at-risk newborns. The fetus develops within the robot’s artificial womb in synthetic amniotic fluid. Scientists have developed artificial placentas equipped with a tube system operated by AI, which can feed the baby oxygen and nutrients during gestation. Humans have never procreated through an artificial womb nor has a robot replicated the whole gestation process.

Surrogacy was deemed unethical, and the Chinese government banned the practice in 2001. The government prohibited the trade of ova, sperm, embryos, and other related reproductive items. If not outright banned, most nations have a complicated legal framework surrounding surrogacy and parental rights. The Chinese government believes gestational surrogacy exploits women in poverty, and the law recognizes the birthing mother as the legal mother. Still, repealing the one-child policy and infertility have caused a spike in interest.

Some believe this technology will be a breakthrough for couples suffering from infertility. Outside China, same-sex couples could also benefit from AI-driven surrogacy that costs a fraction of the price. Women may not be exploited for their wombs, but what about the babies born to non-human figures?

The mother-child relationship is the genesis of life and creation. The age-old debate of nature v nurture always concludes that both are essential. Scientists conducted a number of unethical studies during the last World War to see what would happen if a baby were deprived of nurture. Naturally, these studies could never be replicated again.

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China’s Industrial Robots are Changing Manufacturing

China is leading the world in industrial robots or programmable machines that are pioneering fast and cost-effective manufacturing. China currently holds over 50% of the world market share in industrial robots capable of assembly, production line handling, service tasks, machine feeding, palletizing, packaging, and more. Automation is fueling Chinese manufacturing in every sector from automotives to electronics. The advancement of AI will soon provide China with a cutting-edge ability to usher in a new era of humanoid robots that will become a portion of the future workforce.

China installed around 290,000 new industrial robots in 2024, nearly twice as many as the European Union, the United States, and Japan combined. Around 86,000 industrial robots went onto the market across the EU last year, while Japan implemented 43,000 and the US around 34,000. The market share of industrial robots was expected to surpass 2.1 million in 2024, valued at around $9.4 billion USD.

Chinese manufacturers are bypassing rising labor costs and an aging workforce through the use of robots. Factories are scaling their operations to turn China into the world’s manufacturing base. China has the ability to produce these robots at one-third the cost of other nations as it produces 90% of the components required for AI industrial robots. However, China is heavily reliant on exports for the remaining 10% of key components. Foreign robot makers like FANUC, ABB, and Yaskawa have major production facilities in China, facilitating knowledge transfer to Chinese firms.

Will robots and AI replace human workers? They’ve already begun to do so. Some estimates believe that automation has replaced 1.7 million workers in China over the past 25 years. Around 80% to 90% of low-skilled labor that only requires simple or repetitive tasks has been assigned to robots. In auto manufacturing, for example, robots have been trained to perform 70% of assembly from welding to painting. Estimates believe that around 35.8% of China’s entire workforce will be automated by 2049, replacing 278 million Chinese workers.

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China Unveils World’s First Pregnancy-Simulating Humanoid Robot

Chinese researchers are developing the world’s first humanoid robot capable of simulating pregnancy, with a prototype expected to launch in 2026.

The device, created by Guangzhou-based Kaiwa Technology, features an artificial womb integrated into a robotic abdominal module to replicate the full gestation.

The artificial womb is an advanced incubation pod that mimics the conditions of a uterus and is designed to handle the full human pregnancy cycle, from conception to birth.

Priced below 100,000 yuan, or about $14,000, the robot aims to assist infertile couples and individuals who prefer to avoid biological pregnancy, especially young women who wish to have children.

Kaiwa Technology founder Zhang Qifeng, who earned his PhD from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University in 2014, announced the project at the 2025 World Robot Conference in Beijing.

The company, established in 2015, has previously produced service and reception robots.

Zhang described the technology as mature, noting that the artificial womb would use amniotic fluid and nutrient hoses to support fetal growth.

The robot builds on existing artificial womb research, including a 2017 experiment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where premature lambs grew in a “biobag” filled with synthetic amniotic fluid.

In that study, published in Nature Communications, lambs developed normally over four weeks with nutrients supplied via umbilical cord tubes.

However, experts emphasize that replicating human pregnancy involves complex hormonal and immune interactions not yet fully achievable. Details on how Kaiwa Technology will surmount these challenges is not available yet.

News of the development trended on Weibo, garnering over 100 million views.

Supporters highlighted potential benefits for women’s liberation from pregnancy burdens and new options for infertility treatment.

Critics raised concerns about ethical issues, including fetal-maternal bonding and the sourcing of eggs and sperm.

Infertility rates in China have risen from 11.9% in 2007 to 18% in 2020, according to a report in The Lancet.

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Beijing’s first World Humanoid Robot Games open with hip-hop and martial arts

Humanoid robots danced hip-hop, performed martial arts and played keyboard, guitar and drums at the opening ceremony of the first World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Thursday evening.

The competition begins Friday with more than 500 humanoid robots in 280 teams from 16 countries, including the U.S., Germany and Japan, competing in sports including soccer, running and boxing. The event comes as China has stepped up efforts to develop humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence.

During the opening ceremony, the robots demonstrated soccer and boxing among other sports, with some cheering and backflipping as if at a real sports event.

One robot soccer player scored a goal after a few tries, causing the robot goalkeeper to fall to the ground. Another player fell but stood up unassisted.

The robots also modeled fashionable hats and clothes alongside human models. In one mishap, a robot model fell and had to be carried off the stage by two human beings.

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