Ready For Tomorrow #74

In partnership with

Hey there!

Summer’s in full swing, and last week in Poland was so hot that for the first time in ages I gave up on a walk and turned back home…
Still, it was cooler than the past week of robotics news.

Let’s dive into the weekly roundup!

The First Humanoid Robot Olympics: Awkward but Unmissable

Last week the very first humanoid robot Olympics took place. Of course, in China. The Chinese are really pushing propaganda hard and highlighting their technological war with the US. At the starting line, there were 280 teams with over 500 humanoid robots. They competed in events like running, kickboxing, dancing, and athletics.

And well… typical China. Most of the robots were controlled with a gamepad, but some actually managed on their own. One poor guy at the opening ceremony decided to faint and collapsed flat on the ground in front of everyone. Sure, it’s a mix of propaganda and clumsiness, but somehow no one can take their eyes off them. And we can safely say that humanoids are at their absolute worst right now, because in the future they’ll never be this awkward again.

Exactly.

So let’s enjoy it while we can…

It’s the perfect time to make fun of them ;)

Time to change compliance forever.

We’re thrilled to announce our $32M Series A at a $300M valuation, led by Insight Partners!

Delve is shaping the future of GRC with an AI-native approach that cuts busywork and saves teams hundreds of hours. Startups like Lovable, Bland, and Browser trust our AI to get compliant—fast.

To celebrate, we’re giving back with 3 limited-time offers:

• $15,000 referral bonus if you refer a founding engineer we hire

• $2,000 off compliance setup for new customers – claim here

• A custom Delve doormat for anyone who reposts + comments on our LinkedIn post (while supplies last!)

Thank you for your support—this is just the beginning.

👉️ Get started with Delve

Book your demo now

Figure’s F0.2 Takes on the Laundry Pile

Ladies and gentlemen, shock and disbelief. Buuut of course, I wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t actually something wow!

Here’s the thing: this robot doesn’t just fold a T-shirt in some carefully prepared lab conditions. It folds laundry on tables of different heights, switching from one to another without any reprogramming, extra parameters, or retraining.

That means the robot is not just repeating a memorized motion. It is perceiving the environment, adapting its arm trajectory in real time, and still getting the job done.

Why is that cool? Because for humanoids, handling soft, flexible objects like clothes has always been a nightmare. Unlike rigid parts on a factory line, laundry is messy, inconsistent, and unpredictable. Yet here the robot figures it out autonomously.

Impressive, right?

No? See the point above.

This is the worst moment in humanoid robot history. In the future, it will never be this easy to laugh at them ;P

Staubli Attacks the Bakery!

As announced, at this year’s IBIE in Las Vegas, the biggest grain and bakery industry event in the US, Staubli will showcase how their food-grade robots can take over quality control. Bread, rolls, or buns, no defect will sneak by. Robots will grab, scan, and if something is off, snip! Off to recycling. Breadcrumbs await.

And here is my little WTF moment: how can a roll be bad? What kind of defects are we talking about here? If it is a little crooked, does it go straight in the trash? Maybe I am stuck in a different era, but for me bread has emotional value. A curve or a crack does not change the fact that a roll is still a roll.

Do not get me wrong, Staubli robots are top tier, especially when it comes to hygiene and production standards. But for heaven’s sake, let the rolls be rolls. Not everything needs to look like it was drawn with a ruler.

Nvidia Opens the Door to Smarter Robot Learning

Nvidia has launched its new Cosmos World Models and this really smells like a breakthrough. What is it about? Until now, robots had to learn mostly from camera and sensor data, but now they get the chance to train in perfectly generated three-dimensional scenes. Cosmos Transfer-2 makes it possible to build such worlds, and Cosmos Reason adds something more, the ability to analyze, understand and plan actions, which has long been the Achilles’ heel of many systems.

In practice this means that the robot not only knows it has to move a box, but also understands the context: why it is doing it, what will happen next and how to plan it best. It is a bit like the difference between a child learning to walk by trial and error, and an athlete who first trains in a simulator and then steps onto the field already ready to play. Nvidia is also adding its new servers and cloud, making the whole thing a complete package for training robots seriously.

Is this a gamechanger? Everything suggests yes, because if machines can learn faster and safer, the road from the lab to a real factory, warehouse or street will be much shorter.

From Trade Shows to Reality: The Long Road for Humanoids

I guess I could work at the IFR. Their latest research shows that humanoids are not going to take over the world anytime soon. They are too expensive, their batteries do not last long, and for now they will be more of an add-on than a real replacement for existing robots. It is also clear that every region looks at them differently. In China the government is pushing them forward, in Japan they are seen more as companions for care, while in Europe and the US the focus is on how they can support industry.

I have been saying for a long time that a bit of professional skepticism never hurt anyone. It is worth keeping an eye on this field, because technology is developing at a cosmic pace, but for heaven’s sake, let us not lose our heads. For many years to come we will still be the ones throwing dirty socks into the laundry basket.

Do not get me wrong, humanoids are an impressive piece of technology and we will surely see more of them in factories, warehouses or in simple support tasks. But between flashy trade show demos and real mass adoption there is still a whole highway of bumps. For now the humanoid is more of a symbol of where we are headed than a ready solution to all the world’s problems.

That’s it for this edition of Ready For Tomorrow.

Now take two sips of coffee, one more deep breath, and keep fighting, my friend. Because as you can see, robots are cool, but there is still a long way to go before they do all the work for us!