A scary-looking humanoid robot with a chainsaw arm was shown in action on Japan's ANN News recently. The rail truck-mounted mech was being used by Japanese railway firm JR East to clear tree branches that had begun to impede rail tracks. The unnamed heavy machinery robot’s chainsaw and grabber arms are remotely controlled by a human in this instance. However, JR East is broadly integrating AI and robotic technologies across its operations to enhance safety, efficiency, and round-the-clock maintenance.

In the future, this robot could become autonomous with AI-based image analysis for recognizing rail obstructions that need to be addressed. While they’re at it, why not dispose of the wheeled vehicle and add some legs and a jet pack?

JR East is the largest passenger railway operator in Japan. It is famous for operating the northern Shinkansen (bullet train) routes, but also has business interests/revenue from shopping centers, hotels, smart cards, and more. The firm has a reputation for quite aggressive AI adoption, including company-wide AI tools, designing AI programs for disaster recovery, and it is even using drones equipped with AI image analysis for rail infrastructure inspections (PDF).

The source video and report (machine translation) indicate that the chainsaw mech you see has been available to JR East engineers since March, but the TV crew took the opportunity to catch a rare glimpse of this heavy machinery in action. JR East is turning to robots like this due to labor shortages. Apparently, operating a robot like this requires some skill, but so does chainsaw work at height.

There’s also been a recent shift in rail building and maintenance work to the daytime – despite some inconvenience to customers – to the benefit of workers and safety. Perhaps that’s why we now have a video of the chainsaw-wielding truck-mounted robot for the first time.

The combination of labor shortages and advances in robotics and AI makes development of this kind of rail maintenance robot seem very timely. If the metallic humanoid can be made autonomous, it could save a lot of labor and promote safety. What could go wrong?

A robotics startup just received a cease-and-desist letter from the state of California after it hosted a human vs. robot fight in San Francisco. REK founder and CEO Cix Liv shared the document on social media, with the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) telling the company to stop holding, promoting, or sponsoring these unsanctioned fights and that organizing them without a license is a misdemeanor. You can see the video of the fight that prompted the order by expanding the tweet below.

The cease-and-desist refers to the human vs. humanoid cage fight that the company sponsored on Sep. 18, 2026, where YouTuber Frankie LaPenna entered a fighting cage and faced off with three different robots. Now, it’s unclear if this was a sporting contest or a promotional stunt, but it was clearly used to give the REK robot fighting platform more publicity. After all, REK has been advertising its events as “Real pilots, real punches. Humanoid robots in brutal, full-contact combat,” and even offers private events with robots facing off in three rounds. Aside from that, a robot is already dangerous as it is, so a human facing off with one raises countless safety concerns and ethical issues. You can read the full order by expanding the tweet below.

REK is proof of life imitating art, as we’ve already seen something similar in the movie Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman’s character and his son training a discarded humanoid boxing robot, allowing it to rise through the ranks and challenge the reigning champion in a classic underdog plot intertwined with a father-and-son story. While there’s no indication that Liv was inspired by the 2011 Hollywood film, the similarity of their concepts is quite uncanny. We’ve also seen another robot startup following into the footsteps of Hollywood after it decommissioned its old robots “Terminator-style” by making them jump into a vat of molten steel.

If you’re interested in seeing these matches, REK has listed its past events on its website, where you can watch some of their replays on YouTube. The company hosts live events, although we don’t have a schedule for the remainder of the year yet; those who want to see them in the metal without waiting for a match can sponsor a private event, which starts at a cool $10,000. But if you’re interested in piloting one of these fighting robots, you can download the company’s official Real Robot Simulator, which is available on Steam and Meta Quest. Those who reach the Pro level and qualify could even get to pilot the real thing in a live event.

Regardless of whether the LaPenna vs. robot fight was a legitimate combat sports event or a promotional showcase, it just made sense for CSAC to step in. After all, the state agency regulates combat sports where at least one party is a human to ensure fairness and enforce safety, especially with lives involved. But with the way the cease-and-desist was worded, it looks as though CSAC would not have intervened if the September 18 fight had just been between robots.

The Cease and Desist Order

“PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that you and each of you are hereby ordered to cease and desist from: (1) holding, promoting, or advertising any boxing or mixed martial arts contest match, or exhibition, involving any human in the State of California without the prior approval of the California State Athletic Commission, or (2) engaging in the promotion of, or participation in, a boxing or martial arts contest, match, or exhibition involving any human without a license pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 18640,” CSAC said in its letter. “PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that Business and Professions Code section 18870 and 18878 make it a misdemeanor for a person or promoter who is required to be license by the State Athletic Commission to directly or indirectly hold, aid or abet, or attempt to hold, aid, or abet the holding of, any contest, match, or exhibition without having first obtained a license or permit therefor from the State Athletic Commission or to otherwise violate any provision of the State Athletic Commission Act.”

Figure, a U.S.-based robotics company, decommissioned its old AI robots by making them jump into a 75-ton furnace full of molten steel. According to the company, maintaining its F.02 fleet no longer made sense as its next-generation F.03 is increasing in numbers. However, it said that disassembling its older robots is difficult and time-consuming — they can’t just pass it off to another third party because it contained a lot of proprietary technology, while assigning an internal team to do it would take people off other important projects like the F.04 model that’s in development.

Company CEO Brett Adcock went on to X to help solve this conundrum, asking the social media platform for ideas for “a proper sendoff.” This is where he got an unexpected reply from the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger — “You should melt them.” And they did, as you can see in the video below.

This started an epic journey, from the Figure team training its robots to jump from the second story of its office building onto an airbag, to finding a foundry willing to accept robots with lithium batteries being dumped into a molten vat of steel. While some may think that jumping off a ledge into a vat of molten steel is an easy thing to do, it actually requires some precision, with the company even referencing stunt artists for the movement.

They eventually found a site in Finland willing to accept the robots, which gave them 24 hours and six melts to complete the process. The decommissioning spectacle turned out to be a complete success, with the F.02 AI robots functioning as intended up to the last moment, despite the extreme heat generated by the molten steel and electromagnetic fields generated by the high-voltage electricity that flowed through the three giant graphite electrodes. The resulting metal bars were eventually taken back to the U.S. and have been machined into limited-edition memorabilia commemorating the F.02.

Most of the F.02 fleet has already been melted down and recycled, with only a few remaining in storage at the company’s headquarters. This should give Figure more space for newer robot models without having to worry about its proprietary technology falling into the hands of the competition. The decommissioning process has also given us a real-life Terminator-style ending, with one F.02 robot even filmed holding a thumbs-up sign as it sinks into molten metal. Let’s just hope that we don’t get a Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines sequel to this wild ending for the F.02.

Two Chinese humanoid robots just beat the record of the world’s fastest human in the 100-meter dash. According to Reuters, Tiangong Ultra achieved a record time of 9.39 seconds in the race, while Honor’s Lightning came in at a close second, with a time of 9.47 seconds. These are 0.19 and 0.11 seconds faster than Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second record, which he set in 2009 at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany. This gives the Tiangong Ultra an average speed of 23.83 mph or 38.34 kph, which is just marginally faster than Bolt’s 23.35 mph or 37.58 kph. The robots set the records at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, which has been held annually starting last year.

It may seem odd that we’re celebrating a robot speed record when the world’s fastest quarter mile is just 3.22 seconds, but we must remember that these are autonomously running bipedal robots. This “form factor” is certainly more challenging to build compared to machines running on four wheels or legs. Despite that, the teams behind these machines greatly improved their projects in such a limited time. To put things into context, the Tiangong Ultra also won the 100-meter race last year, but at a relative snail’s pace of 21.50 seconds. By comparison, Donald Lippincott set the first 100-meter world record in 1912 with a time of 10.6 seconds at the Stockholm Olympics. That means that it only took the machines one year to cut their time by more than 12 seconds, but it took humans nearly 100 years to shave the world record by a little over a second.

While these machines are certainly fast, with the Lightning reportedly achieving a 9.32-second unofficial time during practice runs, they still lack the finesse of human runners like Bolt. A few meters after these robots crossed the finish line, they slammed directly onto a foam pad, with the winning Ultra redirecting itself towards the right off the camera frame while the Lightning seemingly lost control and eventually fell helplessly towards the left. A third robot, which was a couple of seconds behind the faster two units, attempted to slow down by sliding forward before it crumpled itself on the massive cushion. They probably need to teach themselves how to end a race gracefully, much like how Nvidia’s AI robots taught themselves how to install GPUs on mobos.

Aside from this 100-meter dash, there are 51 other competitions during this five-day event, including boxing, football, dancing, and industrial-task contests. Reuters reports that 2,056 robots across 666 teams have registered for the games, with representatives from 16 countries from every corner of the world. These robots might not yet be ready for at-scale deployments in industrial, commercial, or residential uses, but events like this show that they’re beginning to become more than capable of doing many different things. But as for the two fastest robots, it’s unlikely that they’ll become available in the U.S. because of the FCC’s ban on foreign-made robots.

A Qualcomm exec suffered from one of the most disastrous tech demos we’ve ever seen live on stage at Computex 2026 this summer. In what should have been a wow moment during a press event in Taipei, Qualcomm hardware partner NEURA Robotics’ 4NE-1 humanoid robot quickly shifted gears from being a technical tour de force to a crashing mechanical shambles.

Robot powered by Qualcomm’s new AI chip dies mid-presentation from r/singularity

We see that the 4NE-1 humanoid robot is powered by Qualcomm’s Dragonwing IQ10 robotics reference design (RRD), claimed to be capable of 700 TOPS. But even before the robot’s spectacular malfunction, it didn’t look particularly healthy or nimble. 4NE-1’s slow shambling walking style radiated strong Two Soups vibes.

As the robot eventually hobbled close enough to the smart-suited presenter, the on-stage human picked up a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ10 RRD from the robotically delivered platter and proudly showed it off to the attending crowd. As the applause and whoops subsided, the robot turned to face the crowd, and the presenter rolled on with his spiel.

Seconds into his script, the exec spun away to the side as the 4NE-1 humanoid robot very suddenly and noisily collapsed into a mechanoid mess. After resting in its terminal backbend for a second, one robot hand raised momentarily to make a futile gesture. Thankfully, the glass tray that had carried the Dragonwing IQ10 box onto the stage didn’t shatter.

Stage hands seemed well-prepared

While the overall feeling from watching the video is one of shock from the ambling robot’s sudden noisy collapse, many on social media have commented on how unruffled and well-prepared the stagehands seemed to be. The silent and swift action of the black-clothed helpers, first cloaking the dead robot with purple silks, then the trio carrying it away, exits stage left, making it look like this catastrophe wasn’t such a surprise to some.

As the robotic remains were eventually removed through the side doors, we hear the brave speaker who carried on regardless come to the end of his polished presentation. The crowd politely and quite loudly claps - but is most of the applause for the speech, or for the unflappable stagehands who have efficiently extracted the heap that was the 4NE-1?

This late-emerging clip from Computex 2026 rivals the Windows 98 USB plug-and-play scanner crash during Bill Gates’ presentation at Comdex. That infamous software crash event may well have prompted the creation of the USB Cart of Death.

Two decades after DARPA first started playing around with cyborg insects in its HI-MEMS program, a team of Singaporean researchers is showing off the latest accomplishment in the area. The productive researchers are proudly presenting their potent new 3D-printed variant: a remote-controlled, cyborg cockroach equipped with IR cameras that can breathe underwater for hours on end.

Although that description sounds like the start of a sci-fi or horror movie, the team led by Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University has been working with the much-hated pest for a good while, outfitting them with infrared cameras in a bid to help rescue operations by steering the roaches in disaster areas to find survivors. To be clear, as the release notes, Cyborg insects are living insects that have been retrofitted with technology. Sato's team had already demonstrated an orchestrated swarm of the little beasties in 2024, but reportedly wasn't happy with the fact that they couldn't send them through water, and went back to the drawing board to fix that.

The result is an upgraded form that went underwater for three hours in stages, at a depth of 20" (50 cm); enough for most puddles and lightly flooded areas. Quite interestingly, the roaches' speed was only lightly affected, going from 3.5" (8.75 cm) per second on land to 3.1" (7.84 cm) a second while submerged in water. Cockroaches don't swim per se, but they can paddle-float, and are fine navigating water bodies in general, and it's possible they can go deeper than in the test.

To achieve this, the animals wear a spiffy-looking bespoke 3D-printed scuba suit, complete with tubes that attach from the tank to their "nostrils," called spiracles. The tank has a sponge with both hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide, in a slow, carefully tuned reaction that outputs oxygen at a controlled rate. This choice was made to avoid the tricky task of providing a heavy, pressurized oxygen tank — though imagining a cockroach with a tiny tank backflipping into water from a tiny boat is amusing.

The cockroach is pretty much the ideal platform for this type of endeavor, as their legs are easy to control with electrical impulses, and their locomotion characteristics let them navigate almost every type of terrain, oftentimes better than many miniature robots. Their biological batteries theoretically last for weeks on end, too. One roach needs food only every few weeks, a mission-critical feature given that scientists working with miniaturization of any sort keep butting their heads against energy limitations. The IR cameras and wireless do use an actual mini battery pack, but the insects themselves can find sustenance on their own.

Sato's team aims to use swarms of submarine roaches in rescue ops, but is also looking farther on the horizon for the next challenge, namely harsher environments and extraterrestrial exploration, like the surface of Mars. After this latest result, such an endeavor seems plausible enough, considering that the cockroaches' build maxes out every survival skill, as attested by crestfallen homeowners who've had to deal with the insultingly invulnerable miniature tanks.

For starters, cockroaches can go without food or water for multiple weeks, and they function just fine in respiratory environments that would put a human to a slow death, like those with low O2 or high-CO2 concentrations. They can withstand enough radiation to microwave a human, and closing their spiracles lets them hold their breath for up to 40 minutes.

A roach's diet puts even seagulls to shame, as the list of items they can consume for nourishment is essentially "yes," including human waste. Any wound, including loss of head, doesn't bleed and just clots closed, while their immune systems let them metabolize many pollutants and pesticides. Adding insult to injury, they evolve adaptations rather quickly, and their breeding rate puts that of rabbits to shame.

If you want your own remote-controlled cockroach, there's a ready-made ride-a-roach kit you can buy, complete with a phone app. The kit is pricey but readily available, and we're fairly certain you won't have issues procuring the animal for free. Cockroaches on Mars does sound exactly like a prologue to the Terra Formars manga/anime, and that's quite the scary prospect.