Robotics Special: Gatsby unveils humanoid home cleaning service

Welcome back, Superhuman. We Uber rides. We Uber food. Now, a San Francisco-based startup lets you book a humanoid robot like an Uber to clean your home in the first robotic home cleaning service of its kind. Meanwhile, a four-armed humanoid robot promises to carry out routine astronaut maintenance tasks in space, where human labor is expensive, slow, and increasingly dangerous.

1. The era of humanoid home cleaning services has begun: San Francisco startup Gatsby has made history by sending a humanoid robot to clean a paying US customer's apartment. Booked through an iOS app, the service costs a flat $150 per clean, undercutting human cleaners who typically charge $150–$300. While rivals like Tesla and 1X plan to sell robots, Gatsby is going a different way and building an Uber-like rental model, with plans to expand to more US cities "soon". Check the service out here.

2. This four-armed humanoid robot is built for life in orbit: ETH Zurich has unveiled HELIOS, a four-armed humanoid designed exclusively for in-orbit missions. Designed for satellite servicing and space station maintenance, HELIOS uses a cable-driven system to stay lightweight and dexterous in zero gravity. With astronaut labor costing roughly $140K per hour, the startup sees a clear market in offloading routine maintenance to machines. You can watch the unique design in action here.

3. Unitree's humanoid robot now takes orders by voice: In a massive breakthrough, Unitree just showed off its G1 humanoid executing live voice commands in real time, including warm-ups, push-ups, dance moves, and emotional comfort, all generated by AI on the spot. Unlike scripted robot demos, the move chains speech recognition, intent parsing, and motion planning in a single live loop. It's an early glimpse at a future where dealing with humanoids is as natural as talking to a person. See the viral demo here.

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⚙ Work Horse: Figure AI's F.03 robots have completed 200 hours sorting packages in one of the most impressive real-world robotics tests ever recorded. The robot processed nearly 250K items at near-human speed with zero failures. For an industry where reliability is a major bottleneck, this could potentially be the proof of concept that changes the conversation. Catch the highlights of the historic livestream here.

✂ Snip Snip: AI-powered haircut kiosks are reportedly popping up in malls across Chinese cities, offering robotic trims in promotional pilots. Customers step into compact booths where the system scans their head, then robotic arms execute the cut with millimeter precision in minutes. The rollout is part of China's broader push to automate service industries amid labor shortages. See it in action here.

🐝 Pests Bee-ware: Bees, which pollinate roughly 75% of the crops we eat, are dying at alarming rates. Now, a community in Florida has deployed the BeeHome, a robotic beehive that monitors queen health, detects infestations, and treats threats without human intervention. When varroa mites are detected, the system raises internal hive temperature enough to kill the parasites, achieving a 70% reduction in colony collapse.

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

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This tiny desk robot has more personality than some of your coworkers.

EgoScience's Cubie is a cube-shaped work companion that reacts to sound and touch, expresses emotions through animated eyes, and integrates ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, all in a 3.5-inch frame. Unlike most AI gadgets, it has no camera and can run entirely on-device, making it one of the more privacy-conscious options in the space. Watch it roll around the desk here.

You can check it out here.

King of Pop, meet king of flops.

A humanoid robot's live Billie Jean performance was going surprisingly well, impressing a live Shenzhen crowd, when it backed into a short staircase, lost balance, and collapsed into what one viewer described as a "lifeless clanker carcass". The clip has racked up millions of views — a timely reminder that humanoid robots can moonwalk, but stairs are still their greatest nemesis.

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