Robotics Special: Honor finally unveils the Robot Phone

Welcome back, Superhuman. Just when it felt like the smartphone industry had run out of fresh ideas, Honor showed up with a curveball. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week, the Chinese company finally unveiled its much-hyped Robot Phone —arguably one of the strangest, smartest concepts on the show floor. Lenovo wasn’t too far behind, revealing a couple of concept robots designed to lend you a hand at work.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

1. Honor steals the show at MWC with world's first robot phone: The Chinese smartphone giant has finally given us the first functional demo of the Robot Phone, built around what it calls the smallest 4DoF gimbal system in the industry. The phone packs a 200MP sensor which tracks you during video calls, rotates for cinematic Spinshot footage, reacts to its surroundings, and holds real conversations. It’s expected to hit shelves in China later this year. You can watch the unique phone in action here.

2. Lenovo debuts concept robots that could work alongside you: Lenovo has unveiled the AI Workmate, a robotic arm concept that can scan your documents for you, project presentations onto nearby walls, and respond to voice commands and physical gestures via local AI processing. The company also debuted the Magic Bay Tiko, an anthropomorphic cloud that clips to your laptop screen, monitors your screen time, and nudges you to take breaks. Watch the concepts in action here.

3. Tesla is closing in on Elon Musk's 10 billion-mile FSD target: After logging a billion miles in the first 50 days of this year, Tesla's Full Self-Driving system has finally surpassed 8B cumulative miles, putting Elon Musk's long-promised 10 billion-mile threshold to reach unsupervised autonomy within reach this year. The milestone is remarkable given FSD sat at just 6M miles five years ago. But with the system still rated Level 2, the road to true self-driving is still some time away.

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

🐭 Particle Patrol: Scientists are testing a mouse-sized robot to autonomously inspect CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, a job extremely challenging for humans due to -271°C temperatures and vacuum-sealed beamlines. The robot crawls through narrow pipes and uses AI to detect deformities in real-time imagery, solving a maintenance nightmare that's plagued physicists for years.

🌙 Moon Miner: A robotic excavator designed to build lunar landing pads and roads just passed its first field test, simulating the movement of 94kg of sand in 3.5 minutes. The machine tackles a critical problem: spacecraft landings kick up razor-sharp regolith clouds that shred equipment, so scientists are developing tools to melt lunar dust into solid sintered surfaces before missions arrive. Watch footage of the groundbreaking feat here.

🩺 Distance Doctor: A London-based surgeon removed a prostate gland from a patient 1,500 miles away in Gibraltar using a teleoperated robot via fiber optics with only 0.06 seconds of lag. The breakthrough could potentially spare patients in remote areas from joining NHS waiting lists and traveling for weeks for complex procedures.

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Everything else you need to know this week

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

• AgiBot has launched a robot-leasing platform that allows businesses to rent robots for short gigs, with premium packages costing up to $14,227 per day.

• Chicago has banned autonomous sidewalk delivery robots after residents raised concerns that the robots were blocking walkways and creating safety issues.

• Anduril is reportedly seeking a $60B valuation in a new multibillion-dollar funding round, potentially doubling its value a year after its $30B funding round.

• BMW is piloting wheeled humanoid robots from Hexagon at its plant in Leipzig, Germany, to handle high-voltage battery and component workflows.

• Neura Robotics is reportedly set to pick up €1B in new funding as investors pour capital into humanoid robots.

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ROBOT OF THE WEEK

A robot that caught our eye this week

An AI-powered butler that manages your entire life.

Autonomy has launched NX1, an autonomous hub that monitors your email, finances, health data, calendars, and home cameras. The device processes upcoming events, spending patterns, and even calorie counts from meal photos. The product will start shipping to users this month.

You can check it out here.

ROBO REEL

Watch: The first look at Asimov’s viral humanoid robot that you can build at home

What if robotics worked like Ikea furniture? Singapore-based startup Asimov is bringing the same DIY energy to the first open-source bipedal humanoid robot.

You can build at home for the price of a used car. It comes with assembly manuals, GitHub files, and a Discord support channel. For a field dominated by secretive corporate labs charging multiple figures for a robot, this could be the Raspberry Pi moment for humanoid robotics.

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Until next time,

Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team