Robotics Special: UCLA engineers unveil the PhoneBot

Welcome back, Superhuman. Researchers at UCLA are taking the “Android” in Android phones a little too seriously. The team bolted a pair of legs onto a smartphone and turned it into a bipedal robot. Meanwhile, a robotic exoskeleton has helped a paraplegic woman take her first steps in over a decade — a moving moment that’s going viral on socials.

1. New robot design uses your old, dusty phone for brains: It’s one of the strangest robot designs we’ve seen in a while, hands down. UCLA scientists have unveiled PhoneBot, a 19-inch walking robot that uses an Android phone as its torso, tapping its camera, motion sensors, and processor to see, balance, and move. Beyond the phone, parts cost about $400, presenting enthusiasts with an affordable entry point into robotics. You can see the unique (and innovative) design in action here.

2. Paraplegic woman uses robotic exoskeleton to walk after 10 years: Left paralyzed at 16 in a car accident, Jessica Tawil hadn’t stood on her own two feet in a decade. Now, the Lebanese influencer has dropped a recording of herself taking assisted steps with a robotic exoskeleton, in a wholesome video that’s blowing up on social media. The device mechanically supports her movement and helps her walk upright — a sign that assistive robotics is finally making its way into everyday life. See the emotional moment here.

3. Rivian wants to put third-party AI agents inside its cars: CEO RJ Scaringe says that future vehicles could run assistants from companies such as Anthropic, allowing conversations and tasks to continue seamlessly between phones, computers, and the road. Rivian’s software would route simple commands locally and more complex requests to cloud models, potentially turning the car into another context-aware surface for personal AI.

Traditional customer surveys are slow, expensive, and oftentimes ignored. 

How do orgs like Adobe and PayPal do B2B research? With G2 AI Custom Research. Using voice agents to interview 100+ buyers/day, it delivers deeper insights 5x faster — with a 30% higher response rate.

See the demo and know your customers inside and out.

🚦 Stop & Go: DEEP Robotics has deployed its DR02 humanoids at busy intersections in China, where they direct traffic, flag riders without helmets, and nudge pedestrians back behind stop lines. It’s still a trial, but handing robots routine duties could free human officers to focus on accidents and enforcement. See the new “traffic officers” in action here.

🎯 Right on Target: Treating a heart infection usually means weeks of IV antibiotics that often fail. Now, Johns Hopkins engineers have unveiled magnet-powered robots about the size of a grain of rice. Steered outside the body, one robot latches onto the infection while a second docks with it to release medicine. It could potentially offer a minimally invasive fix for hard-to-reach diseases, including cancer.

🦟 Bug Bot: Dengue cases more than doubled worldwide in a single year, hitting a record 14.6M in 2024. Now, startup Mosqitter is fighting back with chemical-free, AI-powered traps that lure female mosquitoes using heat, scent, and light, mimicking a human. It uses computer vision to identify which species each trap catches, potentially helping health agencies spot rising disease risks before outbreaks spread.

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

Sembly is the AI meeting agent that runs all meeting workflow stages:

Trusted by 20,000 teams. SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant.

Book a demo

These shoes put your walk on wheels.

Imagine walking at a jogger’s pace without breaking a sweat. Shift Robotics just dropped Moonwalkers Dusk, motorized wheels that strap over your shoes and add power to each step, helping you walk at more than double a typical walking pace at a fraction of the effort. Its AI learns your stride, and foot gestures switch modes without a phone. You can see them in action here.

You can check it out here.

Good luck sneaking past these robot guards!

A nighttime video of robot dogs patrolling an apartment complex in Atlanta and talking to residents has racked up nearly 2M views on social media. The robot belongs to Undaunted, a startup whose human-operated robots respond when on-site cameras spot trouble, using thermal cameras, sirens, and two-way audio. At one property, the company claims burglaries disappeared entirely.

You’re the reason our team spends hundreds of hours every week researching and writing this email. Please let us know what you thought of today’s email to help us create better emails for you.

Until next time,

Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team