Unitree founder says more stable robots have made fights less entertaining

Unitree founder says robot fights have become less entertaining

Unitree founder Wang Xingxing said on Nov. 5 that robot fights are less entertaining than they were a year earlier because the machines have become more stable. Last year, he said, robots were less steady and their clashes had more dramatic poses; now they remain upright through much more of the action.

Wang showed a recent fight scene and said the robots can perform more than a dozen kinds of moves, with training theoretically capable of producing hundreds or thousands of actions and combinations. He also said Unitree’s recently released “Superman” robot, with legs 0.85 meters long, has reached a jump height of about 3 meters and a speed of 12.685 meters per second.

MIT students rebuild combat robots after defeats

MIT’s Combat Robotics Club is upgrading its ARES and KRATOS fighting robots while developing a new generation of machines. ARES, a 30-pound robot with a vertical spinning weapon, placed second at an April competition and third in October after losing twice at the 2025 National Havoc Robot League World Championships.

The losses exposed weaknesses in ARES’s armor against similar weapons, and the team is using those lessons to improve its protection. The club also welcomed 54 new members, who are building smaller combat robots to gain engineering and manufacturing experience.

Headless robot keeps moving after kick in China fight

A humanoid robot continued moving and attempting to fight after an opponent kicked off its head during a bout between two EngineAI T800 robots in Shenzhen on July 16. The match took place at the opening event of the Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend tournament, and video of the incident circulated on X.

The Sunday Guardian reported that the T800’s core control unit is housed in its torso, while its head contains cameras and other sensing equipment. The robot’s continued movement did not mean it could operate indefinitely without its head or sensing systems.

URKL qualifier results and group-stage date remain unconfirmed

Roboxing reported on Nov. 4 that it could not confirm whether URKL’s qualifier had taken place, identify any of the 16 teams expected to advance, or find a published group-stage date. Posts claiming the qualifier ran on Oct. 24 and 25 did not cite an official announcement, so Roboxing did not treat them as confirmation.

The tournament’s opening night took place in Shenzhen on July 16, with Matador beating White Eagle 3-2 over five rounds, according to two independent Chinese outlets cited by Roboxing. Economic Information Daily reported that more than 200 teams registered and 32 advanced to the qualifier.

REK says simulator champions piloted real robots at REK 2

REK said in a Sept. 14 video description that simulator champions Suslike and Andy were flown to San Francisco to pilot real robots against each other at REK 2. Roboxing reported the description but said it had not watched the video and could not verify its $60,000 title claim.

The account does not line up clearly with earlier reporting cited by Roboxing, which said Hiroyuki Osone beat SUSLIKE in the REK 2 final on Aug. 15. Roboxing said it had not seen the bout described by REK and could not establish whether Andy was another name for a pilot already reported or whether the accounts referred to different bouts.

YouTuber uses retired BattleBot to wreck an office

YouTuber William Osman used the BattleBots robot Red Devil to help a friend destroy an office, according to Interesting Engineering. The robot, which has a grappling arm and saw blade, competed in the second season of ABC’s BattleBots reboot.

Osman bought a previous version of Red Devil in September 2020 and said he would feature it in videos rather than compete with it. The report described the office-destruction video as part of the robot’s retirement.

Avatar robots expand access to sports, report says

A report by Asahi Shimbun on MSN described digital technology expanding participation in sports for people with and without disabilities. It cited avatar robots being used to play boccia and people with visual impairments taking part in fighting games.

The report marked five years since the Tokyo Paralympics and described the examples as part of how technology has widened access to sports.