Humanoid Robots, European Robotics, Nano Swarms, AI Efficiency…

Paris‑based UMA (Universal Mechanical Assistant) emerged from stealth in December, backed by investors such as Greycroft, Relentless and AI luminaries Yann LeCun and Thomas Wolf. The founding team—veterans of Tesla’s Autopilot, Google DeepMind and Hugging Face—promises mobile and humanoid robots that can learn from human demonstrations and operate in unstructured environments, with pilot programs slated for logistics, manufacturing and healthcare as early as 2026. The launch signals Europe’s first serious bid to rival Silicon Valley and Asian giants in embodied AI. FrenchTechJournal FrenchTechJournal

French‑tech outlet reports that H Company (formerly Palantri​s France) has shifted from verification tools to deploying “android”‑style AI agents that act as autonomous software workers across B2B workflows. Leveraging low‑cost AI modules, the firm aims to embed conversational agents that can execute tasks without human prompting, positioning itself as a bridge between pure software bots and physical robotic assistants. FrenchTechJournal

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan have fabricated solar‑powered robots smaller than a grain of salt—costing a single penny each—and capable of fully autonomous operation. The breakthrough resolves a 40‑year physics bottleneck in sub‑millimeter actuation and opens pathways for nanomanufacturing, medical micro‑tools, and ultra‑dense sensor networks. popsci.com

Iconic home‑robot maker iRobot announced a Chapter 11 filing, transferring its intellectual property and product ecosystem to Chinese manufacturer Picea. The move ends a turbulent post‑Amazon‑acquisition saga and raises concerns about data privacy for millions of Roomba users now serviced by a foreign entity, underscoring the competitive pressure from low‑cost Chinese robotics firms. IEEE Spectrum

Hugging Face released the first candidate of Transformers v5, a more modular and interoperable library that now exceeds three million daily installations. The upgrade streamlines integration of large‑scale vision‑language‑action models, directly benefiting developers building embodied AI systems for manipulation and navigation tasks. InfoQ

Physicists at Multiverse Computing have adapted tensor‑network techniques to compress bloated large‑language models, cutting energy consumption while preserving accuracy. This quantum‑inspired approach could dramatically reduce the compute budget for on‑board robotic intelligence, accelerating the deployment of edge‑capable autonomous agents. sciencenews.org

Alphabet’s self‑driving subsidiary Waymo is in early fundraising discussions aimed at raising several billion dollars at a valuation exceeding $100 billion, potentially joining the exclusive “centicorn” club. The capital infusion would fund expanded sensor suites, next‑generation simulation platforms, and broader commercial rollout of autonomous ride‑hailing services. The Information The Information