Philip Fung
AI and robotics practitioner/advisor; shares hands‑on autonomous robotics builds, learning resources, and industry insights.
Sim‑trained Boston Dynamics Robot Masters Fridge Manipulation
Boston Dynamics robot moving a fridge. This is particularly impressive because it is a manipulation (vs locomotion) task trained primarily in simulation (vs live teleop data). These guys are still pushing the industry envelope despite now competing with 100s of humanoid startups. Lots of fun details: https://bostondynamics.com/blog/training-a-humanoid-robot-for-hard-work/
Chinese Parents Use Unique Phrases, Not “I Love You
Chinese parents: What do you say to kids when dropping them at school? (Since there is no Chinese equivalent to 'I love you' 😊)
Cable‑Driven Robot Cleans Clutter Efficiently, Saves Energy
So sick—this guy built a cable-driven robot for his room to pick up clutter. Cable-driven robots are unique because they can move anywhere in a room efficiently, using much less energy than traditional robots with heavy limbs. The downside, of...
Co‑evolving Robot Bodies and Brains via Leader‑Follower Game
ICLR 2026: This paper uses a "Leader-Follower" game to design robots. The Leader evolves the robot's body (e.g. adding limbs & joints) while predicting how the Follower (the brain) will learn to move it. This teamwork creates specialized robots—like creatures...
Robots Beat Humans in Sport, Prompting Societal Questions
For the first time, a robot has defeated skilled humans in a physical sport. I wonder what the societal implications of superior robotic athletes will be.
Bacterial Flagellar Motor Revealed as Proton-Powered Electric Engine
After 50 years, the flagellar motor used by bacteria is finally understood. It's a true electric motor that funnels and unbinds protons to produce torque. beautifully explained by Pulizter winner Natalie Wolchover: https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-physical-life-force-turns-biologys-wheels-20260420/
27 Physical AI Startups Secure $50M+ Funding, Hiring
list of 27 physical AI startups which raised > $50M in Q1 2026 , all likely hiring. Credit: Ivan Landabaso's "Startup Riders" website.
Gigantic Robotic Hand L
I visited RealHand office today in Palo Alto - this hand was *gigantic* and showed nice dexterity during teleop. Hands can lift 50kg and range from $1.5k - $20k depending on complexity and sensors. https://realhand.com
Advantage Reward Model Boosts Towel‑Folding Success to 99.4%
New paper achieves 99.4% success rate on bimanual towel-folding using a new Advantage Reward Model (ARM), an upgrade of SARM. Key Innovation: Swaps strict monotonic progress for a simple relative advantage signal (-1, 0, +1). This handles messy demos and DAgger...
Robotic Hand Gets Skin‑Like Cover, Warmcore Tech
wrapping a robotic hand in skin, where have I seen this before Co: Warmcore Tech
Swap Terminal for Kanban: A Game‑Changing Upgrade
Cline got rid of the terminal and replaced it with Kanban. This is sooo much better - worth trying. (80% sure this will be copied by every other co)
Open-Source DIY Guide to Building mRNA Vaccines
Inspired by the man who built a personalized cancer vaccine for his dog, I’ve written an open-source guide to DIY mRNA vaccine production: philfung.github.io/openvaxx Drawing on my background in running lab startups, the guide covers the entire process - from sequencing...
Booster K1: Rugged, Balanced Robot at Quarter Price
Loving the Booster K1 robot 🤖 It moves + balances very well and is super rugged (it’s survived the bushes already). Also has a fully open API to train and upload your own policies - all at << 1/4 cost...
AI Uncovers Drug for Dog's Cancer, Pharma blocksAI Uncovers Drug for Dog's Cancer,
Dog diagnosed with cancer → Owner asks ChatGPT for solution → gives tumor sample to University to be DNA sequenced → Owner puts sequence through AlphaFold program to identify targetable protein and finds a helpful drug → asks drug company...
Gemini Handles 90% of OpenClaw Tasks
90% of OpenClaw can be done in Gemini: * Calendar Assistant: Talk to Gemini to schedule events in Google Calendar (same for Gmail, Docs, etc) * Automation/Cron: Use Gemini "Scheduled Actions"