🔓 Remix Reality Insider: Service Robots That Show Their Work

🔓 Remix Reality Insider: Service Robots That Show Their Work
Source: Midjourney - generated by AI

Your premium drop on the systems, machines, and forces reshaping reality.

🛰️ The Signal

This week’s defining shift.

Service robots are on the job and delivering real results.

They’re proving their value through clear performance. The systems making progress today are the ones delivering measurable, repeatable gains in places where consistency matters. Companies are sharing hard numbers that point to real operational impact across kitchens, stores, and construction sites.

This week’s news surfaced signals like these:

  • Appetronix’s robotic kitchen systems handled high airport volume during their Donatos rollout and kept food quality consistent. The company raised more than $10 million to expand into more venues and cuisines.
  • Simbe Robotics celebrated 10 years of its Tally robot, which has scanned 18 billion price tags and helped instantly correct 42% of 600 million shelf gaps. Retailers who use the system report 98% on-shelf availability and over 50 staff hours returned weekly.
  • Partner Robotics’ construction robots lay tiles five to six times faster than manual work and scribe with two millimeter accuracy. The systems have completed nearly 100,000 square meters of construction tasks since mid-2025.

Why this matters: Clear, measurable results are what will move the service robotics industry forward. When companies show improvements in output, accuracy, and consistency, it gives customers the confidence to adopt these systems at scale.


🧠 Reality Decoded

Your premium deep dive.

A machine fails before it breaks. A bridge is reinforced before a crack appears. A factory fixes a problem that hasn’t happened yet. This is the new role of digital twins. Our latest deep dive from new contributor Jason Collins looks at how these predictive models blend physics, simulation, and AI to forecast outcomes before they unfold, giving industries a way to act earlier and with more confidence.

Here are a few of the key takeaways:

  • Predictive power: Digital twins are moving from mirroring real systems to anticipating what will happen next. By drawing on rich data and advanced modeling, they can flag issues before they appear, test scenarios in advance, and help teams act earlier with clearer insight.
  • Industrial impact: Manufacturers like BMW and GE Vernova use predictive twins to design factories virtually, test workflows, and tighten maintenance schedules. Energy systems, from national grids to turbine networks, are using these models to prevent outages and improve performance.
  • New responsibilities: As digital twins take on predictive roles, they require reliable data, common standards, and careful governance. Accuracy, privacy, and interoperability will determine how organizations put this technology to work in a responsible way.
Key Takeaway:
Digital twins are becoming engines of foresight. They give industries a way to learn from the future instead of waiting for problems to appear, turning simulation into a strategic advantage across real-world systems.

📡 Weekly Radar

Your weekly scan across the spatial computing stack.

PHYSICAL AI

🚔 Knightscope Expands Product Line with K7 Outdoor Security Robot

  • The new K7 robot is built to patrol large outdoor areas and operate around the clock across uneven terrain.
  • Why this matters: The K5 gave Knightscope a foothold in structured spaces like campuses and corporate sites, but the K7 pushes that boundary into remote, rugged terrain. This moves the opportunity from local patrol to perimeter-grade coverage.

🧼 KEENON Rolls Out C55 Robot for Autonomous Indoor Floor Cleaning

  • The KLEENBOT C55 handles sweeping, scrubbing, and suction with automated docking and full remote control.
  • Why this matters: The C55 is a clear example of practical automation. Its ability to run continuously with minimal oversight makes it a strong fit for large facilities looking to reduce manual upkeep.

🗄️ Foxglove Secures $40M to Advance Data Infrastructure for Physical AI

  • Foxglove has announced a $40 million Series B round to scale its data and observability platform tailored to Physical AI. 
  • Why this matters: Foxglove is building the backbone for making robots smarter, faster, and more scalable in the real world.

🤖 iHeartMedia Backs Miko Robotics in Series D Funding Round

  • iHeartMedia has invested in Miko’s Series D funding round to support the growth of its AI companion robots.
  • Why this matters: A strategic investment from iHeartMedia could be key to driving broader adoption of AI companions and home robotics.
IMMERSIVE INTERFACES

🎮 Valve Unveils Steam Frame, a Wireless VR Headset Built for the Full Steam Library

  • Steam Frame is a standalone VR headset that runs SteamOS and plays both VR and non-VR games directly on the device, with no PC required.
  • Why this matters: Steam Frame shows Valve moving on from the Index era. The Index focused on high-end VR but required a PC and external sensors. Steam Frame simplifies everything and supports both VR and non-VR games. It’s a more practical approach that fits how players use VR today.

💍 Even Realities Introduces G2 Smartglasses and R1 Ring with Built-In AI Assistant

  • G2 is a binocular heads-up display with AI-powered tools, while R1 is a smart ring that enables discreet control and real-time health tracking.
  • Why this matters: By combining smart glasses, a control ring, and an onboard AI assistant, Even is offering a unified approach that brings together features usually spread across separate devices.

🏊 FORM Launches HeadCoach 2.0 with Real-Time Coaching in Smart Swim Goggles

  • FORM’s upgraded coaching suite delivers tailored, in-goggle swim feedback based on each athlete’s goals and performance.
  • Why this matters: Sports training runs on data, and wearables with sensors are the best way to collect it. FORM shows how that data can drive coaching that’s timely, specific, and built into every swim.
SIMULATED WORLDS

🌐 World Labs Makes Marble Public for Multimodal 3D World Generation

  • Marble is a multimodal generative model that creates full 3D worlds from text, images, video, or 3D layouts.
  • Why this matters: Opening Marble to everyone is a turning point for worldbuilding. Creators can move from prompt to editable 3D scene using multimodal input, all in one place.
PERCEPTION SYSTEMS

🎹 ROLI Acquires Ultraleap to Advance Gesture-Based Music Tech

  • ROLI has acquired Ultraleap, integrating its mid-air haptics and hand-tracking technology into ROLI's music platform.
  • Why this matters: Spatial tech is changing every facet of our lives, including how we learn and play music. This acquisition strengthens an already powerful partnership and is sure to spark new innovations in how spatial computing shapes instruments and musical expression.

🌀 Tom's Take

Unfiltered POV from the editor-in-chief.

The past two months have brought a wave of new spatial devices, from Valve’s latest VR hardware to Samsung’s Galaxy XR and a range of AI glasses from Meta, Even Realities, and others. With all this activity, it’s easy to focus only on what’s ahead. But Snap’s latest numbers on AR usage are a reminder of something simple. Augmented reality is already part of daily life. It has been here for years and has become so common that we barely talk about it.

Snapchat deserves real credit for that. Back in 2015, they made AR mainstream by turning Lenses into a core part of social media. Fast forward to today, and Snap says more than 350 million people use AR on Snapchat every day, triggering about 8 billion Lens interactions per day. Once we all spewed rainbows from our mouths, filters and lenses became routine rather than emerging technology. More importantly, they shaped how people mix digital content with the physical world, which will play a key role in how we adopt post-smartphone devices like smartglasses and handle the growing volume of AI content.

Decorating ourselves with AR on social media also paved the way for uses that now feel commonplace, such as virtual try-on for shopping or AR wayfinding to navigate a city. Mobile AR changed how people explore and buy products. It made what many still think of as a technology of tomorrow, a mundane tool of today.

I like to think that AR filters are playing a role in preparing us for the wave of AI-generated content now filling our feeds. We’ve spent years navigating visuals that weren’t entirely real. That experience might help build the awareness needed to interpret what is genuine reality and what is not, at a time when generative images and video are everywhere.

Mobile AR has become the unsung hero of XR. It’s so baked into how we communicate, create, and shop that we barely notice it anymore. That familiarity is also why the flood of generative AI content doesn’t feel as jarring as it could have. We’ve spent years blending digital elements into the real world through a phone screen. That normalcy is what will help AR glasses fit in when they arrive. They won’t feel like a leap. They’ll feel like the next step in habits we already practice every day, carried forward by the quiet success of mobile AR.


🔮 What’s Next

3 signals pointing to what’s coming next.

  1. Spatial Inputs That Match Everyday Movements
    ROLI’s use of Ultraleap’s mid-air gesture tracking gives musicians a way to shape sound with simple hand movements instead of physical controls. Even Realities’ R1 ring lets people tap or scroll to guide its G2 smart glasses without drawing attention. Both point to spatial inputs that fit comfortably into everyday behavior and feel more natural to use.
  2. AVs Open New Routes Across Cities
    Waymo is adding autonomous freeway trips in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the Bay Area, giving riders access to longer routes, airport travel, and full Peninsula coverage between San Francisco and San Jose. Beep is introducing fixed-route AV services along the Atlanta Beltline and linking Altamonte Springs riders directly to SunRail. Autonomous vehicles are being woven into real transit corridors, giving riders more options for routes outside of downtown loops.
  3. Spatial Tech Earns Clinical Trust
    Augmedics earned FDA clearance for its X2 AR headset, bringing a wider field of view and improved ergonomics to AR-guided spine surgery. Cornerstone Robotics raised $200 million to expand global access to its Sentire surgical system, which is already approved by China’s NMPA and in clinical use across China, Hong Kong, and parts of Europe. These milestones show how spatial tools that meet regulatory standards are gaining support from both health systems and investors.

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