LATEST
Full-Body Mirrored Adult-Sized Humanoid Robots Fighting in Real-Time for the First TimeCHASING CanFish F2 Heads to Kickstarter, Introducing a New Way to Scout the WaterEurope Turns to Private Enterprise to Close the Gap as BOARD Attracts Support from Over 200 European CEOsStudent Innovators Advance Their Robotic Projects at World Robot Olympiad Entrepreneur Program from Competition to Startup StageAfter Historic FDA Hearing On Psychedelic Therapies, Grassroots Student Group Mobilizes To Shape What Comes NextGaza Anger Breaks Old Political Loyalties in Britain and BeyondChristopher Columbus Identified As A Portuguese Prince In New InvestigationNaomi Whitehead, America’s Oldest Person, Celebrates 116th BirthdayIreland’s Protest Puts Sporting Boycotts in Focus as Gaza’s Athletes Are Killed and Stadiums Destroyed‘These Crimes Are Ongoing’: NAZA Directors Defy Threats as Gaza Killing Systems Reach New York ScreensFull-Body Mirrored Adult-Sized Humanoid Robots Fighting in Real-Time for the First TimeCHASING CanFish F2 Heads to Kickstarter, Introducing a New Way to Scout the WaterEurope Turns to Private Enterprise to Close the Gap as BOARD Attracts Support from Over 200 European CEOsStudent Innovators Advance Their Robotic Projects at World Robot Olympiad Entrepreneur Program from Competition to Startup StageAfter Historic FDA Hearing On Psychedelic Therapies, Grassroots Student Group Mobilizes To Shape What Comes NextGaza Anger Breaks Old Political Loyalties in Britain and BeyondChristopher Columbus Identified As A Portuguese Prince In New InvestigationNaomi Whitehead, America’s Oldest Person, Celebrates 116th BirthdayIreland’s Protest Puts Sporting Boycotts in Focus as Gaza’s Athletes Are Killed and Stadiums Destroyed‘These Crimes Are Ongoing’: NAZA Directors Defy Threats as Gaza Killing Systems Reach New York Screens
Asia-Pacific

Full-Body Mirrored Adult-Sized Humanoid Robots Fighting in Real-Time for the First Time

Katena is a humanoid robot systems integrator. We build the technology layer that makes different humanoid robot hardware brands and different software models work together.

Richard Powell  3 min read
Katena

An ARC fight is a contest between two pairs, each a human pilot and a humanoid avatar fighting as one. On Wednesday 7 October, ARC brings this format to *SCAPE for the first time with human-sized humanoid robots at ARC Night during race week.

The card spans two weight classes: the 35kg Unitree G1 in lightweight, and EngineAI’s 1.73m, 75kg T800 in heavyweight, making its first appearance in Singapore.

Every action in the arena is thrown live by a pilot moving in a full-body motion capture device, and carried out by an avatar with its own name, identity and way of moving.

Highlights

  • First of its kind: an adult-sized humanoid robot fighting in real time, full-body human controlled.
  • T800 debut: EngineAI’s T800 in Singapore for the first time.
  • Two weight classes: lightweight (35kg) and heavyweight (75kg), both mirroring the pilot in real time.
  • Try-on experience: attendees could operate a humanoid robot in a motion capture suit.

Why a fight

An avatar is not a clone, and it is not an autonomous being. It is both, held at the same moment.

Each ARC avatar has a character of its own: a way of resting, a preferred stance, a signature response to pressure. In the arena it also acts as its pilot’s second body, striking as the pilot strikes in the same split second. The pair fights in a way neither could alone.

Combat is where that partnership is tested and where it grows. Every strike and every second of real impact asks whether the pair is fighting as one. Over rounds and seasons, the avatar starts to move like its pilot, and the pilot learns to anticipate the avatar. That bond forms only under real stakes in front of a crowd.

The format keeps the intensity of live combat while the physical impact is taken by the avatar, sparing pilots the injuries that shorten careers in human combat sports.

“What makes an ARC fight different from any other robot fight in the world is the pair. What you are watching is not a robot under human control. You are watching a partnership becoming itself: a pilot and an avatar learning to fight as one.” — Antonio Gai, Founder and CEO of Katena

The T800 makes its Singapore debut

ARC Night runs two weight divisions, both on real-time full-body mirroring:

  • Lightweight (35kg): the Unitree G1, the platform ARC fought on in New York and Chicago.
  • Heavyweight (75kg): EngineAI’s T800 at 1.73m, making its first appearance in Singapore.

The heavyweight division is what separates Singapore from ARC’s earlier events: the T800 is more than twice the weight of the G1 and stands at adult height. It is Singapore’s first chance to see the T800 move at full speed under human control.

Audience try-on experience

ARC Night invites the audience to take part as well as watch. Attendees could put on motion capture gear and operate a humanoid robot themselves, in most cases for the first time.

A DJ and live MC run the whole session, from the first fight to the last. ARC’s own HUD system drives the screens, showing punch effects, health bars and live scoring, so the audience can follow every fight as it unfolds. Robot dance battles and performances run between fights.

Event details

Event: ARC Night Singapore
Date: 7 October 2026
Venue: *SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link, Singapore
Time: 6pm–9pm
Tickets: https://luma.com/arcnight_sg2026

ARC is a new combat sport built around the pilot-avatar pair. A human pilot wears a full-body motion capture device, and a humanoid avatar in the arena mirrors every movement in real time.

ARC is also being built as a public arena for the humanoid era, where pilots, avatars and the teams behind them prove what they can do in front of an audience. After events in New York and Chicago on the Unitree G1, ARC Night Singapore is its first event with human-sized robots being full-body mirrored to fight in real time.

Instagram: @arc_katena
X: @arc_katena
TikTok: @arc_katena

Related articles

Top