ICRA 2026 is the world's top academic conference in robotics and automation. The concurrent WBCD Challenge 2026, centered on "Real Tasks, Real Robots, Real Benchmarks," focuses on bimanual manipulation and real-world industrial tasks, serving as the authoritative competition and technology validation platform for embodied intelligence.

Panthera‑HT robotic arm by High Torque Robotics has officially become the Official Standard Platform for the ICRA 2026 WBCD Challenge – Deformable Manipulation Track (Shanghai Division), providing global participating teams with unified hardware support and a sustained training environment. HighTorque has also entered into a strategic partnership with the Shanghai AI Association to co-build an embodied intelligence training base and drive industry-academia-research ecosystem development. Portal: Starting from Real Scenarios: WBCD Global Industrial Dual-Arm Robot Skills Challenge Officially Launches

► ICRA 2026 WBCD Challenge – Event Overview

Dates: June 1–4, 2026

Venue: Vienna, Austria (Main Venue); Shanghai, China & Silicon Valley, USA (Regional Hubs)

Prize Pool: Over USD $280,000

Tracks: Logistics Picking, Logistics Packaging, Laboratory Automation, Deformable Object Manipulation – 4 tracks in total

Autonomy Levels: On-site Teleoperation (×1), Remote Teleoperation (×2), Fully Autonomous (×4) – three-tier scoring system

Deformable Manipulation Track Core Task: Complete the full柔性操作流程 of T-shirt picking, tray loading, and alignment/flattening

Full details:
Beyond Simulation & Code Silos: Real Industrial-Grade Robot Training Ground, Now Open!

► Panthera‑HT – Competition Development Scenario

As the official standard hardware platform, Panthera‑HT is dedicated to supporting the full spectrum of competition development:

・Provides a unified standard hardware environment ensuring competition fairness and reproducible results

・Provides a full SDK development kit and complete ROS2 workspace, supporting deformable object manipulation algorithm validation, data collection, and policy training

・Aligned with competition tasks and scoring systems, enabling teams to reproduce the competition setup locally and conduct sustained training and debugging

・Supports Sim-to-Real algorithm deployment and real-world iterative testing

For Panthera‑HT performance details:
Hackathon's Top Pick: Ultra Value Six-Axis Arm Panthera-HT – Officially Open-Sourced!

► Sustained Training Base – Venue & Content Overview

The competition-related training facilities have been completed and officially opened, providing participating teams with real equipment environments and debugging spaces. These facilities support critical stages including data collection, model training, and system validation. Through "Real Scenarios + Real Machine Training," the program further enhances the feasibility and real-world applicability of technical solutions, bridging the key gap between algorithm R&D and industrial deployment.

As the competition progresses, an open innovation ecosystem for industrial embodied intelligence will be built in parallel. Leveraging the synergistic mechanism of data collection, model training, and scenario validation, the initiative aims to progressively form a full-chain technical system covering "Data – Algorithm – Scenario – Application", driving a sustainable model of industrial innovation and advancing breakthroughs in dual-arm robot key technologies and cross-scenario transfer applications.

► Our Ecosystem & Partnerships

As Panthera-HT is integrated into the ICRA 2026 WBCD Challenge Deformable Track as the standard platform, we have been deeply involved in hackathons and technical workshops organized by Tsinghua University's Embodied Intelligence Club, Shanghai ScaleLab, AttraX, and other institutions (April Hackathon Wave | Panthera-HT Has Become the Standard! Open-Source Arm × Hackathon Model Ignites Developer Ecosystem). Beyond showcasing Panthera-HT's hardware and software capabilities, we continue to expand its application boundaries. On the ecosystem front, we actively participate in platform collaborations with Qualcomm and NVIDIA, having completed Panthera-HT's first public demo at the Qualcomm Edge AI Developer Conference and received the NVIDIA Inception Program "Outstanding Company" certification.