The Real VLA is Coming: Psi R1 Starts a New Era of Embodied AI

BEIJING, April 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PsiBot's Robots Are Playing Mahjong While Others Are Still Learning to Walk

While most embodied robots are still focusing on basic motion control such as walking and running, PsiBot's robots have pioneered long-horizon complex tasks in open environments, playing Mahjong with humans.

And Mahjong is no simple task.

It's a strategic, multi-layered game requiring precise manipulation—drawing, discarding, organizing tiles—and even more importantly, long-horizon planning: evaluating one's own tiles, interpreting the game state, and predicting opponents' moves. This blend of dexterous action and complex reasoning makes Mahjong one of the most demanding challenges for robotics today.

Redefining Dexterity: From Pick & Place to Long-Horizon Manipulation

Robotic manipulation can be broken down into three levels of complexity:

L1: Basic pick-and-place tasks in static environments without autonomous reasoning and dexterous manipulation

L2: Human-like manipulation in dynamic environments—featuring grips like lateral pinch, tripod, or power sphere without cognition chain to complete complex multi-modal tasks. 

L3:  Autonomous reasoning system based on Chain of Action Thought (CoAT) to make decisions and perform long-horizon complicated manipulation in open environments.

Playing Mahjong is a typical L3 task.

Only with L3-level CoAT capabilities to perform long-horizon tasks can robots understand their environment, make decisions, learn from experience, and adapt to new tasks—skills essential for real-world deployment. PsiBot addresses this challenge with its novel R1 model, built on a hierarchical end-to-end architecture and powered by reinforcement learning (RL).

In real-world Mahjong scenarios, R1 has demonstrated sustained and coherent CoAT capability for up to 30 minutes, executing open-ended tasks and reasoning autonomously.  It empowers human-robot interaction, interaction between robots, and environment interaction, demonstrating the VLA's superb reasoning ability and the RL's ability that exceeds the upper ceiling of human thinking and manipulation. This breakthrough marks a key leap from performing a single action to completing the closed loop of perception, reasoning and execution in the complex physical world, providing a technical paradigm for embodied intelligence to land in commercial scenarios.

A Breakthrough in Architecture: PsiBot's hierarchical end-to-end model

Founded in 2024, PsiBot has taken the lead to introduce a hierarchical end-to-end architecture, composed of a planner and a controller, which are connected implicitly by Action Tokenizer and jointly perform long-horizon dexterous manipulation, a paradigm that has now become a consensus in the industry. In addition, PsiBot also uses RL throughout the system, improving task success rates, extending CoAT durations, and creating a data flywheel that continually enhances data utilization efficiency.

From Tech Demo to Industrial Edge

The R1 model is not just a lab prototype.

With L3 capabilities, it can perform in open environments —reasoning, adapting, and manipulating over long time horizons, which can be deployed in industrial, logistical, retailing, and To-C scenarios. Currently, PsiBot has partnered with leading firms in the manufacturing, retailing, and e-commerce industries to explore opportunities in commercialized scenarios.

In the end, PsiBot isn't just building robots that can walk or talk. It's building robots that can reason, plan, and perform—— in the real world.

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

The Real VLA is Coming: Psi R1 Starts a New Era of Embodied AI

HANGZHOU, China, Jan. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 7^th, Astronergy officially launched ASTRO N7 Pro, the company's next-generation PV modules designed to set new benchmarks in power output, efficiency, and long-term system value. Featuring a power output of up to 670W and a maximum efficiency of 24.8%, ASTRO N7 Pro addresses the evolving demands of utility-scale and C&I distributed solar projects globally.

ASTRO N7 Pro is powered by Astronergy's upgraded TOPCon 5.0+ solar cell technology, integrating industry-leading technologies such as ASP, PF, SNOP. A key upgrade is the adoption of quarter-cut design: quarter-cut cell tech reduces internal current of cells, lowering power loss. Meanwhile, quarter-cut cell layout design effectively reduces the peak hot spot temperature and power loss, improving module reliability and system safety.

In practical operating environments, ASTRO N7 Pro demonstrates strong resilience under partial shading conditions. Its unique circuit design effectively reduces shading impact, enabling up to 20% more power output than half-cut-cell modules when shading occurs.

These modules also deliver reliable performance in low-irradiance and high-temperature conditions. Improved Rsh and fewer current leakage paths enable ASTRO N7 Pro to achieve 6.05% increase in single-watt power gain compared with BC products. This ensures stable energy production during early mornings, late afternoons and cloudy weather. Supported by a temperature coefficient of -0.26%/°C, ASTRO N7 Pro can maintain consistent power generation in regions with high temperatures.

With bifaciality reaching up to 85±5%, ASTRO N7 Pro earns 1–3% additional bifacial power gains over BC products. Its reliability is further reinforced through the quarter-cut cell layout, 20BB design, and a low-temperature & low-stress manufacturing process without flux, which together lead to a more uniform stress distribution, reduced hidden crack risks, and durable long-term performance.

Designed for higher returns across the project lifecycle, ASTRO N7 Pro comes with a 30-year linear power warranty and a 15-year product warranty. Compared with same-size BC modules, there's a 1.2% increase in both first-year power generation and 30-year cumulative power generation, and LCOE is cut by 1.2%.

ASTRO N7 Pro is more than just a new product series, but Astronergy's continued focus on customer needs across diverse application scenarios. With the launch of ASTRO N7 Pro, Astronergy keeps powering a sustainable future through innovation, reliability and greater profits.

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

Astronergy Launches ASTRO N7 Pro to Unleash Pro Performance