SINGAPORE, Dec. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharpa, a Singapore-headquartered AI robotics firm, has achieved a major milestone with the launch of mass production for SharpaWave, its flagship robotic hand engineered to match the size and dexterity of the human hand while delivering both delicate precision and superhuman strength. Early customers include leading global technology companies and top research universities.
Moving into mass production marks a critical step toward Sharpa's vision of making general-use robots widely accessible. The company aims to produce robot hands and other components with the consistency and reliability expected of mission-critical hardware such as aircraft engines or automotive systems.
To ensure quality at scale, Sharpa has developed highly automated reliability and endurance testing systems that validate the performance of thousands of microscale gears, motors, and sensors—guaranteeing high accuracy, durability, and agility.
Sharpa focuses on solving robotics' hardest problem, the hand, because it is the gateway to truly useful general-purpose robots. A capable hand allows robots to interact with the world as humans do, whether cracking an egg, assembling electronics, or operating tools in extreme environments. With such dexterity, robots can be deployed in hotels, hospitals, shops, or homes without needing to redesign human-oriented workspaces or tools.
SharpaWave features 22 active degrees of freedom (DOF) and Sharpa's proprietary Dynamic Tactile Array (DTA) technology, enabling near-human precision in grasping, manipulating, and tool use, a foundational breakthrough for general-purpose robotics.
Achieving this sensitivity requires advanced visuo-tactile sensing. Each fingertip integrates a miniature camera and over 1,000 tactile pixels, capturing everything from feather-light contact to heavy loads with 0.005 N precision. Its 6-dimensional force sensing ensures adaptive grip control and slip prevention—essentially allowing SharpaWave to feel by seeing.
To accelerate adoption across industry and research, SharpaWave runs on an open-source, developer-friendly software stack. The SharpaPilot app is fully compatible with major simulation platforms including Isaac Gym, Isaac Lab, PyBullet, and MuJoCo, and provides rich reinforcement learning examples for rapid integration and experimentation.
SharpaWave's breakthrough engineering has been recognized as a CES 2026 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Robotics category. Sharpa will be exhibiting at CES 2026 (LVCC North Hall, booth 9251), January 6–9, in Las Vegas, with its latest robots featuring groundbreaking dexterity, dynamic motion control, and long-horizon task.
About Sharpa
Founded in 2024, Sharpa is an AI robotics company dedicated to developing high-performance robots and core components, unlocking the potential of future general-purpose robotic applications. Sharpa's mission is to build robots that assist, not replace, humans, freeing people from repetitive or strenuous work to focus on more meaningful pursuits. Sharpa's global headquarters is in Singapore, with manufacturing R&D in Shanghai and business operations in Mountain View, USA.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
AI Robotmaker Sharpa Reaches Key Milestone With Mass Production of World's Most Advanced Human-Sized Robotic Hand
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OXFORD, United Kingdom and HOUSTON, June 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Optellum, a leader in AI-enabled lung cancer diagnostics, today announced that it has surpassed 250 clinical sites and analyzed more than 3 million cases to date. This milestone underscores Optellum's commitment to empowering health systems and clinical care teams with the tools needed to identify, prioritize, and manage high-risk lung nodules more effectively. This commercial momentum is supported by first-of-their-kind partnerships across major markets, including with Bristol Myers Squibb in the US, and with the NHS and Intuitive Surgical to support end-to-end AI & robot lung cancer pathways in the UK. It is also reflected in established and new customer deployments at leading health systems, including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Oxford University Hospitals.
The scale of Optellum's impact is accelerating rapidly, and the company is now helping one patient every 14 seconds. Optellum pioneered the world's first FDA-cleared, CE-marked, and Medicare-reimbursed AI solution for image-based lung cancer risk stratification – Lung Cancer Prediction (LCP) AI, under the CPT codes 0721T and 0722T. LCP AI is helping to reduce the uncertainty associated with indeterminate lung nodules, ensuring that no nodule patient is left behind. Further, the wraparound Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC) solution supports guideline-aligned decisions and has been shown to improve clinicians' efficiency while reducing time to recommended treatment.[1]
This growth reflects a broader shift toward the adoption of evidence-based innovation in thoracic care. Optellum continues to expand LungOSⓇ, its end-to-end AI-powered lung health platform, powered by the world's first Thorax CT Foundation Model built for real-world precision lung care. This foundation model is the only model in the world to leverage DART, the world's largest lung cancer CT dataset. LungOSⓇ brings VNC together with modules for triage and detection,[2] diagnostic support,[3] and therapy guidance.[4] Looking ahead, Optellum is poised to expand its clinical suite with the upcoming European launch of LungDetect, an exciting addition designed to simplify and accelerate nodule identification and characterization.
"Optellum is incredibly proud to be helping more health systems and clinicians provide timely, life-saving care to a growing number of patients," said Dr. Johnathan Watkins, Optellum's CEO. "Reaching 250 sites and analyzing millions of cases each year is a testament to the dedication of our team and the trust of our clinical partners. However, we are just getting started; we continue to build LungOSⓇ into the must-have "operating system" for lung cancer and thoracic care more broadly. We invite the global healthcare community to join us on our mission to help solve lung cancer by ensuring early diagnosis and early intervention become the standard for everyone everywhere."
Results from Optellum's continued growth and real-world clinical use will continue to be shared with clinicians, healthcare leaders, and policymakers to reach the broader goal of improving outcomes for every thoracic care team, in every hospital, for every patient.
About Optellum
Optellum is a commercial-stage AI healthcare company dedicated to revolutionizing early diagnosis and treatment of lung disease, starting with one of the deadliest, lung cancer.
Optellum is building LungOSⓇ, the end-to-end AI-powered platform for thoracic care. Its flagship product, Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC) with Lung Cancer Prediction AI (LCP), is the world's first FDA-cleared and reimbursed software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) solution for AI-powered lung cancer prioritization and diagnostic support. Clinicians trust the Optellum solution to aid them in making the most appropriate life-saving treatment decisions for their patients. Backed by real-world clinical evidence, Optellum's solution accelerates the diagnostic care pathway by enabling early patient identification, enhancing prioritization, and improving clinicians' efficiency, reducing time to guideline-recommended treatment. Optellum VNC is FDA cleared, CE-MDR marked, UKCA marked, and TGA-approved.
Optellum is headquartered in Oxford, UK, and has an office in Houston, Texas, US.
[1] Hill NR et al. Employment of artificial intelligence for early lung cancer diagnosis: a retrospective cohort study. BMJ Open Respiratory Research. 2025;12: e003225. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2025-003225
[2] Both text-based detection with Patient Discovery and Patient Safety Net as well as image-based detection. Product availability depends on your region, please contact Optellum for more information.
[3] Commercially available in the US, EU/UK, and Australia.
[4] Pending; for research use only
Media Contact
marketing@optellum.com
OXFORD, United Kingdom and HOUSTON, June 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Optellum, a leader in AI-enabled lung cancer diagnostics, today announced that it has surpassed 250 clinical sites and analyzed more than 3 million cases to date. This milestone underscores Optellum's commitment to empowering health systems and clinical care teams with the tools needed to identify, prioritize, and manage high-risk lung nodules more effectively. This commercial momentum is supported by first-of-their-kind partnerships across major markets, including with Bristol Myers Squibb in the US, and with the NHS and Intuitive Surgical to support end-to-end AI & robot lung cancer pathways in the UK. It is also reflected in established and new customer deployments at leading health systems, including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Oxford University Hospitals.
The scale of Optellum's impact is accelerating rapidly, and the company is now helping one patient every 14 seconds. Optellum pioneered the world's first FDA-cleared, CE-marked, and Medicare-reimbursed AI solution for image-based lung cancer risk stratification – Lung Cancer Prediction (LCP) AI, under the CPT codes 0721T and 0722T. LCP AI is helping to reduce the uncertainty associated with indeterminate lung nodules, ensuring that no nodule patient is left behind. Further, the wraparound Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC) solution supports guideline-aligned decisions and has been shown to improve clinicians' efficiency while reducing time to recommended treatment.[1]
This growth reflects a broader shift toward the adoption of evidence-based innovation in thoracic care. Optellum continues to expand LungOSⓇ, its end-to-end AI-powered lung health platform, powered by the world's first Thorax CT Foundation Model built for real-world precision lung care. This foundation model is the only model in the world to leverage DART, the world's largest lung cancer CT dataset. LungOSⓇ brings VNC together with modules for triage and detection,[2] diagnostic support,[3] and therapy guidance.[4] Looking ahead, Optellum is poised to expand its clinical suite with the upcoming European launch of LungDetect, an exciting addition designed to simplify and accelerate nodule identification and characterization.
"Optellum is incredibly proud to be helping more health systems and clinicians provide timely, life-saving care to a growing number of patients," said Dr. Johnathan Watkins, Optellum's CEO. "Reaching 250 sites and analyzing millions of cases each year is a testament to the dedication of our team and the trust of our clinical partners. However, we are just getting started; we continue to build LungOSⓇ into the must-have "operating system" for lung cancer and thoracic care more broadly. We invite the global healthcare community to join us on our mission to help solve lung cancer by ensuring early diagnosis and early intervention become the standard for everyone everywhere."
Results from Optellum's continued growth and real-world clinical use will continue to be shared with clinicians, healthcare leaders, and policymakers to reach the broader goal of improving outcomes for every thoracic care team, in every hospital, for every patient.
About Optellum
Optellum is a commercial-stage AI healthcare company dedicated to revolutionizing early diagnosis and treatment of lung disease, starting with one of the deadliest, lung cancer.
Optellum is building LungOSⓇ, the end-to-end AI-powered platform for thoracic care. Its flagship product, Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC) with Lung Cancer Prediction AI (LCP), is the world's first FDA-cleared and reimbursed software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) solution for AI-powered lung cancer prioritization and diagnostic support. Clinicians trust the Optellum solution to aid them in making the most appropriate life-saving treatment decisions for their patients. Backed by real-world clinical evidence, Optellum's solution accelerates the diagnostic care pathway by enabling early patient identification, enhancing prioritization, and improving clinicians' efficiency, reducing time to guideline-recommended treatment. Optellum VNC is FDA cleared, CE-MDR marked, UKCA marked, and TGA-approved.
Optellum is headquartered in Oxford, UK, and has an office in Houston, Texas, US.
[1] Hill NR et al. Employment of artificial intelligence for early lung cancer diagnosis: a retrospective cohort study. BMJ Open Respiratory Research. 2025;12: e003225. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2025-003225
[2] Both text-based detection with Patient Discovery and Patient Safety Net as well as image-based detection. Product availability depends on your region, please contact Optellum for more information.
[3] Commercially available in the US, EU/UK, and Australia.
[4] Pending; for research use only
Media Contact
marketing@optellum.com
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
Optellum Celebrates Accelerating Impact in Lung Cancer Care; Now at Over 250 Sites and Growing
