Professional Martial Artists Pilot Robots REAL-TIME on Stage
SINGAPORE, Oct. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ARC held Singapore's first full-sized humanoid fight night at *SCAPE on Wednesday, 7 October. Professional combat athletes in full-body motion capture suits controlled Unitree G1 and EngineAI T800 humanoids in real time, in front of an audience of more than 380 people.
Highlights
- A first for Singapore: the country's first full-sized humanoid fight night, with every robot controlled in real time by a human pilot
- Professional fighters as pilots: Muay Thai, MMA, boxing and kung fu athletes, including national and international champions
- Two platforms, one team: a new team format in which the lightweight Unitree G1 and the heavyweight EngineAI T800 fought side by side against a matching pair
- EngineAI T800 debut: the 1.73m, 75kg humanoid's first appearance in Singapore
The main card introduced a new team format. Iron Fang and Steel Shadow each fielded one Unitree G1 and one EngineAI T800, putting a 35kg lightweight and a 75kg heavyweight on the same side. The teams met in survival mode, with fighters from Muay Thai, MMA, boxing and kung fu taking turns to pilot.
Before the first fight, the programme featured a group humanoid dance, a dance battle and a kung fu demonstration, with a humanoid mirroring a martial artist's movements as he performed.
A live heads-up display tracked each humanoid's health points on the main screen. Next to it, a split feed showed the pilot and avatar side by side, so the audience could watch every move on the pilot platform repeated by the humanoid in real time.
The pilots
Sham Raaj, "The Indian Warrior" (EngineAI T800). A two-time professional national WMO champion and international WBC Muay Thai continental champion from Singapore. He co-founded and coaches at two Muay Thai gyms, Gifted Fight Academy and Fight Therapy.
Eugene Chung (EngineAI T800). A combat athlete turned robot pilot, Eugene has competed internationally in the emerging sport of humanoid robot combat.
Lukas Leasure (Unitree G1). A US-born, Singapore-based professional MMA fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. He is a coach, a ONE Championship judge and the owner of Stronghold MMA.
In the lightweight fight, Lukas Leasure, piloting Iron Fang's Unitree G1, dropped low and countered, knocking Steel Shadow's avatar to the mat. It was the biggest reaction of the night.
A public arena for the humanoid age
ARC pairs each human pilot with a humanoid avatar, and uses live events to test, in public, how far that partnership can go.
"Last night was not yet the sport. It was a demonstration of the idea," said Antonio Gai, founder of ARC. "Every fight on that stage was part of a larger answer: that the humanoid era can be a story about partnership, not replacement. We chose Singapore to make that case first because it is a city that takes the future seriously, in public."
Katena's real-time control system linked each pilot to their avatar, translating full-body movement onto the humanoid as it happened.
More international ARC showcases are planned over the coming months, with Singapore the first.
About ARC
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 adult-sized robots being full-body mirrored to fight in real-time. [arcleague.com]
About Katena
Katena is the portal for humanoid control. Its real-time pilot-avatar system powers every ARC event and underlies the broader mission of deep human–humanoid partnership. [katena.ai]
Instagram: @arc_katena
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TikTok: @arc_katena
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ARC Stages Singapore's First Full-Sized Humanoid Fight Night
Self-funded maiden flight achieves an apogee altitude of 10 km, marking a milestone in OculloSpace's space technology development, six months after its first satellite launch, as the company advances towards its 100 km ambition.
SINGAPORE, Oct. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based space technology company OculloSpace has successfully completed the maiden flight of AZAD "The Dreamer", its first experimental sounding rocket, making a significant milestone in the company's development of launch and space technology capabilities. The rocket achieved an apogee altitude of 10 km during its maiden flight from Etlaq Spaceport, Oman.
The mission, designed Karman X1, was conducted in collaboration with Oman-based aerospace company Stellar Kinetics MCT, with support from international partners across Singapore, Oman and Australia.
The two-stage rocket, measuring 4.3 metres and weighing 26 kg, successfully lifted off from Etlaq on October 1st, 2026, reaching an apogee altitude of 10 km. Both stages completed their burns, with telemetry received throughout the flight. While the upper-stage parachute did not deploy, launch operator Stellar Kinetics reported that the majority of the mission objectives were achieved, providing valuable flight data for future development.
A Singapore-Owned Space Technology Programme
Initiated by Dr Franco Gan, Founder and CEO of OculloSpace, the AZADRocket programme represents approximately two years of development and was self-funded by the company.
OculloSpace owns and leads the AZADRocket programme, retaining ownership of its programme intellectual property. The mission brought together international space industry expertise, with Stellar Kinetics serving as an engineering, manufacturing and launch partner in Oman.
"Six months ago, we sent our first satellite to orbit, and now we have flown our own rocket. I've always looked at the sky and wondered whether I could build something that reaches it. The Dreamer represents about two years of work by our team to take an idea from the drawing board to an actual flight," said Dr Franco Gan.
The mission also involved Orbit2Orbit (Australia), which supplied the 1kg Snowball experimental payload, and WWG Engineering Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), which contributed coated material samples for in-flight evaluation. Etlaq Spaceport provided launch infrastructure and range safety support.
Two Space Milestones in Six Months
The flight follows OculloSpace's flight satellite mission, DECIMALSAT-1, a PocketQube satellite deployed into orbit through Alba Orbital aboard SpaceX's Transporter-16 rideshare mission on 30 March 2026.
Within approximately six months, OculloSpace has achieved two important milestones: deploying its first satellite into orbit and completing the maiden flight of its first experimental rocket, achieving an apogee altitude of 10 km.
These achievements strengthen the company's experience in satellite systems, experimental rocket development, flight operations and international space missions, laying the foundation for future space technology and commercial opportunities.
Next Ambition: Reaching 100 km
Building on the Karman X1 mission, OculloSpace is developing AZAD-2, its next-generation experimental sounding rocket targeting an altitude of 100 km, the Kármán line widely recognised as the boundary of space.
The company plans to apply lessons and flight data from The Dreamer towards AZAD-2, with future opportunities for suborbital research, space technology demonstrations and commercial payload services.
OculloSpace is exploring up to 5 kg of research payload capacity aboard AZAD-2, subject to further engineering validation, testing and regulatory approvals.
"Our next goal is AZAD-2 and a 100 km flight. We are now looking to work with partners who share our ambition to develop more accessible launch and space capabilities from the region, and to take what we have demonstrated with The Dreamer to the next level," said Dr Franco Gan.
OculloSpace welcomes discussions with strategic investors, space industry partners, research institutions and prospective payload customers interested in participating in its next phase of development.
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Singapore's Space SME OculloSpace Successfully Flies First Rocket, AZAD "The Dreamer", from Oman
