STOCKHOLM, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sam Mitchell is joining Odevo, a residential property management group operating across 9 markets, with 4,200 employees and 512,000 homes under management in the UK, as the new CEO of Rendall and Rittner. Sam brings more than 25 years of experience from across the property sector, having previously held CEO positions at Purplebricks and Strike. 

Throughout his career, Sam has scaled and led businesses across the property industry to their highest levels, delivering exceptional results. He is known as a people-focused leader, putting teams and customers at the heart of everything he does, an approach that aligns closely with how Odevo is built. 

“Sam brings a wealth of leadership experience and a genuine focus on people,” says Claire Shepherd, CEO of Odevo UK. “His track record of scaling businesses across the property sector, combined with his people-first approach, makes him exactly the right leader to take Rendall and Rittner forward. We have exciting plans in the coming months and years, building on an incredibly successful history, and with Sam at the helm, we look forward to a very bright future.” 

As CEO, Sam will focus on building on Rendall and Rittner’s strong foundations while continuing to put teams and customers first, supporting the company’s next phase of growth as part of Odevo. 

“I’m delighted to be joining Rendall and Rittner, and Odevo, at such an exciting time,” says Sam Mitchell, CEO of Rendall and Rittner. “I’m looking forward to building on the successful history together with the team.” 

Contact
press@odevo.com

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HONG KONG, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — KEENON Robotics, a global leader in commercial service robotics, showcased its humanoid and specialized robot portfolio at LEAP East 2026, held from July 8 to 10.

As one of the world’s most influential technology events, LEAP made its first expansion beyond Saudi Arabia with its Asia-Pacific debut in Hong Kong. The inaugural LEAP East brought together more than 300 exhibitors, over 300 speakers, thousands of global attendees, and more than 200 confirmed investors.

At the event, KEENON presented a series of real-world service scenarios, including a robotic café, retail interaction zone, guest reception experience, delivery services, and smart cleaning demonstrations. Through these scenario-based presentations, KEENON demonstrated its “general-purpose humanoid robot + specialized robot” strategy and highlighted how robots can take on practical, role-based tasks in commercial environments.

A Robotic Café Powered by Humanoid Service

At the KEENON booth, visitors experienced a robotic café created in collaboration with NOWWA Coffee, one of the world’s top five coffee chain brands. After placing an order through an iPad, visitors watched KEENON’s humanoid robot independently complete the full coffee-making workflow, including cup handling, coffee extraction, and final delivery.

Acting as a “specially appointed barista,” XMAN-R1 completed the process without human intervention, demonstrating KEENON’s capabilities in multi-step task planning, precise force control, and safe human-robot interaction.

Retail Interaction: From Object Recognition to Dexterous Grasping

In the retail interaction area, KEENON presented a claw machine scenario. The humanoid robot identified the target prize, performed precise grasping and manipulation, and completed the interaction for visitors. This demonstration highlighted the robot’s capabilities in visual recognition, spatial positioning, dexterous operation, and real-time decision-making, while also showing how humanoid robots can create engaging experiences in retail and commercial entertainment settings.

These humanoid service scenarios are powered by KEENON’s self-developed KOM 2.0, the world’s first VLA model designed for the service industry, as well as KEENON ProS, a role-based vertical model built on top of KOM 2.0. Together, these technologies enable robots to quickly acquire task-specific skills and perform real service duties. Even in the face of unexpected interference or equipment abnormalities, the robots can make autonomous judgments and respond in real time, demonstrating reliability and stability in dynamic commercial settings.

Specialized Robots Complete the Service Loop

In addition to humanoid robots, KEENON also showcased its specialized service robots, including the flagship T10 delivery robot and C40 cleaning robot.

The T10 demonstrated its high payload capacity and narrow-aisle mobility, with a 40kg carrying capacity and a 59cm slim body designed for complex commercial spaces. Equipped with a 360-degree panoramic perception system, T10 can flexibly avoid obstacles and deliver items accurately in crowded environments.

The C40 cleaning robot showcased integrated cleaning capabilities for small and medium-sized commercial spaces. With KEENON’s triple-roller brush design, C40 improves cleaning efficiency and supports sweeping, scrubbing, vacuuming, and dust mopping in one machine. Its rapid-drying capability also helps reduce the risk of slippery floors after cleaning.

Together, the humanoid robots and specialized robots demonstrated how different robot types can collaborate across service workflows, forming a complete “general-purpose + specialized” service loop.

Interactive Humanoid Experiences Draw Visitor Attention

The booth also featured interactive humanoid experiences. KEENON’s bipedal humanoid robot XMAN-F1 greeted visitors with gestures such as waving and heart-shaped hand movements, taking on a guest reception role. Meanwhile, the small-size humanoid robot XMAN-L1 delivered dance performances and close-range interactions with visitors. A photo zone was also set up at the booth, allowing attendees to take pictures with KEENON humanoid robots and experience embodied intelligent services in an immersive way.

About KEENON

Founded in 2010, KEENON Robotics has built one of the world’s largest commercial service robot deployment networks. With full-stack self-developed technologies and an integrated R&D, manufacturing, and supply chain system, KEENON has developed a comprehensive robot portfolio covering humanoid robots, delivery robots, cleaning robots, and other commercial service robots.

To date, KEENON has shipped more than 100,000 robots worldwide, with deployments in over 70 countries and regions. According to IDC, KEENON ranks No.1 globally in shipment share, accounting for 22.7% of the global market.

KEENON’s participation at LEAP East 2026 highlighted its commercial deployment capabilities and technological innovation in embodied service robotics. Through its differentiated “general-purpose humanoid + specialized robot” strategy, KEENON continues to expand the boundaries of intelligent service scenarios, enabling robots to adapt to diverse commercial roles and integrate into everyday life.

Looking ahead, KEENON will continue to advance its full-stack technology capabilities and promote large-scale, scenario-based deployment of embodied robots, empowering the global service industry and unlocking new forms of future service.

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SOURCE KEENON Robotics

Hong Kong’s largest government-funded R&D centre showcases 17 cutting-edge innovations aligned with the Middle East’s aspirations for sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, and smart city.

HONG KONG, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) is presenting a range of transformative technologies at the inaugural Leap East (8-10 July), underscoring Hong Kong’s leadership in applied innovation and its growing role as a strategic bridge connecting Asia to the burgeoning technology landscape of the Middle East.

Hong Kong is seizing opportunities to align with the Middle East’s visionary blueprints for economic diversification, which target key sectors such as innovation and technology (I&T), renewable energy, and smart city development. With its globally renowned financial services, vibrant I&T ecosystem, and position as a gateway to Chinese Mainland and Asia, Hong Kong offers complementary strengths that can support the Middle East’s strategic goals while unlocking new growth avenues for its own economy.

Fostering Cross-Regional Innovation Partnerships

Since its establishment in 2000, ASTRI has been at the forefront of innovation, amassing over 1,500 patents and transferring more than 2,200 next-generation technologies to global industry partners. As Hong Kong’s flagship government-funded R&D centre, ASTRI remains steadfast in its mission to drive Hong Kong’s competitiveness through applied science and technologies.

“The emergence of cross-regional innovation hubs in Asia and the Middle East presents a transformative global opportunity,” remarked Ir Dr Ted Suen, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI. “ASTRI’s participation at Leap East exemplifies Hong Kong’s pivotal role in building technological bonds with the Middle East, bringing practical, impact-driven innovations that drive sustainable growth and economic diversification.”

“Our disruptive solutions showcase ASTRI’s strengths in integrating AI, advanced materials, microelectronics, communications technologies, and IoT sensing to address the region’s priorities in renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and smart city development. The Middle East offers vast potential for collaboration, and we enthusiastically invite partnerships, dialogues, and exchanges to maximise the mutual benefits our technologies can deliver,” he added.

ASTRI is featuring a curated selection of advanced solutions at LEAP East, including:

Renewable Energy: A groundbreaking photovoltaic-storage hybrid inverter designed to tackle challenges in solar energy storage and large-scale grid management.Intelligent Mobility: A cutting-edge low-altitude economic navigation and communication system, coupled with a V2X autonomous system and traffic management platform, addressing infrastructure gaps in urbanising regions.Sustainable Construction: Next-generation materials like lightweight concrete for modular integrated construction (MiC) and self-compacting backfill, advancing both efficiency and sustainability in large-scale infrastructure projects.Green solutions: Future-ready immersion coolant for high-performance computing, essential for expanding data centre infrastructure, and wireless smart water meters supporting resource management in challenging environmental conditions.

Award-winning innovation on display

Eight award-winning technologies are also featured at the Hong Kong Pavilion organised by the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the HKSAR Government, including recent recipients of the prestigious R&D 100 Awards and Edison Awards 2026, demonstrating Hong Kong’s excellence in applied research and innovation.

Future of Physical AI

Ir Dr Ted Suen will speak on the panel “Autonomous Everything: The Dawn of Physical AI” on 10 July. The session will explore the real-world integration of physical AI, from robotaxis to autonomous urban systems, poised to redefine mobility and infrastructure on a global scale. Key discussions will include regulatory frameworks, public trust, safety standards, and strategies for commercial deployment.

LEAP EAST: https://leapeast.com/
ASTRI’s technologies on display: https://bit.ly/4p0tRZp

About ASTRI

Founded in 2000 by the HKSAR Government, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) is the city’s largest government-funded R&D centre. Committed to transforming high-impact research into practical innovations, ASTRI drives market-driven, interdisciplinary advancements across sectors, including Smart City, FinTech, Digital Health and Life Sciences, New Industrialisation and Intelligent Manufacturing, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Advanced Electronics, New Energy and Energy Storage, and Green and ESG Technologies. Following its merger with the Nano and Advanced Materials Institute, ASTRI has further strengthened its capabilities, with over 1,500 patents and 2,200 successful cases of technology transfer. Recognised with numerous international awards, ASTRI continues to nurture top I&T talent and foster collaborations among the I&T ecosystem, contributing to Hong Kong’s high-value economic development. For more information, please visit: https://www.astri.org

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SOURCE Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)