Welcome to the most comprehensive archive of humanoid robots in development and deployment worldwide. From Tesla's Optimus to China's explosive robotics ecosystem, this living database tracks the machines reshaping manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and domestic life. The humanoid revolution isn't coming—it's already here, with thousands of units in pilot programs and billions in venture funding accelerating the march toward mass production.
The race to deploy humanoids at scale is dominated by companies with real-world pilots and manufacturing partnerships. These aren't research projects—they're robots working shifts, building products, and learning in live environments.
Tesla's Optimus program represents the most ambitious consumer robotics play in history. With target pricing between $20,000-$30,000 and plans for thousands of factory deployments in 2025-2026, Elon Musk envisions humanoids as ubiquitous as smartphones. Generation 3, expected late 2025, features 22 degrees of freedom in each hand (up from 11 in Gen 2), end-to-end neural networks borrowed from Full Self-Driving, and the ability to learn tasks through human observation. Standing 5'8" and weighing 125 pounds, Optimus can carry 45 pounds. Tesla deployed Gen 2 robots internally in 2024-2025, targeting 5,000-10,000 units by end of 2025. Production has faced delays due to hand design challenges and China's rare earth export restrictions, but Optimus remains the industry's benchmark for scalable, affordable humanoids.
After retiring its iconic hydraulic Atlas, Boston Dynamics unveiled an all-electric successor designed for commercial deployment. At approximately 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall and 190 pounds (89 kg), the new Atlas features fully electric actuators providing superior strength and flexibility that exceeds human range of motion. The robot can lift payloads and perform acrobatics impossible for humans, including 360-degree rotation at hips, waist, and neck. Hyundai is piloting Atlas in automotive manufacturing, targeting applications in welding, assembly, and quality inspection. The electric drivetrain delivers extended runtime with quieter operation than its hydraulic predecessor. Boston Dynamics is also collaborating with Toyota Research Institute on Large Behavior Models—AI systems that enable complex manipulation in unstructured environments.
Unitree Robotics shattered price expectations with the G1, a compact humanoid with a base price starting at $13,500. Standing 127cm tall and weighing just 35kg, the G1 features 23 to 43 degrees of freedom depending on configuration. The robot can walk at speeds up to 2 m/s and perform impressive athletic maneuvers including backflips. With advanced 3D LiDAR, Intel RealSense cameras, and force-controlled dexterous hands, the G1 targets research institutions and educational markets. The platform's affordability and extensibility make it particularly attractive for university labs exploring embodied AI and manipulation research.
Agility Robotics secured the industry's first commercial humanoid deployment under a Robotics-as-a-Service model. Digit robots work at GXO-operated warehouses for clients including Amazon and Spanx, moving totes between autonomous mobile robots and conveyors. The bipedal robot operates for 8-hour shifts on a single charge, with adaptive grippers and AI-driven navigation handling diverse objects and environments. Agility is scaling pilots with Mercado Libre and additional partners, positioning Digit as the logistics industry's humanoid of choice.
Humanoids are replacing specialized robots in manufacturing because they can work within infrastructure designed for humans—no facility redesigns, no segregated zones, no custom tooling.
Figure AI completed an 11-month deployment of Figure 02 robots at BMW's Spartanburg plant, contributing to production of over 30,000 BMW vehicles. The robots loaded sheet metal parts with 5-millimeter precision in 37-second cycles, operating daily on active assembly lines. Following this pilot, Figure retired F.02 and launched Figure 03 in late 2025. The successor features Helix—a proprietary vision-language-action AI that fuses perception, reasoning, and action. With a redesigned sensory suite offering double the frame rate and 60% wider field of view, Figure 03 performs household tasks like folding laundry and loading dishwashers. The BMW partnership, announced January 2024, began as a limited pilot with one robot and scaled to continuous production testing—providing critical real-world data that informed Figure 03's architecture.
Canadian firm Sanctuary AI focuses on cognitive robotics with Phoenix, a humanoid designed for natural human-robot interaction. Phoenix features high-torque motors (up to 150Nm) and hands with 24 degrees of freedom, enabling precision tasks in retail, customer service, and marketing. The robot has demonstrated threading needles and other dextrous operations, showcasing capabilities that exceed most competitors. Sanctuary AI emphasizes task-learning through teleoperation, with operators guiding robots through complex workflows that are then automated. This approach accelerates deployment timelines compared to pure AI-first strategies.
The next battleground is the home. These robots are designed for safe, continuous interaction in domestic environments—not labs or factories.
Norwegian startup 1X opened pre-orders for NEO in late October 2025, marking the world's first consumer-ready home humanoid with confirmed 2026 delivery. Priced at $20,000 (or $499/month subscription), NEO weighs just 66 pounds yet can lift 154 pounds and carry 55 pounds. The robot uses proprietary Tendon Drive actuation for safe, compliant movement and features a soft 3D lattice polymer body designed for human interaction. NEO will ship with basic autonomous capabilities (opening doors, fetching items, turning off lights) but relies heavily on teleoperation for complex tasks. The company's "human-in-the-loop" strategy involves remote operators training the AI through real-world task execution—requiring early adopters to share home data. 1X recently announced the World Model (1XWM), enabling natural language task learning, though full autonomy remains years away.
EV manufacturer XPeng debuted IRON, a humanoid featuring remarkably smooth, human-like walking. The robot demonstrates what XPeng calls "extreme anthropomorphism" with a graceful, natural gait that rivals biological movement. IRON is part of XPeng's broader Physical AI strategy scheduled for Q1 2026 launch. The emphasis on naturalistic motion signals a design philosophy prioritizing human acceptance and comfort over raw performance metrics. As humanoids move from factories into public spaces, walking quality becomes a critical differentiator—IRON proves that manufacturers worldwide are competing on aesthetics and user experience, not just price.
These platforms push the boundaries of what's possible, serving as testbeds for next-generation AI, materials, and control systems.
NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T platform represents the AI infrastructure layer enabling the humanoid revolution. The N1.6 enhanced reasoning model integrates Cosmos Reason for better task planning, providing a foundation for multiple robot manufacturers. Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute are demonstrating Large Behavior Models on electric Atlas, showcasing complex manipulation that was impossible with traditional control systems. This collaboration between AI giants and robotics pioneers signals that the software stack—not just hardware—will determine humanoid success.
The humanoid industry is transitioning from pilots to production. Mercedes-Benz, Jabil, Amazon, GXO, and BMW have all confirmed large-scale deployments. Global manufacturers from the US, China, Europe, and Asia are racing to capture market share, with diverse strategies ranging from ultra-affordable platforms to premium AI-driven systems. The technical challenges are well understood: battery endurance (currently 2-8 hours), manipulation dexterity (improving with AI-driven learning), and cost reduction (rapid progress across international markets). Competition is driving innovation, with each region contributing unique strengths—American companies lead in AI integration, Asian manufacturers excel in cost efficiency and production scale, while European firms emphasize safety standards and workplace integration.
The question for 2026 isn't whether humanoids will transform industry—it's which companies will own the platforms, which AI systems will win the integration race, and whether consumer adoption can match the hype. The robots are real, the deployments are happening, and the economic case is strengthening. Welcome to the embodied AI era.
For complete summary, editorial, specifications, and additional news on humanoid robots, explore the Humanoid.Press Database—the industry's most comprehensive technical resource.
China's humanoid robotics sector exploded in 2024-2025, with dozens of startups and established tech firms flooding the market with affordable platforms. The Chinese government designated humanoid robotics as a strategic priority, channeling billions into R&D and manufacturing infrastructure. Companies like AgiBot, Fourier Intelligence, UBTECH, and Unitree are leading a wave of cost-competitive robots targeting both industrial and consumer markets.
The Chinese advantage: vertical integration, massive manufacturing scale, and aggressive pricing. While Western companies emphasize AI sophistication and safety certification, Chinese manufacturers prioritize rapid iteration and market deployment. This dual strategy is reshaping global competition, forcing American and European firms to accelerate timelines or risk obsolescence.
Unitree Robotics disrupted the research market with the G1, a full-featured humanoid priced starting at just $13,500 (base model)—one-tenth the cost of comparable platforms. Standing 132cm and weighing 35kg, the G1 packs 23-43 degrees of freedom (depending on configuration), 3D LiDAR, Intel RealSense cameras, force-controlled dexterous hands, and impressive athletic capabilities including backflips and 2 m/s walking speed. Universities worldwide adopted G1 units throughout 2025, making it one of the year's best-selling research platforms and proving that advanced bipedal robotics is no longer exclusive to well-funded labs.
Shanghai-based AgiBot raised significant funding in 2024-2025 to scale production of its Iingi X2 and A2 platforms. The company targets both industrial automation and service robotics, with pilots underway in manufacturing, logistics, and retail sectors across China. AgiBot represents the new generation of Chinese robotics firms: well-capitalized, technically sophisticated, and moving at breakneck speed from prototype to production.
American humanoid companies lead in AI integration, leveraging advances in computer vision, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning. Firms like Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, and Tesla prioritize end-to-end neural networks and foundation models trained on massive datasets. This AI-first approach aims to create robots that can generalize across tasks rather than requiring task-specific programming.
Figure AI completed an 11-month pilot deployment at BMW's Spartanburg plant, where Figure 02 robots worked on active production lines loading sheet metal parts with 5-millimeter precision. The company then launched Figure 03 featuring Helix—a proprietary vision-language-action AI that fuses perception, reasoning, and manipulation. Figure 03's redesigned sensory suite offers double the frame rate and 60% wider field of view compared to its predecessor, enabling complex household tasks like folding laundry and loading dishwashers. The BMW partnership validated that humanoids can operate safely and productively in real manufacturing environments, providing critical data for next-generation designs.
Tesla's Optimus program represents the most ambitious consumer robotics bet in history. With target pricing between $20,000-$30,000 and plans for thousands of factory deployments in 2025-2026, Elon Musk envisions humanoids as ubiquitous as smartphones. The latest generation features 22 degrees of freedom in each hand, end-to-end neural networks borrowed from Full Self-Driving, and the ability to learn tasks through human observation. Tesla deployed Optimus internally throughout 2024-2025, targeting 5,000-10,000 units by year-end 2025. While production has faced delays, Optimus remains the industry's benchmark for scalable, affordable humanoids.
European humanoid development emphasizes workplace safety, regulatory compliance, and natural human-robot collaboration. Companies like Engineered Arts (UK), PAL Robotics (Spain), and projects across European research institutions design robots for stringent safety frameworks. While production volumes lag Asian and American competitors, European platforms lead in certification-ready designs for healthcare, hospitality, and regulated environments.
Engineered Arts' Ameca became the world's most recognizable humanoid through viral demonstrations of its remarkably expressive face and lifelike reactions. While not designed for industrial labor, Ameca excels at human-robot interaction research, entertainment, and public engagement. The platform's modular design and exceptional facial animation make it the gold standard for studying social robotics and human perception of artificial agents. Ameca has appeared at conferences, exhibitions, and media events worldwide, serving as an ambassador for the broader humanoid robotics industry.
Japan pioneered humanoid robotics with Honda's ASIMO and Sony's QRIO in the 1990s-2000s. Today, Japanese research institutions continue advancing bipedal locomotion, human-robot interaction, and android aesthetics through platforms like Alter, HRP-5P, and research androids from Hiroshi Ishiguro's laboratory. While commercial deployments lag China and the US, Japan's contributions to fundamental robotics research—from dynamic walking algorithms to uncanny valley studies—remain foundational to the global industry.
University labs worldwide develop specialized humanoids for research in locomotion, manipulation, embodied AI, and human-robot interaction. These platforms prioritize modularity, open-source compatibility, and experimental flexibility over commercial viability. Academic robots often pioneer techniques that eventually reach commercial products—from dynamic balance control to learning-based manipulation—making them crucial testbeds for the industry's future.
The race to deliver affordable, safe home humanoids intensified in 2025. Norwegian startup 1X Technologies opened pre-orders for NEO—the world's first consumer humanoid with confirmed 2026 delivery dates. Priced at $20,000 or $499/month subscription, NEO weighs just 66 pounds and uses soft, compliant actuation designed for safe household interaction. The platform will ship with basic autonomous capabilities but relies heavily on teleoperation and cloud-based learning. Other firms are developing home-oriented platforms emphasizing safety, quiet operation, and approachable aesthetics over industrial strength.
The humanoid robotics industry stands at a critical juncture. After decades of research and hype cycles, the technology is finally ready for commercial deployment. Battery efficiency, AI capabilities, manufacturing costs, and investor confidence have all reached thresholds enabling mass production. Major manufacturers from Mercedes-Benz to Amazon have confirmed large-scale pilots and deployments. The next 12-24 months will determine which companies capture market share, which platforms become industry standards, and whether consumers embrace humanoids in homes.
Key questions for 2026: Will Tesla achieve its ambitious Optimus production targets? Can 1X NEO deliver successfully to early adopters? Will Chinese manufacturers flood global markets with affordable alternatives? How quickly will manufacturing partnerships scale beyond pilots? And most importantly—will the public accept humanoid robots as coworkers and companions, or resist the transformation?
The robots are real. The deployments are happening. Major corporations are betting billions on embodied AI. The race to define the future of work, manufacturing, and home life is underway. After 30 years of science fiction promises, humanoid robots are finally transitioning from labs to production lines to living rooms. Welcome to the embodied AI era.