An incomplete android bestiary listing the fast-moving world of humanoid robots

The robots are coming, although we’d caution that even the most optimistic future of mass mechanisation will have its downsides. Who are the key players leading this unholy alliance between AI and robotics, eager to fit their creations into every conceivable area of society? Unsurprisingly, it’s a blend of tech firms and car makers, both of whom have a vested interest in the commodification of a technology with the potential to be as universally adopted as the mobile phone, a secondary revenue stream with limitless applications.

Right now, the cradle of next generation robotics is China, a country with the resources – material, manufacturing, intellectual and economic – to drive this revolution until some kind of global adoption is achieved. There is also advanced research going on in Korea, Japan, India, the US, Israel and even the UK.

Note how many media reports on developments in robotics, cybernetics and AI tend to be couched in nervous, apprehensive or even downright apologetic language, as if the media itself is sorry for foisting an inevitable android future on consumers. Our last survey of the industry, back in 2017, focused on how to build emotional attachments to robots; obvious empathy is decidedly lacking in the current crop of machines.

Instead, new hardware solutions work hand in glove with developments in software, sensors, and machine learning algorithms, with corresponding developments in AI-driven training evolving in parallel. That so many of these new robot manufacturers are based in China has introduced an element of technological arms race into the industry, albeit one that's very much at the level of PR and flashy social videos for now.

It will also come as no surprise to find that major manufacturers in every sphere are conducting research into some aspect of robotics. South Korea’s LG is looking into industrial machines, while Meta is apparently conducting researching into more domestic-focused devices. Apple is also never far from a rumour, and any future iRobot would come with a boatload of prestige and desirability straight out of the box.

This is still a richly speculative industry, striving to build a product that no-one yet needs. While we can all marvel at the graceful moves of prototypes and admire the mechanisms and servos, it’s worth pointing out that sometimes there’s not an awful lot of substance beyond a well-designed website and a scattering of sci-fi styled renders.

With all that in mind, here’s our guide to the potential robotic recruits to the armies, sorry, workforces of tomorrow.

Honda Asimo

Up until a few years ago, Honda’s Asimo was the friendly face of robotic research. The Japanese industrial giant has been experimenting with a humanoid-type robot since the mid-80s, when it revealed the Honda P Series of swiftly iterating bidepal robots. These were followed by the P Series, P1 through to P4, the lumbering ‘space suited’ precursors to Asimo.

Debuting in 2000, the child-sized robot (130cm tall) went through three revisions, becoming increasingly more sophisticated. Developed long before processing power, sensor technology and AI-driven reinforcement learning techniques became the bedrock of robotic design, Asimo was a pioneer but ultimately remained a promo tool and a testbed. Honda’s robotics programme continues with no consumer products in sight just yet.

Global.Honda

Atlas by Boston Dynamics

Perhaps the first true star of modern social media-driven robotic coverage is Atlas, a company with its origins in MIT when it started back in 1992. From the outset, Boston Dynamics never hid its ties to military applications, with early machines like the wheezing, headless BigDog quadruped providing an early dose of what has come to be known simply as ‘nightmare fuel’.

Atlas debuted in 2014 through a series of viral videos that made a global impression. For the first time, a bipedal robot gave the impression of being able to run, walk, rolls, even do parkour. Boston Dynamics passed through Google ownership and became part of the Hyundai Motor Corporation in 2021. Throughout all this time, Atlas has been refined and improved, with the latest all-electric models continuing to show pioneering agility and autonomy.

Alongside Atlas – which might still result in a commercial product – the company manufactures the Spot quadruped, a now familiar machine that has found favour in a variety of industrial roles around the world. BD certainly knows the strength of a good visual, perhaps more so than any other manufacturer. With over a decade’s worth of experience choreographing its robotic troupe of bipeds and quadrupeds, it arguably created the template for how a robotics company presents itself to the world at large.

BostonDynamics.com, @BostonDynamicsOfficial

Optimus by Tesla

A daunting prospect, even for diehard Tesla fans. For those of us who wouldn’t trust Elon Musk with a pocket calculator, the thought of the world’s most famous quantity surveyor and cost benefit analyst getting his hands on armies of loyal android servants is simply too much. If there’s one single company that could make or break the idea of robots for all, it’s Tesla. The CEO recently claimed the company’s Optimus prototype – already out and about in demo form, will be mass-produced from next year.

Tesla.com, Tesla Bot action figure, Shop.Tesla.com

Iron Robot by Xpeng

Xpeng makes cars, but along with a great swathe of other Chinese auto makers, it also believes that robotics will be a major future market. While other manufacturers like Li Auto are waiting until true autonomous vehicles are the norm before launching into the robot game, Xpeng can't wait.

The company’s Xpeng Robotics sub-division currently trails a smart robotic unicorn, a typically leftfield idea from the company that brought you the six-wheeled all-electric ‘Land Aircraft Carrier’. Alongside this fanciful four-legged creation there’s also a more ‘traditional’ bipedal robot, the Robot Iron. Unveiled in late 2024, this is an industrial robot pitched at factory work and, no doubt, Xpeng’s own extensive manufacturing facilities.

Pxing.com

4NE-1 by Neura Robotics

German manufacturer Neura Robotics wants the country to become a global leader in cognitive robotics, envisioning a future where the industry is on a par with the auto sector in terms of market value. The company’s first explicitly multi-functional robot is the 4NE-1, a punningly-named biped that stands tall (180cm) and broad. The company hopes to launch it this summer, and publicity shots show a machine equally at home in domestic bliss and on the production line.

Neura-Robotics.com, @NeuraRobotics

GoMate by GAC Group

Yet another Chinese auto maker with designs on a robotic future, the Guangzhou Automobile Group’s GoMate humanoid robot is now in its third generation. Differing from many of the robots in this piece, GoMate has a wheeled mode rather than conventional legs, with the ability to swap between two- and four-wheeled mode depending on the function.

In addition, the GoMate has a flat, disc-like head that's a pretty unforgiving and sinister science fiction-inspired design. It goes hand in hand with suggestions that early applications for the robot could include security patrols.

GAC.com

Toyota THR-3 and Punyo

Toyota has been in the robotics game for longer than many of the Chinese contenders have even existed. Through the company’s Toyota Research Institute, the Japanese car maker has been looking at all aspects of robot design and application, from industrial to domestic. Back in 2017, the company launched its THR-3 humanoid model for R&D and last year saw the debut of Punyo (from the Japanese for ‘soft, cute, and resilient’), a squishy-bodied prototype intended to be more tactile and responsive when it comes to lifting and manipulating objects. Toyota is also collaborating with Boston Dynamics.

Toyota Research Institute, TRI.global, Punyo.tech

X1 by AgiBot

China’s AgiBot already has a suite of robots to its name, although this includes industrial cleaning machines. Media focus has been on the X1, an open-source robotic platform with a Pixar-like vibe that stands an unthreatening 130cm high. The company’s roster also includes Xia Lan, a robot with a female human face, Iron Man-style cladding and an apparent mission to educate and entertain.

AgiBot.com

Protoclone by Clone Robotics

Whilst some of the alarmism around developments in robotics is exaggerated for effect, it often isn’t helped by the statements coming out of the companies themselves. ‘Do it yourself once. Clone will do it forever,’ promises Clone Robotics about their upcoming ‘Musculoskeletal, superintelligent androids’.

Based around a proprietary ‘Myofiber’ artificial muscle technology, Clone have gone all-out on to create a synthetic human, a sinewy yet faceless device that appears to be taking visual inspiration from a special effects workshop’s dystopian showreel.

CloneRobotics.com, @CloneRobotics

PM01 by EngineAI

With a low, low price of $13,700, EngineAI’s PM01 is an ultra-agile biped that stands at 138cm (the company also offers the 170cm tall S01). Applications are a little thin on the ground, but the Chinese company’s primary concern is creating a machine with human-like balance and gait. An inbuilt display system implies that the PM01 has a future in marketing and presentations, whilst the moulded silver and black body is pure cinema.

EngineAI.com.cn, @EngineAIrobot

NEO Gamma by 1x

1X is a Norwegian tech start-up looking to make a splash in the world of robotics. In addition to the company’s own NEO Gamma mode – more later – the firm recently announced the acquisition of Kind Humanoid, the Californian start-up that enlisted Yves Béhar to shape their first, ‘friendly-looking’ humanoid device.

The two companies look set to develop in parallel, sharing tech and expertise. 1X also offers Eve, an industrial robot that’s wheeled, rather than bipedal. Where the company differs from others is the chunky knit polo necked jumpsuit that its robots wear, a softer, warmer approach intended to strip away the high-tech connotations of having such a device in the home.

1x.tech, @1x.technologies

G1 by Unitree

One of the few current robots to actually carry a price tag, the G1 from Chinese company Unitree is now for sale at $16,000. Sold alongside the firm’s H1 and H1-2 robots, as well as a litter of robotic dogs, some of which are on wheels, the G1 is like many of the machines in this feature – a device in search of a function. Still, being an early adopter for this kind of technology definitely appeals to some consumer, even if their robots remain talking points rather than another pair of helping hands.

Unitree.com

Apollo by Apptronik

Texan robotic company Apptronik is marketing its Apollo robot as an autonomous warehouse worker with a twist. A partnership with electronics manufacturer Jabil has set in motion a plan to deploy Apollo to run its own production line, effectively becoming self-replicating. Apptronik hopes to start commercial deliveries in 2026, although the robotised production system is probably still a few years away. The company is also working with Mercedes-Benz

Apptronik.com

Abi by Andromeda Robots

Decidedly different to the muted monochrome aesthetic of the vast majority of modern androids, Abi is a robot with a different mission. Created by the Australian start-up Andromeda, the machine is designed to deployed in care homes and children’s hospitals, along the lines of the Moxie or the Mirokaï from French company Enhanced Tools. The end result is a device that's small, colourful and resolutely cheerful.

Dromeda.com.au

HMND 01 by Humanoid

A rare foray into the field by a UK-based company, the HMND 01 is a general-purpose humanoid robot intended to ‘amplify human potential’. HMND 01 is described as a ‘next-hen labour automation unit’ and comes dressed in smock-like work clothes, ready to work. On board AI powers the servos and sensors and the robot is designed to operated either remotely or autonomously.

For starters, the company suggests HMND 01 be trained up to do things like sort and package, a fairly straightforward operation that is a good indication of the low-level yet low stakes and repetitive tasks that early robots might be good for. At this stage, their much-vaunted bipedal walking and obstacle navigation will be little more than a convenient way of getting a piece of industrial machinery from A to B.

TheHumanoid.AI

Walker S1 by Ubtech

Ubtech Technology have a veritable menagerie of robotic products in the works, starting with the Walker S1 industrial robot, a machine that will soon be deployed in auto manufacturing for Donfeng Liuzhou Motor. At 170cm in height, it’s joined by a 130cm sibling, the Walker S Lite. The Shenzhen-based company is also working alongside Geely to trial the robot on its Nio and Zeekr production lines.

Ubtech manufactures Panda-headed robots for Expos and trade show, cutesy educational robots like the Alpha 1E and pint-sized Alpha Mini, with its Lego minifig-stylings, and the ‘hyperrealistic humanoid’ Una. The latter is a full-on descent into the uncanny valley, a machine that imitates a smartly dressed young Chinese woman and intended for use in ‘healthcare, hospitality, and customer support.’

Ubrobot.com

F.02 by Figure

Californian start-up Figure claims its F.02 is the ‘world’s first commercially viable autonomous human robot.’ In the words of founder and CEO Brett Adcock, the company wants robots to ‘eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs — ultimately allowing us to live happier, more purposeful lives.’ Adcock and his team have bold plans to ship 100,000 F.02s out to homes and factories before the end of the decade.

Thus far, tech demos of the F.02 have been impressive, especially showing co-operation between two or more units, as well as the ability to carry out so-called ‘pick-and-place tasks’ that don’t have the precise replicability of ‘traditional’ robotic duties such as spot-welding or glueing. A partnership with BMW has seen the robots take to the factory floor.

Figure.AI

D9 by Pudu

Another Chinese manufacturer of industrial robots hoping to pivot to general purpose bipedal humanoid devices, Pudu’s new D9 stands at 170cm and weights 65kg. Capable of carrying 20kg (so far), the D9 isn’t available for sale just yet, but promotion material points to a product aimed at light warehouse lifting and shelf-stacking, rather than a domestic companion.

PuduRobotics.com

Aimoga Robots

Aimoga Robots is an R&D sub-division of car-makers Chery. Thus far the partnership has resulted in two robots, the Robocop-like humanoid Mornine and Argos, a take on the eerily familiar quadruped archetype with a disturbingly synthetic-looking dog’s head. Suggested applications include car showrooms, appearing alongside Chery’s Jaecoo and Omoda brands, and ‘companionship’. There’s also a partnership with fast-accelerating and little understood Chinese AI company DeepSeek in the works.

@Aimogarobot