thumb|Valkyrie (R5), a humanoid robot from [[NASA]]

A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be aimed at functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments and working alongside humans, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other purposes.

In general, humanoid robots are characterized by their anthropomorphic design, which includes a torso, a head, two arms, and two legs. Some humanoid robots may have a more limited range of body replicas, comprising only a subset of the above-mentioned components.

Androids are humanoid robots designed to more closely resemble the human physique. The term gynoid is sometimes used to refer to robots that look female.

Applications

Medical and research

Humanoid robots are a valuable resource in the world of medicine and biotechnology, as well as other fields of research such as biomechanics and cognitive science. Humanoid robots are being used to develop complex prosthetics for individuals with physical disabilities such as missing limbs. The WABIAN-2 is a new medical humanoid robot created to help patients in the rehabilitation of their lower limbs.

Outside of theme parks, humanoid robots increasingly appear in live sports-style events and competitions. In 2025 the Chinese robotics company Unitree live-streamed what it billed as the first boxing tournament between humanoid robots, with four G1 robots taking part in a small-ring event that combined remote control with short autonomous sequences. The same year, Beijing hosted the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, where more than 500 robots from 280 teams competed in events such as soccer, running and boxing and performed choreographed routines including hip-hop and martial arts during the opening ceremony. Exhibition matches and tournaments with humanoid robot football teams have also been promoted as trials for future multi-sport robot events. Humanoid robots even performed as dancers during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China.

Humanoid robots have also been used as performers in concerts and televised shows. At the 2025 VOYAGEX music festival in Changchun, the PNDbotics humanoid Adam appeared on stage as a keytar player as part of a live band performance. Earlier that year, a Chinese Spring Festival television gala featured a choreographed routine in which sixteen Unitree H1 humanoid robots danced alongside human performers, presented as a demonstration of the country's progress in humanoid robotics. These and similar appearances at music events and public festivals have been described as ways to familiarise audiences with humanoid robots while showcasing advances in dynamic control, balance and human–robot interaction. Another example is the 2026 China Media Group Spring Festival Gala.

Various humanoid robots and their possible applications in daily life, including service and companion roles, are featured in the independent documentary film Plug & Pray, released in 2010. Modern examples of humanoid robots, such as the Honda Asimo, are revealed to the public in order to demonstrate new technological advancements in motor skills, such as walking, climbing, and playing an instrument.

Proprioceptive

Proprioceptive sensors sense the position, orientation, and speed of the humanoid's body and joints, along with other internal values.

In human beings, the otoliths and semi-circular canals (in the inner ear) are used to maintain balance and orientation. Additionally, humans use their own proprioceptive sensors (e.g. touch, muscle extension, limb position) to help with their orientation. Humanoid robots use accelerometers to measure the acceleration, from which velocity can be calculated by integration; tilt sensors to measure inclination; force sensors placed in robot's hands and feet to measure contact force with environment; position sensors that indicate the actual position of the robot (from which the velocity can be calculated by derivation); and even speed sensors.

Exteroceptive

thumb|upright|An artificial hand holding a [[lightbulb]]

Arrays of tactels can be used to provide data on what has been touched. The Shadow Hand uses an array of 34 tactels arranged beneath its polyurethane skin on each finger tip. Tactile sensors also provide information about forces and torques transferred between the robot and other objects.

Computer vision refers to the processing of data from any modality which uses light to produce an image. In humanoid robots it is used to recognize objects and determine their properties. Vision sensors work most similarly to the eyes of human beings. Most humanoid robots use charge-coupled device cameras as vision sensors.

Sound sensors allow humanoid robots to hear speech and environmental sounds, akin to the ears of the human being. Microphones are usually used for the robots to convey speech.

Actuators

Actuators are the motors responsible for motion in the robot. The most popular example of a humanoid robot using hydraulic actuators was the original Atlas robot made by Boston Dynamics (retired in 2024).

Humanoid robots are constructed in such a way that they mimic the human body. They use actuators that perform like muscles and joints, though with a different structure. It is ideal for these actuators to have high power, low mass, and small dimensions.

Pneumatic

Pneumatic actuators operate on the basis of gas compressibility. Control is the actual execution of these planned motions and trajectories. Since one of the main uses of humanoid robots is to interact with humans, it is important for the planning and control mechanisms of humanoid robots to work in a variety of terrain and environments. Maintenance of the robot's gravity center over the center of bearing area for providing a stable position can be chosen as a goal of control. They do not stay still like factory manipulators and other robots that work in highly structured environments.

Humanoid robots do not yet have some features of the human body. They include structures with variable flexibility, which provide safety (to the robot itself and to the people), and redundancy of movements, i.e. more degrees of freedom and therefore wide task availability. The field of whole-body control deals with these issues and addresses the proper coordination of numerous degrees of freedom, e.g. to realize several control tasks simultaneously while following a given order of priority.

Some humanoid robots feature only the upper body, which is typically mounted to a wheeled base, drastically reducing the risk of falling common to bipedal units.

Timeline of developments

{| class="wikitable" width="100%"

! style="width:4%" |Year

!Subject

!Notes

|-

|1898

|

|Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrates his "automaton" technology by wirelessly controlling a model boat at the Electrical Exposition held at Madison Square Garden in New York City during the height of the Spanish–American War.

|-

|1921

|

|Czech writer Karel Čapek introduced the word "robot" in his play R.U.R. (which stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots"). The word "robot" comes from the word "robota", meaning, in Czech and Polish, "labour, drudgery".

|-

|1927

|Maschinenmensch

|The ("machine-human"), a gynoid humanoid robot, also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator" (played by German actress Brigitte Helm), one of the earliest humanoid robots ever to appear on film, is depicted in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis.

|-

|1928

|Eric

|An electrical robot opens an exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers at London's Royal Horticultural Hall in London, and tours the world.

|-

|1939

|Elektro

|A humanoid robot built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation

|-

|1941-42

|Three Laws of Robotics

|Isaac Asimov formulates the Three Laws of Robotics, used in his robot science fiction stories, and in the process of doing so, coins the word "robotics".

|-

|1948

|Cybernetics

|Norbert Wiener formulates the principles of cybernetics, the basis of practical robotics.

|-

|1961

|Unimate

|The first digitally operated and programmable non-humanoid robot, is installed on a General Motors assembly line to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. It was created by George Devol and constructed by Unimation, the first robot manufacturing company.

|-

|1967 to 1972

|WABOT-1

|Waseda University initiated the WABOT project in 1967, and in 1972 completed the WABOT-1, the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot. It was the first android, able to walk, communicate with a person in Japanese (with an artificial mouth), measure distances and directions to the objects using external receptors (artificial ears and eyes), and grip and transport objects with hands.

|-

|1969

|

|D.E. Whitney publishes his article "Resolved motion rate control of manipulators and human prosthesis".

|-

|1970

|Zero Moment Point

|Miomir Vukobratović proposed a theoretical model to explain bipedal locomotion.

|-

|1972

|Powered exoskeleton

|Vukobratović and his associates at Mihajlo Pupin Institute build the first active anthropomorphic exoskeleton.

|-

|1980

|

|Marc Raibert established the MIT Leg Lab, which is dedicated to studying legged locomotion and building dynamic legged robots.

|-

|1983

|Greenman

|Using MB Associates arms, "Greenman" was developed by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego. It had an exoskeletal master controller with kinematic equivalency and spatial correspondence of the torso, arms, and head. Its vision system consisted of two 525-line video cameras each having a 35-degree field of view and video camera eyepiece monitors mounted in an aviator's helmet.

|-

|1984

|WABOT-2

|At Waseda University, the WABOT-2 is created, a musician humanoid robot able to communicate with a person, read a normal musical score with his eyes and play tunes of average difficulty on an electronic organ.

|-

|1989

|Manny

|A full-scale anthropomorphic robot with 42 degrees of freedom developed at Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratories in Richland, Washington, for the US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. It could not walk on its own but it could crawl, and had an artificial respiratory system to simulate breathing and sweating.

|-

|1993

|Honda P series

|Honda developed P1 (Prototype Model 1) through P3, an evolution from E series, with upper limbs. Developed until 1997.

|-

|1995

|Wabian

|A human-size biped walking robot from Waseda University. then used for autonomous navigation and put on the two arms to create the third humanoid in the World after Honda's Asimo and MIT's COG.

|-

|1997

|Hadaly-2

|A humanoid robot designed in Waseda University which realizes interactive communication with humans. It communicates not only informationally, but also physically.

|-

|HOAP

|Fujitsu realized its first commercial humanoid robot named HOAP-1. Its successors, HOAP-2 and HOAP-3, were announced in 2003 and 2005, respectively. HOAP is designed for a broad range of applications for R&D of robot technologies.

|-

|2002

|HRP-2

|A biped walking robot built by the Manufacturing Science and Technology Center (MSTC) in Tokyo.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2003

|JOHNNIE

|An autonomous biped walking robot built at the Technical University of Munich. The main objective was to realize an anthropomorphic walking machine with a human-like, dynamically stable gait.

|-

|Actroid

|A robot with realistic silicone "skin" developed by Osaka University in conjunction with Kokoro Company Ltd.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2004

|Persia

|Iran's first humanoid robot, was developed using realistic simulation by researchers of Isfahan University of Technology in conjunction with ISTT.

|-

|KHR-1

|A programmable bipedal humanoid robot introduced in June 2004 by a Japanese company Kondo Kagaku.

|-

| rowspan="4" |2005

|HUBO

|A walking humanoid robot developed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in January 2005.

|-

|PKD Android

|A conversational humanoid robot made in the likeness of science fiction novelist Philip K Dick, was developed as a collaboration between Hanson Robotics, the FedEx Institute of Technology, and the University of Memphis.

|-

|Wakamaru

|A Japanese domestic robot made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, primarily intended to provide companionship to elderly and disabled people.

|-

|Actroid

|The Geminoid series is a series of ultra-realistic humanoid robots developed by Hiroshi Ishiguro of ATR and Kokoro in Tokyo. The original one, Geminoid HI-1, was made at its image. Followed Geminoid-F in 2010 and Geminoid-DK in 2011.

|-

| rowspan="4" |2006

|Nao

|A small open source programmable humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, in France. Widely used by worldwide universities as a research platform and educational tool.

|-

|iCub

|A biped humanoid open source robot for cognition research.

|-

|Mahru

|A network-based biped humanoid robot developed in South Korea.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2007

|TOPIO

|A ping pong playing robot developed by TOSY Robotics JSC.

|-

|Twendy-One

|A robot developed by the WASEDA University Sugano Laboratory for home assistance services. It is not biped, as it uses an omni-directional mobile mechanism.

|-

| rowspan="5" |2008

|Justin

|A humanoid robot developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

|-

|Nexi

|The first mobile, dexterous, and social robot, makes its public debut as one of TIME magazine's top inventions of the year. The robot was built through a collaboration between the MIT Media Lab Personal Robots Group, UMass Amherst and Meka Robotics.

|-

|Salvius

|The first open source humanoid robot built in the United States is created.

|-

|REEM-B

|The second biped humanoid robot developed by PAL Robotics. It has the ability to autonomously learn its environment using various sensors and carry 20% of its own weight.

|-

|Surena

|It had a height of 165 centimetres and weight of 60 kilograms, and is able to speak according to predefined text. It also has remote control and tracking ability.

|-

| rowspan="3" |2009

|HRP-4C

|A Japanese domestic robot made by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, shows human characteristics in addition to bipedal walking.

|-

|Kobian

|A robot developed by Waseda University can walk, talk, and mimic emotions.

|-

|DARwIn-OP

|An open source robot developed by ROBOTIS in collaboration with Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and University of Pennsylvania. This project was supported and sponsored by NSF.

|-

| rowspan="3" |2010

|Robonaut 2

|A very advanced humanoid robot by NASA and General Motors. It was part of the payload of Shuttle Discovery on the successful launch February 24, 2011. It is intended to do spacewalks for NASA.

|-

|HRP-4C

|National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology demonstrate their humanoid robot singing and dancing along with human dancers.

|-

|REEM

|A humanoid service robot with a wheeled mobile base. Developed by PAL Robotics, it can perform autonomous navigation in various surroundings and has voice and face recognition capabilities.

|-

|2011

|ASIMO

|In November, Honda unveiled its second generation Honda Asimo Robot. The all new Asimo is the first version of the robot with semi-autonomous capabilities.

|-

|2012

|NimbRo

|The Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group of University of Bonn, Germany, introduces the Humanoid TeenSize Open Platform NimbRo-OP.

|-

| rowspan="5" |2013

| rowspan="2" |TORO

|The German Aerospace Center (DLR) presents the humanoid robot TORO (TOrque-controlled humanoid RObot).

|-

|On December 20–21, 2013, DARPA Robotics Challenge ranked the top 16 humanoid robots competing for the US$2 million cash prize. The leading team, SCHAFT, with 27 out of a possible score of 30 was bought by Google.

|-

|REEM-C

|PAL Robotics launches REEM-C, the first humanoid biped robot developed as a robotics research platform 100% ROS based.

|-

|Poppy

|The first open-source 3D-printed humanoid robot. Bio-inspired, with legs designed for biped locomotion. Developed by the Flower Departments at INRIA.

|-

| Valkyrie (R5)

| Developed by NASA. The primary objective was to create a robot capable of supporting future NASA missions, whether by performing tasks in advance of human arrival on other planets or by serving as an assistant to human teams during missions.

|-

| rowspan="3" |2014

|Manav

|India's first 3D printed humanoid robot developed in the laboratory of A-SET Training and Research Institutes by Diwakar Vaish (head Robotics and Research, A-SET Training and Research Institutes).

|-

|Pepper robot

|After the acquisition of Aldebaran, SoftBank Robotics releases a robot available for the public.

|-

|Nadine

|A female humanoid social robot designed in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and modelled on its director Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann. Nadine is a socially intelligent robot which returns greetings, makes eye contact, and remembers all the conversations it has had.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2016

|Sophia

|A humanoid robot developed by "Hanson Robotics", Hong Kong, and modelled after Audrey Hepburn. Sophia has artificial intelligence, visual data processing and facial recognition.

|-

|OceanOne

|Developed by a team at Stanford University, led by computer science professor Oussama Khatib, OceanOne completed its first mission, diving for treasure in a shipwreck off the coast of France, at a depth of 100 meters. The robot is controlled remotely, has haptic sensors in its hands, and artificial intelligence capabilities.

|-

|2017

|TALOS

|PAL Robotics launches TALOS, a fully electrical humanoid robot with joint torque sensors and EtherCAT communication technology that can manipulate up to 6 kg payload in each of its grippers.

|-

|2018

|Rashmi Robot

|A multilingual realistic humanoid robot was launched in India by Ranjit Shrivastav having emotional interpretation capabilities

|-

| rowspan="3" |2020

|Digit

|On January 5, 2020 Agility Robotics introduced the first version of Digit, their humanoid robot, initially purchased by Ford Motor Company for research into autonomous last-mile delivery.

|-

|Vyommitra

|A female-looking spacefaring humanoid robot being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation to function on board the Gaganyaan, a crewed orbital spacecraft.

|-

|Robot Shalu

|Homemade Artificially Intelligent, Indian Multilingual Humanoid Robot, made-up of waste materials, that can speak 9 Indian and 38 foreign languages (total 47 languages), developed by Dinesh Kunwar Patel, Computer Science teacher, Kendriya Vidyalaya Mumbai, India. Shalu can recognize a person and remember them, identify many objects, solve mathematical problems, give horoscopes and weather reports, teach in a classroom, conduct a quiz, and do many other things.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2022

|Ameca

|In January 2022 Engineered Arts Ltd gave the first public demonstration of their humanoid robot Ameca.

|-

|Optimus

|On October 1, 2022, Tesla unveiled version 1 of their humanoid robot Optimus.

|-

| rowspan="2" |2023

|Digit

|On March 20, 2023 Agility Robotics revealed the fourth version of Digit. Adding a head, new manipulators, and perception systems.

|-

|Optimus

|In December 2023, Tesla unveiled Optimus version 2, featuring 30% faster movement, 10 kg less weight, and sensors on all 10 fingers.

|-

| rowspan="4" |2024

|Atlas, Electric

|In April 2024, after the retirement of the hydraulic version of Atlas, Boston Dynamics released an all electric version of Atlas with a broader range of motion and higher dexterity than the former model.

|-

|G1

|In May 2024, Unitree Robotics released new humanoid robot with upgraded mobility, most noted for its affordable price point starting at $16k. The design is comparable to Boston Dynamic's upgraded Atlas.

|-

|HumanPlus

|In June 2024, Stanford researchers announced a prototype robot that could mimic human movement to learn how to perform actions such as playing table tennis and the piano.

|-

|Digit

|In June 2024, Agility Robotics announced that 5 of its Digit robots had begun handling tasks in the factory of its customer GXO Logistics.

|-

|2025

|SE01

|In February 2025, Engine AI demonstrated a humanoid robot that could perform a forward flip.

|-

|

|Factory deployments

|In 2025, humanoid robots entered mass industrial deployment for the first time. Figure AI's Figure 02 supported production of over 30,000 vehicles at BMW's Spartanburg plant, while Unitree Robotics shipped more than 5,500 units globally. Goldman Sachs projected the humanoid robot market would reach $38 billion by 2035.

|-

|

|NEO

|In October 2025, 1X Technologies unveils NEO, the first consumer-ready bipedal humanoid robot designed for home use.

|-

|

|AIdol

|In November 2025, AIdol presented its humanoid robot during an event in Moscow. The presentation failed when the robot fell over after it had taken a few steps. It had to be removed by staff members.

|-

|

|AgiBot

|In November 2025, AgiBot's A2 model Walked 100 km From Suzhou to Shanghai in 3 Days entering the Guinness World Records for doing so

|-

|2026

|Running the half-marathon

|Bipedal robots built by Honor took the first three places in the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon, with the winning robot, Lightning, breaking the human world record by about 7 minutes.

|}

In science fiction

A common theme for the depiction of humanoid robots in science fiction pertains to how they can help humans in society or serve as threats to humanity. This theme essentially questions whether artificial intelligence is a force of good or bad for mankind.

Another prominent theme found in science fiction regarding humanoid robots focuses on personhood. Certain films, particularly Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, explore whether or not a constructed, synthetic being should be considered a person. In the films, androids called "replicants" are created indistinguishably from human beings, yet they are shunned and do not possess the same rights as humans. This theme incites audience sympathy while also sparking unease at the idea of humanoid robots mimicking humans too closely.

The term gynoid was first used by Isaac Asimov in a 1979 editorial, as a theoretical female equivalent of the word android.

Criticism

Humanoid robots, which are designed to resemble and mimic human form and behavior, have faced several criticisms:

  • Uncanny Valley Effect: As robots become more human-like but not quite perfect, they can evoke feelings of unease or revulsion in humans.
  • Ethical Confusion: Humanoid robots can potentially lead to ethical dilemmas, creating confusion about their rights or treatment.
  • The fetishization of gynoids in real life has been attributed to male desires for custom-made passive women and compared to life-size sex dolls.

See also

  • Frankenstein complex
  • Personal robot
  • List of fictional robots and androids
  • Non-carbon lifeforms
  • Biological robot

References

Citations

Sources

  • Asada, H. and Slotine, J.-J. E. (1986). Robot Analysis and Control. Wiley. .
  • Arkin, Ronald C. (1998). Behavior-Based Robotics. MIT Press. .
  • Brady, M., Hollerbach, J.M., Johnson, T., Lozano-Perez, T. and Mason, M. (1982), Robot Motion: Planning and Control. MIT Press. .
  • Horn, Berthold, K. P. (1986). Robot Vision. MIT Press. .
  • Craig, J. J. (1986). Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and Control. Addison Wesley. .
  • Everett, H. R. (1995). Sensors for Mobile Robots: Theory and Application. AK Peters. .
  • Kortenkamp, D., Bonasso, R., Murphy, R. (1998). Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robots. MIT Press. .
  • Poole, D., Mackworth, A. and Goebel, R. (1998), Computational Intelligence: A Logical Approach. Oxford University Press. .
  • Russell, R. A. (1990). Robot Tactile Sensing. Prentice Hall. .
  • Russell, S. J. & Norvig, P. (1995). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Prentice-Hall. Prentice Hall. .

Further reading

  • Carpenter, J., Davis, J., Erwin‐Stewart, N., Lee. T., Bransford, J. & Vye, N. (2009). Gender representation in humanoid robots for domestic use. International Journal of Social Robotics (special issue). 1 (3), 261‐265. The Netherlands: Springer.
  • Carpenter, J., Davis, J., Erwin‐Stewart, N., Lee. T., Bransford, J. & Vye, N. (2008). Invisible machinery in function, not form: User expectations of a domestic humanoid robot. Proceedings of 6th conference on Design and Emotion. Hong Kong, China.
  • Williams, Karl P. (2004). Build Your Own Human Robots: 6 Amazing and Affordable Projects. McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics. . .
  • Humanoid Robots' jobs in Japan
  • , African Times, June 2009