Emergingby GlyphAgility unveils Digit 5, built for safe work near people
The fifth-generation Digit targets cooperatively safe work at scale.
agilityrobotics.com
Humanoid robots
Early commercialmomentum 555,161 papers a year (+39%)$4.8B raised in 12 months17 companies
Robots shaped like people, run by AI models that let one machine learn many physical tasks instead of one.
Why early commercial: Agility Robotics reported more than $300 million of multi-year contracted Digit orders when it announced its move to go public. Jun 24, 2026
Dots under a month: dated events tracked here that month.
Events
All 25 eventsUnitree lists on the Shanghai STAR Market
It became the first humanoid robotics stock on China's A-share market.
law.asia
Agility Robotics agrees to go public via merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI
The deal sets a $2.5 billion pre-money equity value.
agilityrobotics.com
Physical Intelligence shows pi0.7, which does tasks it was never taught
The company called it an early step toward a general-purpose robot brain.
techcrunch.com
Unitree files for a Shanghai STAR Market IPO
Unitree sought to raise about $610 million for research and development.
restofworld.org
Funding
Bleu Robotics
Led by Contrarian Ventures
$5.9MSource ↗
120ft
$0.6MSource ↗
Mecka AI
Led by Sequoia Capital
$60MSource ↗
O-ID
$1.2MSource ↗
XPENG Robotics
Led by IDG Capital
$900MSource ↗
Unitree Robotics
$906MSource ↗
Humanoid
Led by Prime Movers Lab
$152MSource ↗
LimX Dynamics
$200MSource ↗
Agility Robotics
$620MSource ↗
Apptronik
$520MSource ↗
Skild AI
Led by SoftBank
$1.4BSource ↗
Figure AI
Led by Parkway Venture Capital
$1.0BSource ↗
Apptronik
Led by B Capital, Capital Factory
$350MSource ↗
Figure AI
$675MSource ↗
1X Technologies
Led by EQT Ventures
$100MSource ↗
Companies
All 25 companies
NVIDIA
Supplies the Isaac GR00T humanoid models, simulation tools and Jetson Thor robot computers.
nvidia.com
Agility Robotics
Makes the Digit humanoid, deployed in logistics and factory sites under robots-as-a-service deals.
agilityrobotics.com
Unitree Robotics
Sells low-cost humanoids such as the G1 and H1, plus quadruped robots.
unitree.com
Physical Intelligence
Trains general robot policies such as the pi0 vision-language-action model.
physicalintelligence.company
Boston Dynamics
Builds the electric Atlas humanoid, owned by Hyundai Motor Group.
bostondynamics.com
Google DeepMind
Builds the Gemini Robotics models that control robots from vision and language.
deepmind.google
Researchers and labs
All 58 researchers and labsChenguang Yang
Publishes on Humanoid robots at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 61 papers in 2 years.
Guanya Shi
Publishes on Humanoid robots at Amazon (United States): 45 papers in 2 years.
Zhangguo Yu
Publishes on Humanoid robots at Beijing Institute of Technology: 35 papers in 2 years.
Cewu Lu
Publishes on Humanoid robots at Shanghai Jiao Tong University: 35 papers in 2 years.
Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
Builds the Tiangong open humanoid platform and embodied AI data sets.
GEAR lab
Generalist embodied agent research, including the open GR00T N1.5 humanoid foundation model.
Most cited papers
All 60 papersFoundation models in robotics: Applications, challenges, and the future
Roya Firoozi, Johnathan Tucker, Stephen Tian et al. · The International Journal of Robotics Research
Reviewing human-robot collaboration in manufacturing: Opportunities and challenges in the context of industry 5.0
Mandeep Dhanda, Benedict Alexander Rogers, Stephanie Hall et al. · Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
Large language models for robotics: Opportunities, challenges, and perspectives
Jiaqi Wang, Enze Shi, Huawen Hu et al. · Journal of Automation and Intelligence
Tool Learning with Foundation Models
Yujia Qin, Shengding Hu, Yankai Lin et al. · ACM Computing Surveys
Embodied large language models enable robots to complete complex tasks in unpredictable environments
Ruaridh Mon-Williams, Gen Li, Ran Long et al. · Nature Machine Intelligence
Patents
Humanoid robot with advanced kinematics
Figure AI Inc
Linear actuator
Apptronik Inc
Ground clutter avoidance for a mobile robot
Boston Dynamics Inc
Mechanical end effector
Figure AI Inc
Auto swing-height adjustment
Boston Dynamics Inc
Systems, devices, and methods for operating a robotic system
Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corp
About humanoid robots here
- Sub-areas
- Humanoid hardwareRobot foundation modelsRobot manufacturingWarehouse and logisticsHome robotsRobot compute and simulation
- Stage evidence
- Early commercial, Jun 24, 2026: Agility Robotics reported more than $300 million of multi-year contracted Digit orders when it announced its move to go public. agilityrobotics.com
- Momentum
- 55 of 100: the mean of its ranks among the tracked fields for paper growth (69), funding in 12 months (75) and events in 90 days (22). Method
- Papers
- 5,161 in the 12 months ending two months ago, +39% against the 12 before (OpenAlex topics, journal and conference papers).
- Tracked here since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Weekly snapshots
- 5 weeks stored; latest Nov 2, 2026. JSON
Changes to this field
Humanoid robots
Renamed from Humanoid and general-purpose robots.