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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 bipedalism, or for other purposes. In general, humanoid robots are characterized by their Anthropomorphism, which includes a torso, a head, two arms, and two legs. However, 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 female-looking robots.
It has been suggested that very advanced robotics will facilitate the enhancement of ordinary humans. See transhumanism.
Although the initial aim of humanoid research was to build better orthosis and prosthesis for human beings, knowledge has been transferred between both disciplines. A few examples are powered leg prosthesis for the neuromuscularly impaired, ankle-foot orthosis, biological realistic leg prosthesis, and forearm prosthesis.
Humanoid robots can be used as test subjects for the practice and development of personalized healthcare aids, essentially performing as robotic nurses for demographics such as the elderly. Humanoids are also suitable for some procedurally-based vocations, such as reception-desk administrators and automotive manufacturing line workers. In essence, since they can use tools and operate equipment and vehicles designed for the human form, humanoids could theoretically perform any task a human being can, so long as they have the proper software. However, the complexity of doing so is immense.
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 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.
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.
Sensors can be classified according to the physical process with which they work or according to the type of measurement information that they give as output. In this case, the second approach was used.
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 to measure the acceleration, from which velocity can be calculated by integration; 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.
Computer vision refers to processing data from any modality which uses the electromagnetic spectrum 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 CCD cameras as vision sensors.
Sound sensors allow humanoid robots to hear speech and environmental sounds, akin to the ears of the human being. are usually used for the robots to convey speech.
Humanoid robots are constructed in such a way that they mimic the human body. They use actuators that perform like and , though with a different structure. The actuators of humanoid robots can be either electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic. (2026). 9783319938691 ISBN 9783319938691 It is ideal for these actuators to have high power, low mass, and small dimensions.
The question of walking biped robots stabilization on the surface is of great importance. 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.
To maintain dynamic balance during the walk, a robot needs information about contact force and its current and desired motion. The solution to this problem relies on a major concept, the Zero Moment Point (ZMP).
Another characteristic of humanoid robots is that they move, gather information (using sensors) on the "real world", and interact with it. They do not stay still like factory manipulators and other robots that work in highly structured environments. To allow humanoids to move in complex environments, planning and control must focus on self-collision detection, path planning and obstacle avoidance.
Humanoid robots do not yet have some features of the human body. (2026). 9789400771949 ISBN 9789400771949 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. Although these characteristics are desirable to humanoid robots, they will bring more complexity and new problems to planning and control. 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. (2026). 9783319405568 ISBN 9783319405568
| Automaton | A humanoid automaton is detailed in the Liezi, written by Chinese philosopher Lie Yukou. | |
| Automata | Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria described a machine that automatically pours wine for party guests.Hero of Alexandria; Bennet Woodcroft (trans.) (1851). Temple Doors opened by Fire on an Altar. Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria. London: Taylor Walton and Maberly (online edition from University of Rochester, Rochester, NY). Retrieved on 2008-04-23. | |
| 1206 | Ismail al-Jazari described a band made up of humanoid automata which, according to Charles B. Fowler, performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."Fowler, Charles B. (October 1967), "The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments", Music Educators Journal 54 (2): 45-9 Al-Jazari also created hand-washing automata with automatic humanoid servants. His programmable "castle clock" also featured five musician automata which automatically played music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel. | |
| 1495 | Leonardo's robot | Leonardo da Vinci designs a humanoid automaton clad in a suit of knight's armor and operated by pulleys and cables. |
| 1738 | The Flute Player | Jacques de Vaucanson builds The Flute Player, a life-size automaton capable of playing different melodies on the flute. |
| 1774 | Pierre Jacquet-Droz and his son Henri-Louis created the Draughtsman, the Musicienne and the Writer, a figure of a boy that could write messages up to 40 characters long. | |
| 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. (reprint) |
| 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. (2026). 9783319223674 ISBN 9783319223674 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., page 130 |
| 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 Bipedalism. |
| 1972 | Powered exoskeleton | Miomir 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. |
| 1985 | WHL-11 | Developed by Hitachi Ltd, WHL-11 is a biped robot capable of static walking on a flat surface at 13 seconds per step and it can also turn. |
| 1986 | Honda E series | Honda developed seven biped robots which were designated E0 (Experimental Model 0) through E6. E0 was in 1986, E1 – E3 were done between 1987 and 1991, and E4 - E6 were done between 1991 and 1993. |
| 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. |
| 1990 | Tad McGeer showed that a biped mechanical structure with knees could walk passively down a sloping surface. | |
| 1993 | Honda P series | Honda developed P1 (Prototype Model 1) through P3, an evolution from E series, with upper limbs. Developed until 1997. |
| 1995 | Hadaly | Developed in Waseda University to study human-robot communication and has three subsystems: a head-eye subsystem, a voice control system for listening and speaking in Japanese, and a motion-control subsystem to use the arms to point toward campus destinations. |
| 1995 | Wabian | A human-size biped walking robot from Waseda University. |
| 1996 | Saika | A light-weight, human-size and low-cost humanoid robot, was developed at Tokyo University. Saika has a two-DOF neck, dual five-DOF upper arms, a torso and a head. Several types of hands and forearms are under development also. Developed until 1998. |
| Vanderbilt Humanoid | The Intelligent Robotics Lab built ISAC (Intelligent Soft Arm Control) robot uses Bridgestone Robotics arms. The Bridgestone robotic arm uses pneumatic-actuated chambers to simulate the human-muscle contraction and expansion. In 1995, the two arms were augmented with a mechanical "head" called CATCH (Cost-effective Active Camera Head). CATCH was built by a graduate student, 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. |
| 2000 | ASIMO | Honda creates its 11th bipedal humanoid robot, able to run. |
| Xianxingzhe | The National University of Defense Technology creates the first bipedal humanoid robot in China. | |
| 2001 | Qrio | Sony unveils small humanoid entertainment robots, dubbed Sony Dream Robot (SDR). Renamed Qrio in 2003. |
| 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. |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 2005 | HUBO | A walking humanoid robot developed by KAIST 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. | |
| 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. |
| REEM-A | The first fully autonomous European biped humanoid robot, designed to play chess with the Hydra Chess engine. The first robot developed by PAL Robotics, it was also used as a walking, manipulation, speech and vision development platform. | |
| iCub | A biped humanoid open source robot for cognition research. | |
| MAHRU | A network-based biped humanoid robot developed in South Korea. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. (2026). 9783662444672 ISBN 9783662444672 |
| 2013 | 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 | 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. | |
| 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.J. Zhang J, N. Magnenat Thalmann and J. Zheng, Combining Memory and Emotion With Dialog on Social Companion: A Review, Proceedings of the ACM 29th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA 2016), pp. 1-9, Geneva, Switzerland, May 23–25, 2016 | |
| 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 |
| 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. | |
| Shalu Robot | Homemade Artificially Intelligent, Indian Multilingualism Humanoid Robot, made-up of Waste, 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. | |
| 2022 | Ameca | In January 2022 Engineered Arts gave the first public demonstration of their humanoid robot Ameca. |
| Optimus | On October 1, 2022, Tesla unveiled version 1 of their humanoid robot Optimus. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. |
| Figure 03 | In September 2025, Figure AI introduced and demonstrated their third revision autonomous humanoid robot, capable of doing household chores. | |
| 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 |
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 "" 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. (2026). 9781605580173 ISBN 9781605580173
The term gynoid was first used by Isaac Asimov in a 1979 editorial, as a theoretical female equivalent of the word android.
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