Humanoid robotics

Humanoid robotics is a type of robotics. A humanoid robot is a robot that is shaped like a human body. Humanoid robots have many uses, such as: using human tools and spaces; working with humans, for experiments, such as studying bipedal (two-legged) locomotion or dangerous experiments;^[2][3] and more. Generally, humanoid robots have a torso, a head, two arms, and two legs, though some only have part of the body. Androids are humanoid robots built to look like humans.

Valkyrie, a humanoid robot^[1] from NASA

History

Concepts of humanoid robots come from many different cultures around the world. Some of the earliest accounts of the idea of humanoid robots date to the 4th century BCE in Greek mythology (where they were known as automata) and some religious and philosophical texts from China.^[4][5] Physical prototypes of automaton, machines that operated themselves were later created in various regions, they are considered precursors to modern humanoid robots which emerged around the 1970s. Since then humanoid robots have been developed for many uses. ^[6]

Humanoid Robotics Innovation Timeline
Year	Subject	Description
c. 250 BCE	Automaton	A humanoid automaton is describe in Liezi, by Chinese philosopher Lie Yukou.[5]
c. 50 CE	Automata	Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria described a machine that automatically pours wine for party guests.[7]
1206	Ismail Al-Jazari's band of automata	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."[8] Al-Jazari also created hand-washing automata with automatic humanoid servants.[9] His "castle clock", which could be programmed, also included five musical automata which played music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel.[10][11]
1495	Leonardo's robot	Leonardo da Vinci designed a humanoid automaton wearing knight's armor, operated by pulleys and cables.[12]
1738	The Flute Player	Jacques de Vaucanson built The Flute Player, a human sized automaton capable of playing songs on the flute.[13]
1774	The Draughtsman the Musicienne and the Writer	Pierre Jacquet-Droz and his son Henri-Louis created the Draughtsman, the Musicienne and the Writer, an automaton boy that could draw and write messages up to 40 characters long.[14]
1921	R.U.R.	Czech writer Karel Čapek created 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 "labour" in Czech and Polish.[15]
1927	Maschinenmensch	The Maschinenmensch ("machine-human"), a female humanoid robot, also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator" (played by German actress Brigitte Helm), is depicted in Fritz Lang's film Metropolis. It is one of the earliest humanoid robots ever to appear on film.
1928	Eric	Eric (an electrical robot) opens an exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers at London's Royal Horticultural Hall, and is taken around the world.[16]
1939	Elektro	Elektro (a humanoid robot) is built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation[17]
1941-42	Three Laws of Robotics	Isaac Asimov writes the Three Laws of Robotics, used in his robot science fiction stories. In doing this he creates the term "robotics".[18]
1948	Cybernetics	Norbert Wiener creates the principles of cybernetics, the foundation for practical robotics.[19]
1967 to 1972	WABOT-1	Waseda University started the WABOT project in 1967, and completed the WABOT-1, the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot, in 1972.[20][21] It was the first android. It could walk, communicate in Japanese (using an artificial mouth), measure distances and directions to objects using artificial ears and eyes, and grip and transport objects with hands.[22][23][24]
1969	Resolved motion rate control of manipulators and human prosthesis	D.E. Whitney published his article "Resolved motion rate control of manipulators and human prosthesis".[25]
1970	Zero Moment Point	Miomir Vukobratović proposed a theoretical model to explain bipedal (two-legged) locomotion (moving on two legs).[26]
1972	Powered exoskeleton	Miomir Vukobratović and his colleagues at Mihajlo Pupin Institute built the first active anthropomorphic exoskeleton.[27]
1980	MIT Leg Lab	Marc Raibert started the MIT Leg Lab, which is dedicated to studying legged locomotion and building dynamic legged robots.[28]
1983	Greenman	"Greenman" was developed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego. Its vision system consisted of two video cameras each having a 35-degree field of view and video camera monitors mounted in an aviator's helmet.[29]
1984	WABOT-2	The WABOT-2 was created At Waseda University. It was a musician humanoid robot able to communicate with a person, read a musical score with his eyes and play some tunes on an electronic organ.[22]
1985	WHL-11	Developed by Hitachi Ltd, WHL-11 is a biped (two-legged) (two-legged) robot capable of walking on a flat surface taking 13 seconds for each step. It can also turn.[22]
1986	Honda E series	Honda developed seven biped (two-legged) (two-legged) robots categorized as E0 (Experimental Model 0) through E6. E0 was created 1986. Later models were made until 1993.[30]
1989	Manny	Manny was a full-scale anthropomorphic (human-shaped) robot with 42 different movements. It was made 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. It had an artificial respiratory system to simulate breathing and sweating.[22]
1990	Passive sloped surface walking	Tad McGeer showed that a biped (two-legged) mechanical structure with knees could walk passively down a sloping surface.[31]
1993	Honda P series	Honda developed P1 (Prototype Model 1) through P3, an improvement from the E series. The P series had upper limbs. They were developed until 1997.[30]
1995	Hadaly	Hadaly was developed in Waseda University to study human-robot communication and has three parts: a head and eye system, a voice system for listening and speaking in Japanese, and a motionsystem to use the arms to point toward campus destinations.[32]
1995	Wabian	Wabian was a human-size biped (two-legged) (two-legged) walking robot from Waseda University.[32]
1996	Saika	Saika was a light, human-size, cheap humanoid robot. It was developed at Tokyo University. Saika has a two-DOF (Degree Of Freedom/ways of moving) neck, dual five-DOF upper arms, a torso and a head. Several types of hands and forearms were under development. Saika was developed until 1998.[22]
	Vanderbilt Humanoid	The Intelligent Robotics Lab built the ISAC (Intelligent Soft Arm Control) robot using Bridgestone Robotics arms. The Bridgestone robotic arm uses pneumatic-actuated (pressurized gas controlled) chambers to replicate human muscles. 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.[33] It was 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	Hadaly-2 was a humanoid robot made in Waseda University which had interactive communication with humans. It communicates not only information, but also conveys meaning physically.[32]
2000	ASIMO	Honda created its 11th bipedal (two-legged) humanoid robot ASIMO, it was able to run.[30]
	Xianxingzhe	The National University of Defense Technology created the first bipedal (two-legged) (two-legged) humanoid robot in China, Xianxingzhe.[34]
2001	SDR/Qrio	Sony made small humanoid entertainment robots, called the Sony Dream Robots (SDR). It was renamed Qrio in 2003.[35]
	HOAP	Fujitsu made its first commercial humanoid robot named HOAP-1. Later models, HOAP-2 and HOAP-3, were announced in 2003 and 2005. HOAP is designed for many robotics research and development tasks.[36]
2002	HRP-2	HRP-2 was a biped (two-legged) walking robot built by the Manufacturing Science and Technology Center (MSTC) in Tokyo.[37]
2003	JOHNNIE	JOHNNIE was an autonomous biped (two-legged) walking robot built at the Technical University of Munich. The goal was to create a robot that could walk like a human and look like a human.[38]
	Actroid	Actroid was a robot with realistic silicone "skin" developed by Osaka University in conjunction with Kokoro Company Ltd.[39]
2004	Iran's first humanoid robot	Iran's first humanoid robot was developed using realistic simulation by researchers of Isfahan University of Technology in conjunction with ISTT (Isfahan Science and Technology Town).[40]
	KHR-1	KHR-1 was a programmable bipedal (two-legged) humanoid robot introduced in June 2004 by the Japanese company Kondo Kagaku.
2005	HUBO	HUO was a walking humanoid robot developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in January 2005.
	PKD Android	PKD Android was a conversational humanoid robot made based on science fiction novelist Philip K Dick. It was developed by Hanson Robotics, the FedEx Institute of Technology, and the University of Memphis.[41]
	Wakamaru	Wakamaru was a Japanese domestic robot made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, it was meant to provide companionship to elderly and disabled people.[42]
2006	Nao	Nao is a small open source (publicly accessible) programmable humanoid robot made by Aldebaran Robotics, in France. It is used around the world as a research platform and educational tool.[43]
	REEM-A	REEM-A was the first fully autonomous European biped (two-legged) humanoid robot. It played chess with the Hydra Chess engine. It was the first robot developed by PAL Robotics. It was also used as a walking, manipulation, speech and vision development platform.[44]
	iCub	iCub was a biped (two-legged) humanoid open source robot for cognition research.[45]
	Mahru	Mahru was a network-based biped (two-legged) humanoid robot from South Korea.[46]
2007	TOPIO	TOPIA was a ping pong playing robot made by TOSY Robotics JSC.[47]
	Twendy-One	Twendy-One was a robot made by the WASEDA University Sugano Laboratory for use in the home. It is not bipedal (two-legged), as it uses an omni-directional (moving in all directions) mobile mechanism.[48]
2008	Justin	Justin was a humanoid robot developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).[49]
	Nexi	Nexi was the first mobile, dexterous (picks up objects), and social robot, makes its public debut as one of TIME magazine's top inventions of the year.[50] The robot was built through a collaboration between the MIT Media Lab Personal Robots Group,[51] UMass Amherst and Meka Robotics.[52][53]
	Salvius	Salvius was the first open source humanoid robot built in the United States.[54]
	REEM-B	REEM-B was the second biped (two-legged) 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.[55]
	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.[56]
2009	HRP-4C	A Japanese domestic robot made by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, shows human characteristics in addition to bipedal (two-legged) walking.[57]
	Kobian	Kobian was a robot developed by Waseda University can walk, talk, and mimic emotions.[58]
	DARwIn-OP	An open source robot was developed by ROBOTIS in collaboration with Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and University of Pennsylvania. This project was supported and sponsored by NSF, it was called DARwIn-OP.[59]
2010	Robonaut 2	Robonaut 2 was an advanced humanoid robot from NASA and General Motors. It was part of the payload of Shuttle Discovery on the successful launch February 24, 2011. It was intended to do spacewalks for NASA.[60]
	HRP-4C	National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology demonstrated their humanoid robot (HRP-4C) singing and dancing along with human dancers.[61]
	REEM	REEM was a humanoid service robot with a wheeled base. Made by PAL Robotics, it can perform autonomous navigation in various surroundings and has voice and face recognition capabilities.[62]
2011	ASIMO (2nd Gen)	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.[63]
2012	NimbRo	The Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group of University of Bonn, Germany, introduced the Humanoid TeenSize Open Platform NimbRo-OP.[64]
2013	TORO	The German Aerospace Center (DLR) presented the humanoid robot TORO (TOrque-controlled humanoid RObot).[65]
	REEM-C	PAL Robotics created REEM-C, the first humanoid biped (two-legged) robot developed as a robotics research platform 100% ROS based.[66]
	Poppy	The first open-source (publicly available) 3D-printed humanoid robot (Poppy). Inspired by nature, with legs designed for biped (two-legged) locomotion. Developed by the Flower Departments at INRIA.[67]
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). Referred to as Manav.[68]
	Pepper robot	After the acquisition of Aldebaran, SoftBank Robotics releases a robot (Pepper robot) available for the public.[69]
	Nadine	A female humanoid social robot (Nadine) is designed in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. It is base on based 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.[70][71]
2016	Sophia	A humanoid robot developed by "Hanson Robotics", Hong Kong. Based on the appearance of Audrey Hepburn, Sophia has artificial intelligence, visual data processing and facial recognition.[72]
	OceanOne	Developed by a team at Stanford University which was led by computer science professor Oussama Khatib, OceanOne completed its first mission in 2016. It dove for treasure in a shipwreck off the coast of France, at a depth of 100 meters. The robot is controlled remotely, has haptic (touch) sensors in its hands, and artificial intelligence capabilities.[73]
2017	TALOS	PAL Robotics launched TALOS,[74] a fully electrical humanoid robot with joint torque (rotational force) sensors and EtherCAT communication technology that can manipulate up to 6 kg payload in each of its grippers.[75]
2018	Rashmi Robot	A multilingual realistic humanoid robot (Rashimi Robot) was launched in India by Ranjit Shrivastav having emotional interpretation capabilities. [76]
2020	Digit	On January 5, 2020 Agility Robotics introduced the first version of Digit, their humanoid robot. It was initially purchased by Ford Motor Company for research into autonomous last-mile delivery (final stage in delivery process).[77]
	Vyommitra	A female-looking spacefaring humanoid robot (Vyomitra) being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation to function on board the Gaganyaan, a crewed orbital spacecraft.[78]
	Robot Shalu	A homemade artificially intelligent, Indian multilingual humanoid robot, made-up of waste materials, that can speak 9 Indian and 38 foreign languages (total 47 languages), was developed by Dinesh Kunwar Patel. He is a Computer Science teacher at 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.[79]
2022	Ameca	In January 2022 Engineered Arts Ltd gave the first public demonstration of their humanoid robot Ameca.[80]
	Optimus	On October 1, 2022, Tesla unveiled version 1 of their humanoid robot Optimus.[81]
2023	Digit	On March 20, 2023 Agility Robotics revealed the fourth version of Digit. They added a head, new manipulators, and perception systems.[82]
	Optimus	In December 2023, Tesla unveiled Optimus version 2, featuring 30% faster movement, 10 kg less weight, and sensors on all 10 fingers.[83]
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.[84][85]
	Unitree G1	In May 2024, Unitree released a new humanoid robot with upgraded mobility, most noted for its affordable price starting at $16k.[86] 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.[87]
	Digit	In June 2024, Agility Robotics announced that 5 of its Digit robots had begun completing tasks in the factory of its customer GXO Logistics.[88]
2025	EngineAI	In February 2025, EngineAI showed that a humanoid robot that could perform a forward flip.[89]

Applications

iCub robot at the Genoa Science Festival, Italy, in 2009

Humanoid robots have been developed for many different applications. One area of these applications is scientific research. Researchers often study the human body structure and behavior (biomechanics) to build better humanoid robots. Additionally, attempts to recreate the human body lead to a better understanding of it. Building robots that act like humans also boosts understanding of human cognition (how humans use sensory information and acquire skills). Other applications include: medical usage, entertainment, demonstrations, competitions, and more. Humanoid robots are suitable for a many jobs, such as reception-desk administrators and automotive manufacturing line workers. Basically, since they can use tools and operate equipment and vehicles designed for humans, humanoids could potentially do anything a human being can, even taking on dangerous tasks. However, creating the proper software for this is challenging. ^[90] A few groups of applications are detailed below.

Medical and research

WABIAN 2R and Boris Johnson

Humanoid robots used in medicine and biotechnology. They are also used in other fields of research such as biomechanics and cognitive science. ^[91] 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.^[92] Humanoid robots can be used as test subjects for the practice and development of personalized healthcare aids. They can also be robotic nurses for demographics such as the elderly. ^[93]

Entertainment

Animatronic from Walt Disney World

Humanoid robots have been used in entertainment for a long time. These uses range from the ideas in the story of Prometheus to the application of modern animatronics used for theme parks. ^[94] Current uses of humanoid robots in theme parks are focused on creating stuntronics. Stuntronics are humanoid robots built for serving as stunt doubles. They are designed to simulate life-like movement. ^[95] Several theme park shows utilize animatronic robots that look, move and speak much like human beings. Although these robots look realistic, they have no cognition or physical autonomy. ^[96]

Demonstrative

Though many real-world applications for humanoid robots are yet to be implemented, robots are being used to demonstrate new technologies.^[97] 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. These include walking, climbing, and playing an instrument. ^[98] Other humanoid robots have been developed for household purposes, however they only have single purpose skills and are far from autonomous.^[99]

Competition

Numerous competitions have been created for humanoid robots, enabling both research and entertainment. Examples include:

• World Humanoid Robot Games, and Olympics-style competition where 280 teams from 16 countries competed in events such as: kickboxing, soccer, running, medicine sorting, and cleaning^[100]
• Robocup, a competition in which humanoid robots play against each other in soccer. They are also tested on skills like walking, running, and balance. ^[101]
• IEEE Humanoids Robotics Competition ^[102]
• Humanoid Robot Championship, upcoming contest (September 2026) where robots will compete in events such as: Best Mobility Performance, Best Human-Robot Interaction, and Advanced Task Performance.^[103]
• DARPA Robotics Challenge, now complete contest previously organized by the US Department of Defense to promote robots for use in dangerous rescue environments. ^[104]
• CMG World Robot Competition – Mecha Fighting Series, world's first humanoid robot boxing competition, organized by the China Media Group.^[105]

In Media

Early depictions of humanoid robots include Liezi and descriptions by Hero of Alexandria, from 250 BCE and 50 CE.^[106][107] They were first described as robots in Rossum's Universal Robots by Karel Čapek. Today, humanoid robots often appear in science fiction related to how they can help humans in society or serve as threats to humanity.^[108] This theme essentially questions whether artificial intelligence is a force of good or bad for mankind. Humanoid robots that are depicted as good for society and benefit humans are Commander Data in Star Trek and C-3PO in Star Wars.^[108] Opposite portrayals where humanoid robots are shown as scary and threatening to humans are the T-800 in Terminator and Megatron in Transformers. ^[108] An Indian Tamil-language film which showed the pros and cons of a humanoid robot was released under the name Chitti.^[109][110]

Criticism

Humanoid robots, have faced several criticisms related to mimicking and resembling humans:

• Uncanny Valley Effect: As robots become more human-like but not quite perfect, they can evoke feelings of unease or revulsion in humans. ^[111]
• Ethical Confusion: Humanoid robots can potentially lead to ethical dilemmas, creating confusion about their rights or treatment. ^[112]
• Robot Slurs: a range of terms (e.g. clanker) have been created to negatively refer to robots especially in the context of them replacing humans. ^[113]