RoboticaGuide: Humanoid Robot and Embodied AI News

Robotica Guide covers humanoid robots, embodied AI and large language models, with a focus on what companies have actually shipped, demonstrated or disclosed. Every article links its primary sources and labels company claims, demos, pilots and deployments for what they are. Edited by Brandon Cook.

Agility Robotics' teal and black Digit 5 humanoid with a white head standing at a factory workbench beside two blue totes of metal parts

Agility Robotics' teal and black Digit 5 humanoid with a white head standing at a factory workbench beside two blue totes of metal parts

Agility Won’t Put Digit on Wheels. Its Co-Founder Says Wheeled Robots Are on the Roadmap

October 23, 2026

NEURA's 4NE1 Gen 4 humanoid robot with a glossy black head and black fabric skin shaking hands with a visitor in a glass-walled lobby

NEURA's 4NE1 Gen 4 humanoid robot with a glossy black head and black fabric skin shaking hands with a visitor in a glass-walled lobby

NEURA’s 4NE1 Gen 4 Is Lighter and Wrapped in Fabric. Its Spec Sheet Hasn’t Caught Up

Three small Microduck robots, one light blue, one white and one dark grey, with orange feet standing around a speckled ball on a green mesh floor while a person in tall striped socks reaches in

Three small Microduck robots, one light blue, one white and one dark grey, with orange feet standing around a speckled ball on a green mesh floor while a person in tall striped socks reaches in

Hugging Face’s $399 Microduck Robot Can’t Make Christmas Anymore. New Orders Wait 4 to 6 Months

Latest

Agile Robots' white and dark gray Agile ONE SN humanoid robot with a round screen face, standing in a large robotics lab with robot arms on workbenches behind it

Agile Robots' white and dark gray Agile ONE SN humanoid robot with a round screen face, standing in a large robotics lab with robot arms on workbenches behind it

NVIDIA’s New Reference Humanoid Has a Spec Sheet, Not a Price

Claude Auto Mode Becomes the Default Next Week. Here’s What It Blocks and How to Opt Out

Guides and Explainers

Dark grey Figure 03 humanoid robot holding a black plastic car body part beside green parts bins at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg, with a second Figure 03 working in the background

Dark grey Figure 03 humanoid robot holding a black plastic car body part beside green parts bins at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg, with a second Figure 03 working in the background

Humanoid Robot Readiness Levels: How to Tell a Demo From a Real Deployment

A six-step scale for humanoid robot claims, from render and demo to pilot, commercial deployment and open orders, with where Optimus, Atlas, Figure 03, Digit, NEO and Unitree G1 sit in October 2026.

October 14, 2026

Apptronik Apollo humanoid robot in a warehouse aisle reaching toward shelving while holding a barcode scanner, head visible

Apptronik Apollo humanoid robot in a warehouse aisle reaching toward shelving while holding a barcode scanner, head visible

Bipedal vs Wheeled Humanoid Robots: What Actually Changes

October 7, 2026

What Is a Robot Foundation Model? (VLA, GR00T, Helix and Open Weights)

October 7, 2026

ISO and Safety Standards for Humanoid Robots: What Applies in 2026

October 7, 2026

Comparisons

Grey and silver robotic hand gripping black scissors that are cutting a sheet of white paper on a wooden table

Grey and silver robotic hand gripping black scissors that are cutting a sheet of white paper on a wooden table

Unitree Dex5-S Robot Hand Costs From $6,350. Atlas and Sharpa Haven’t Named a Price

Unitree lists its 22-joint Dex5-S robot hand from $6,350. How it compares with Atlas's new 13-joint hand, Sharpa's W02 and Tesla's tactile-sensor patent, and what none of them has proved yet.

October 12, 2026

A Unitree G1 humanoid robot standing on a lit stage, next to a Tesla Optimus humanoid robot displayed in a glass case

A Unitree G1 humanoid robot standing on a lit stage, next to a Tesla Optimus humanoid robot displayed in a glass case

Humanoid Robot Prices 2026: Every Published Price, Checked

October 12, 2026

Close-up of the Flourish 1 home robot's round white head with two small rectangular eyes under a wide pale-green conical hat

Close-up of the Flourish 1 home robot's round white head with two small rectangular eyes under a wide pale-green conical hat

The $3,555 Flourish 1 Home Robot Comes With No Warranty and No Returns

October 11, 2026

White Astribot T1 robot with a black visor-style face and a cap, one gripper raised, at a riverside railing in front of a yellow suspension bridge

White Astribot T1 robot with a black visor-style face and a cap, one gripper raised, at a riverside railing in front of a yellow suspension bridge

Astribot’s T1 Robot Starts at $18,000 in the US. What the Price Does and Doesn’t Cover

October 10, 2026

Robot Companies

A white ROKAE-branded humanoid robot with a green face display working at an assembly station inside Schaeffler's Taicang factory

A white ROKAE-branded humanoid robot with a green face display working at an assembly station inside Schaeffler's Taicang factory

Schaeffler’s Taicang Factory Has Humanoids Building Humanoid Actuators. What It Hasn’t Said

Schaeffler opened a 7,500-square-meter factory in Taicang where six humanoids assemble actuators for other humanoids. It hasn't named the robots or published output.

October 22, 2026

Tuesday Labs' orange two-legged Voxel robot with a boxy head, pixel eyes and two jointed arms standing in a wood-paneled home kitchen

Tuesday Labs' orange two-legged Voxel robot with a boxy head, pixel eyes and two jointed arms standing in a wood-paneled home kitchen

Tuesday Labs’ Voxel Home Robot Is an Estimated $20,000. The Fine Print Says It Will Change Before 2028

October 22, 2026

Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot with a black glossy head and champagne-colored torso marked TESLA, standing in an office corridor beside tall plants

Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot with a black glossy head and champagne-colored torso marked TESLA, standing in an office corridor beside tall plants

Tesla Says Optimus Production Has Begun in Fremont. It Hasn’t Said How Many

October 22, 2026

Agility's teal and black Digit 5 humanoid standing on a factory floor beside stacked blue totes, in a still from Agility's Introducing Digit 5 video

Agility's teal and black Digit 5 humanoid standing on a factory floor beside stacked blue totes, in a still from Agility's Introducing Digit 5 video

Agility Robotics Signs AGCO, Its First Farm-Equipment Maker. The Digit Pilot Starts in 2027

October 21, 2026

AgiBot Is Putting 1,000+ Robots Into Chinese Universities. What Its RMB 200 Million Figure Leaves Out

October 20, 2026

Unitree Releases Free UniUni App to Choreograph H2 and G1 Humanoid Swarms

October 19, 2026

Policy and Safety

Unitree G1 humanoid robot walking across a city plaza while two pedestrians watch from a doorway

Unitree G1 humanoid robot walking across a city plaza while two pedestrians watch from a doorway

China Publishes Its First Humanoid Robot Standards. The Safety Rules Come Later

China's market regulator has issued six national humanoid robot standards, GB/T 48317.1-.5 and GB/T 48316, effective April 1, 2027. Unitree, UBTECH, XPENG and Xiaomi helped draft them. They're…

October 17, 2026

Robros IGRIS-C humanoid robot hanging from an overhead safety gantry while engineers work beside it, one wearing a teleoperation rig

Robros IGRIS-C humanoid robot hanging from an overhead safety gantry while engineers work beside it, one wearing a teleoperation rig

Why Humanoid Robots Can’t Just Stop: Inside Their Safety Systems in 2026

A silver Robros IGRIS-C humanoid robot with a rounded white head and the number 24 on its shoulder hangs in a support frame beside machine tools while an engineer adjusts it

A silver Robros IGRIS-C humanoid robot with a rounded white head and the number 24 on its shoulder hangs in a support frame beside machine tools while an engineer adjusts it

South Korea Lets 20 Robros Humanoids Work Beside People Without Safety Fences

Rows of silver-and-black UBTech Walker S2 humanoid robots standing in formation on a grey concrete floor in a large hall

Rows of silver-and-black UBTech Walker S2 humanoid robots standing in formation on a grey concrete floor in a large hall

Shanghai Wants 8,000 Humanoid Robots in Its Factories by 2028. Here’s What the Plan Actually Says

Humanoid Robots

The small black PhoneBot biped robot walks on a wood floor beside a sofa, with an Android phone mounted as its torso

The small black PhoneBot biped robot walks on a wood floor beside a sofa, with an Android phone mounted as its torso

UCLA’s PhoneBot Is a $400 Walking Humanoid That Runs on an Old Android Phone

October 19, 2026

A row of lifelike UBTech UWORLD U1 humanoid robots in fashion outfits standing and sitting on display pedestals under UWORLD screens

A row of lifelike UBTech UWORLD U1 humanoid robots in fashion outfits standing and sitting on display pedestals under UWORLD screens

UBTech’s U1 Companion Humanoid Costs $17,800 to $147,300. Here’s What the Price Leaves Out

October 19, 2026

Humanoid robot placing an auto part at a workstation on a Hangzhou auto-parts production line, photographed October 13, 2026

Humanoid robot placing an auto part at a workstation on a Hangzhou auto-parts production line, photographed October 13, 2026

Leju Put 15 Humanoids on a Hangzhou Auto-Parts Line. The Cycle Is Still Twice as Slow as a Worker

October 19, 2026

The Hugo Robot From Boston Dynamics’ Ex-Strategy Chief Has 43 Actuators. A Human Is Still Driving It

October 18, 2026

FF Nova Is a $2,490 Humanoid Robot. It’s Also 50 Centimeters Tall

October 18, 2026

Embodied AI

White Unitree G1 humanoid robot standing on a carpet of dry eucalyptus leaves among tall eucalyptus trees, from the SuperMimic project video

White Unitree G1 humanoid robot standing on a carpet of dry eucalyptus leaves among tall eucalyptus trees, from the SuperMimic project video

Berkeley’s SuperMimic Trains a Humanoid on One GPU in 3 Hours. NVIDIA’s SONIC Used 128 GPUs for a Week

October 22, 2026

Eka Robotics' black two-finger gripper closing gently on a raspberry on a gray tabletop, in a slow-motion still from Eka's website

Eka Robotics' black two-finger gripper closing gently on a raspberry on a gray tabletop, in a slow-motion still from Eka's website

Eka Robotics Is Worth $1.45 Billion for Teaching Robots to Feel. Its Customers Are Still Secret

October 21, 2026

Robot arms from several makers on long white lab tables at Dream Labs, one gripper lifting a container, in a still from the Dream-1 launch video

Robot arms from several makers on long white lab tables at Dream Labs, one gripper lifting a container, in a still from the Dream-1 launch video

Dream Labs’ Dream-1 Runs Robots for $3 an Hour. The Fine Print Says Research Only

Skild AI’s S1 and Self-Play Soccer: What the Robot Brain Can Do, and What Skild Hasn’t Shown

AI Models

Claude Duet Costs Nothing Extra on Pro and Max. Its Background Work Eats Your Usage Limits

Anthropic's Claude Duet is a standalone app where Claude works as a proactive agent, with a morning brief, background tasks and approval gates. It's included in Pro and Max at no extra cost,…

October 22, 2026

OpenAI's pixel-art mascots for its GPT-6 models, a crescent moon in a spacesuit, a flame-haired figure and a swirling purple galaxy figure, on a starry black background

OpenAI's pixel-art mascots for its GPT-6 models, a crescent moon in a spacesuit, a flame-haired figure and a swirling purple galaxy figure, on a starry black background

OpenAI on Google Cloud: GPT-6 Astra, Sol and Luna Are in Preview, and Google Hasn’t Posted a Price

October 21, 2026

Mercury 3 Undercuts GPT-6 Luna Only While It’s 50% Off, and Its 1,068-Token Speed Claim Shrinks on OpenRouter

October 21, 2026

Nature Will’s Natura-1 Beats π0.5 on Its Own Benchmark. The Rivals Were Scored With Grippers

October 20, 2026