# What humanoid robots can actually do in 2026 > Of 182 humanoid robots on record, 117 have a human in the loop, 33 have ever worked at a customer site and none has a verified fleet count. Here is what that leaves. Published: 2026-09-05 Section: Explainer Author: Geert Jan van Vlastuin, Editor, humanoid.observer Canonical: https://humanoid.observer/blog/what-can-humanoid-robots-actually-do/ Licence: editorial text all rights reserved. The underlying data is CC BY 4.0 at https://humanoid.observer/data/. Cite as: humanoid.observer, https://humanoid.observer/blog/what-can-humanoid-robots-actually-do/, accessed . --- Humanoid robots in 2026 can walk over rough ground and get up when they fall, move totes between a mobile robot and a conveyor, load parts in a handful of car plants under supervision, and do household chores with a person steering from somewhere else. That is the demonstrated list, checked against our record of 182 machines and 52 deployments. Everything else in the launch videos is, for now, a launch video. ## Most humanoids have a person in the loop | Teleoperation on record | All 182 | Of the 44 you can order | |---|---|---| | Yes | 27 | 7 | | Partial | 90 | 26 | | No | 31 | 2 | | Unknown | 34 | 9 | "Yes" means remotely operated by design, like [NEO](/robots/1x-neo/) with its Expert Mode, or [Phoenix](/robots/sanctuary-phoenix/), trained from teleoperated task data. "Partial" is the biggest pile, 90 machines: the legs run a learned controller on their own, the arms are scripted or driven by a person for the camera. That describes [Unitree G1](/robots/unitree-g1/) and most of the Chinese catalogue. "No" looks good until you check who is in it. 16 of the 31 are retired or discontinued, and 10 of the remaining 15 are university research platforms. That leaves five working machines whose maker states there is no remote operator, among them [Figure 02](/robots/figure-02/), [Figure 03](/robots/figure-03/) and [Galbot G1](/robots/galbot-g1/). Even there, Figure's Helix model was trained on teleoperated data. Of the 44 machines you can order today, two are marked "no", both older platforms: [Kawada Nextage](/robots/kawada-nextage/) and [Robotis OP3](/robots/robotis-op3/). 122 of the 182 have any autonomy evidence recorded. For 60 machines we found nothing beyond a reveal. ## Five things they demonstrably do **Walk, run, fall and stand up.** This is the solved part. [Tiangong Ultra](/robots/tiangong-ultra/) finished the 21.1 km Beijing E-Town half marathon in 2 h 40 min 42 s on 19 April 2025. [AgiBot A2](/robots/agibot-yuanzheng-a2/) walked 106 km from Suzhou to Shanghai in November 2025. [Booster T1](/robots/booster-t1/) played autonomous football at RoboCup 2025 and stood up after falls. All three are flagged "partial"; the claim that holds is the locomotion, a learned policy running on the robot. **Move totes in a warehouse.** [Digit](/robots/agility-digit-v4/) from [Agility Robotics](/companies/agility-robotics/) has moved totes from mobile robots onto conveyors at a GXO facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia, since October 2023, converted to a multi-year robots-as-a-service contract in June 2024. GXO calls it the first formal commercial humanoid deployment; we mark it autonomous and active. Fleet size: not published. [Apollo](/robots/apptronik-apollo/) ran a GXO tote pilot in 2024 as a proof of concept. **Pilot in car plants.** 18 of the 52 deployments are automotive. [Figure 02](/robots/figure-02/) loaded sheet metal parts into fixtures at BMW Spartanburg for about 11 months across 2024 and 2025. BMW confirmed it, the pilot has ended, fleet size not published. [Walker S1](/robots/ubtech-walker-s1/) from [UBTech](/companies/ubtech/) handles boxes and does inspection alongside AMRs at BYD, Zeekr, Foxconn and Audi FAW, all marked mixed autonomy. Of the 26 deployments that are active or in pilot, 6 are marked autonomous and 20 mixed. **Household chores, with a person elsewhere.** [1X](/companies/1x/) ran a home alpha in 2025 and opened NEO preorders on 28 October 2025 at $20,000. Reviewers at launch found most tasks were teleoperated; 1X calls this Expert Mode. Figure 03's home alpha is marked mixed, and Figure has not said how many homes are in it. No household humanoid is autonomous at a customer's address yet. **Serve as a research platform.** The G1 is in labs worldwide, widely reported in the thousands, with no official count. [iCub](/robots/iit-icub/) and [NAO](/robots/aldebaran-nao/) have been research and teaching machines since 2008. One retail exception: [Galbot G1](/robots/galbot-g1/) picks medicines in unstaffed Beijing pharmacies, marked autonomous and active, target 100 stores, verified counts pending. ## What they do only on camera [Astribot S1](/robots/astribot-s1/) folds clothes and pours wine in its 2024 launch video: partial teleoperation, pilot customers, none named. [Dobot Atom](/robots/dobot-atom/) made breakfast at launch. [Unitree H2](/robots/unitree-h2/) dances and walks a catwalk; verification is limited to trade shows. [Optimus Gen 2](/robots/tesla-optimus-gen-2/) units at We Robot on 10 October 2024 were confirmed by Tesla staff to be remotely assisted, and its factory battery-cell sorting has no independent confirmation. [Xpeng Iron](/robots/xpeng-iron/) walked so smoothly on 6 November 2025 that Xpeng cut open its leg on stage to prove nobody was inside. None of this is fake. None of it is a deployment either. ## Nobody will say how many are working The field `units_deployed_est` is empty for all 182 robots. Of the 52 deployments, 6 carry a unit number, adding up to 41 robots: 20 [Walker S](/robots/ubtech-walker-s/) ordered by Dongfeng Liuzhou in February 2024, 16 H1 dancing at the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, 2 Digits at Ford in 2020, one Optimus serving popcorn, one Phoenix for a week at a Mark's store, one Robonaut on the ISS. Every large-sounding deployment, BMW, GXO, BYD, Mercedes, has "not published" against fleet size. ## What to ask before you believe it If you are choosing a machine, ask for four things. One: an unedited take of the task with the whole room visible, and a plain answer to "who is holding the controller". Two: the customer's name and the customer's own statement, not the maker's. BMW and GXO said it themselves; most did not. Three: the number of robots at that site and the hours they have run. Four: the same task on your parts, in your building. A maker that can supply all four belongs in the "no" row of the table. The rest are selling a video, and for 117 of the 182 machines on record the human in the loop is already in the file. ## Sources - [Unitree G1 product page](https://www.unitree.com/g1), Unitree - [Agility Robotics](https://www.agilityrobotics.com/), Agility Robotics - [GXO newsroom](https://gxo.com/news/), GXO - [Figure news](https://www.figure.ai/news), Figure AI - [Helix: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Generalist Humanoid Control](https://www.figure.ai/news/helix), Figure AI - [NEO](https://www.1x.tech/neo), 1X - [UBTech Walker S1 page](https://www.ubtrobot.com/), UBTech - [X-Humanoid official site](https://www.x-humanoid.com/), X-Humanoid - [Galbot official site](https://www.galbot.com/), Galbot - [Xpeng newsroom](https://www.xpeng.com/news), Xpeng