https://humanoid.observer/wire/Articles and sourced humanoid robotics news from the observatory.enSun, 06 Sep 2026 20:13:53 GMThttps://humanoid.observer/blog/deposits-lead-times-and-warranties-how-to-read-a-humanoid-order-sheet/https://humanoid.observer/blog/deposits-lead-times-and-warranties-how-to-read-a-humanoid-order-sheet/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOf 42 buy records, 2 publish a deposit, 1 a warranty, 1 a shipping cost and none a lead time in weeks. The order sheet for a humanoid is mostly blank, and the blanks are where the money goes.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/europes-humanoids-who-builds-them-and-what-you-can-order/https://humanoid.observer/blog/europes-humanoids-who-builds-them-and-what-you-can-order/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT31 of the 182 humanoids on record come from seven European countries. Three can be ordered, two have a price, and the dearest of those is $75,000 for a robot that does not walk.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/figure-ai-what-39-billion-dollars-has-shown-so-far/https://humanoid.observer/blog/figure-ai-what-39-billion-dollars-has-shown-so-far/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTFour rounds, $1,754,000,000 raised, one named customer, no price and no unit count. The record on the most valuable humanoid company, generation by generation.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-a-humanoid-robot-works-actuators-compute-sensors-and-the-model/https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-a-humanoid-robot-works-actuators-compute-sensors-and-the-model/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOf 182 humanoids on record, 178 say what moves the joints and 43 say what computer is inside. The further a layer sits from the metal, the less the maker tells you about it.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-long-does-a-humanoid-robot-actually-run/https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-long-does-a-humanoid-robot-actually-run/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT22 of 182 humanoids on record quote a runtime. The claims run from 1 to 8 hours with a median of 4, and of the 44 machines you can order, 4 say anything at all.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-races-games-and-fights-what-the-competitions-proved/https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-races-games-and-fights-what-the-competitions-proved/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOur record holds 11 competition events from 1997 to 2025 and 17 machines tied to them. Six can be ordered, three at a public price, and 13 of the 17 carry a teleoperation flag of yes or partial.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/japan-built-the-first-humanoids-and-then-stopped/https://humanoid.observer/blog/japan-built-the-first-humanoids-and-then-stopped/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTJapan has 24 humanoids and 12 makers in our record, more than any country except China and the United States. Two of the 24 can be ordered today, and both were first shown in 2009.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/open-source-humanoids-what-you-can-actually-build/https://humanoid.observer/blog/open-source-humanoids-what-you-can-actually-build/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT24 of the 182 humanoids on record call themselves open source. 15 publish hardware files and software, 3 name a licence, 12 can be ordered, and none of the four on preorder has any autonomy evidence yet.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/startups-automakers-universities-who-builds-humanoids/https://humanoid.observer/blog/startups-automakers-universities-who-builds-humanoids/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT108 makers, nine kinds. Startups hold 37 of the 44 humanoids you can order. Automakers, universities, big tech, conglomerates and NASA hold 45 robots between them and sell none of them.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/who-is-paying-for-humanoids-69-funding-rounds/https://humanoid.observer/blog/who-is-paying-for-humanoids-69-funding-rounds/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOur funding record holds 69 entries. Take out the government funds, the acquisitions and the IPOs and $6.33 billion of disclosed private money remains. 37 percent of it went to companies with no robot on record.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/44-you-can-order-138-you-cannot/https://humanoid.observer/blog/44-you-can-order-138-you-cannot/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWe keep a record of 182 humanoid robots. Fewer than a quarter of them will sell you one, and of those, only eight tell you the price on their own website. Here is where the rest went.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/a-short-history-of-humanoids-1939-to-2026/https://humanoid.observer/blog/a-short-history-of-humanoids-1939-to-2026/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOur record holds 111 dated milestones since 1939. Sixty-eight of them are from this decade, and what changed was not the walking. It was the price tag.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/china-builds-america-demos/https://humanoid.observer/blog/china-builds-america-demos/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTChinese makers account for 65 of the 182 humanoids in our record and 31 of the 44 you can order. American makers hold the money, the research and most of the autonomy claims, and sell you almost nothing.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-much-does-a-humanoid-robot-cost/https://humanoid.observer/blog/how-much-does-a-humanoid-robot-cost/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTThirty-five humanoids in our record carry a price, from $299 to $250,000 with a median of $15,000. What the money buys changes completely at each band, and so does how much you should trust the number.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-robot-stocks-which-makers-are-listed/https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-robot-stocks-which-makers-are-listed/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTTwenty of the 108 makers in our record have a ticker. Four of them will sell you a humanoid. The rest build cars, chips, servers and washing machines, and the pure plays are all private.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-robots-for-your-home-what-you-can-actually-get/https://humanoid.observer/blog/humanoid-robots-for-your-home-what-you-can-actually-get/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSix machines in our database are built for the home: three take orders, two have a price, none has reached a customer. Here is what a deposit buys today, and what the $299 alternative does not.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/tesla-optimus-what-the-record-shows/https://humanoid.observer/blog/tesla-optimus-what-the-record-shows/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTFour Optimus records, five years, no price and no order page. Here is what Tesla has shown, what it has said about money and dates, and how much of it has been checked by anyone outside Tesla.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/the-20000-dollar-body/https://humanoid.observer/blog/the-20000-dollar-body/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT1X is the first company to put a humanoid in front of households with a real price and a real order button. Read the small print and you are buying two things: a machine, and a person somewhere else.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/the-uncanny-valley-and-the-faceless-humanoid/https://humanoid.observer/blog/the-uncanny-valley-and-the-faceless-humanoid/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMasahiro Mori warned in 1970 that a nearly human face repels. Of the 182 humanoids in our record, four describe one, and none of the four does physical work for a customer.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/unitree-g1-cheap-one-cannot-run-your-code/https://humanoid.observer/blog/unitree-g1-cheap-one-cannot-run-your-code/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe most sold humanoid in the world has a price that gets quoted everywhere and a configuration ladder that almost nobody reads. The version in the headline and the version in the lab are $30,400 apart.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/what-can-humanoid-robots-actually-do/https://humanoid.observer/blog/what-can-humanoid-robots-actually-do/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOf 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.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/where-humanoids-actually-work-52-deployments/https://humanoid.observer/blog/where-humanoids-actually-work-52-deployments/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWe track 52 humanoid deployments at named sites. Eighteen are in car plants, exactly half are live, and six say how many robots turned up. Those six add up to 41 machines.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/blog/why-hands-are-the-hardest-part/https://humanoid.observer/blog/why-hands-are-the-hardest-part/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTOf 182 humanoids on record, 96 describe their hands and 13 publish a degrees-of-freedom figure for them. The word dexterous appears 21 times and comes with a number once.hello@humanoid.observer (Geert Jan van Vlastuin)https://humanoid.observer/wire/#2026-09-01-sample2026-09-01-sampleTue, 01 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMTPlaceholder until the research layer lands. Why it matters: Placeholder. Source: The Robot Report https://www.therobotreport.com