NAO
NAO is a 58 cm programmable humanoid from Aldebaran, first sold in 2008 and adopted as the RoboCup standard platform. It is the most widely distributed humanoid in education and research with over 13,000 units. The current NAO6 dates from 2018.
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The verdict
Twenty years of classroom use and the best teaching material of anything here. NAO is old, slow and expensive, and it still gets bought every year because it is the one humanoid that survives contact with students and has a curriculum ready to go.
- Buy it if
- Schools and universities that need something that works on the first day of term.
- Skip it if
- You are doing research on anything current.
In its favour
- Unmatched teaching material
- Extremely durable
- Institutional support
Against it
- Dated hardware
- Quote-based pricing
- Slow next to anything modern
How the score is built
Capability is what the machine physically does. Value compares it with others at a similar price, not with the whole market. Buyability asks whether you can really order one. Ecosystem is the software and community around it. Proof is what it has done in the field, which is where most humanoids score badly and should.
What people buy instead.
- Status
- Commercial
- Category
- education
- First revealed
- 2008
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- 58 cm
- Weight
- 5.5 kg
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- 25
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- electric
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- partial
Where it stands
Sold to schools and universities since 2008; current version NAO6 (2018); production continued after Aldebaran's 2025 insolvency and takeover.
What stands out
- RoboCup Standard Platform League robot since 2008
- Over 13,000 units sold
- NAO6 released 2018
Hands, sensors, brain
- Sensors: cameras, microphones, sonar, tactile sensors, IMU
Price and volume
list price varies by region and reseller; roughly USD 9,000 to 15,000 for NAO6
Aldebaran has cited more than 13,000 units sold worldwide.
Index position
In the Humanoid Index, which ranks on shipped reality rather than value for money, NAO sits at #42 of 107 with 40 points: deployment 20/50, autonomy 12/30, availability 8/20. See that method.
Where NAO works.
| Customer | Site | Sector | Task | Since | Status | Units | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universities, schools and therapy providers | Worldwide, France | research | Robotics education, RoboCup Standard Platform League, autism therapy and human robot interaction research | 2008 | active | n/d | autonomous |
Milestones.
Aldebaran NAO chosen as the RoboCup Standard Platform League robot
RoboCup selects the 58 cm NAO from French startup Aldebaran Robotics to replace Sony's AIBO in the Standard Platform League from 2008. The choice turns NAO into the most widely used research and education humanoid, with thousands sold.
Deposits, lead times and warranties: reading a humanoid order sheet
Of 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.
Europe's humanoids: who builds them and what you can order
31 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.
Humanoid races, games and fights: what the competitions proved
Our 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.
Startups, automakers, universities: who builds humanoids
108 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.
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.
Where humanoids actually work: 52 deployments, counted
We 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.
Other robots by Aldebaran.
Sources
- 01NAOAldebaran
- 02Nao (robot)Wikipedia
Price sources
- 01Humanoid robots for sale: prices and US legalityRoboZaps · 2026-07-28
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