How we judge humanoid robots.
HumanoidRoster tracks every humanoid robot worth knowing — current, upcoming, and discontinued. Profiles are character-driven, specs are structured, and every claim cites a source. The mission is to separate confirmed reality from marketing hype, transparently.
HumanoidRoster tracks robots with a human-like body plan that are publicly shown, documented, or credibly reported. The main roster prioritizes complete bipedal humanoids, upper-body humanoids with manipulation, historically important platforms, and research platforms that materially shaped the field.
Wheeled systems are included only as explicit exceptions when the product is marketed and evaluated as a humanoid labor robot. Watchlist, excluded, and archived entries are labeled so readers can see the boundary calls instead of guessing why a system is or is not on the active roster.
What we cover
A robot is worth knowing if it helps readers understand the humanoid robotics market: shipped customer systems, serious pilots, influential research platforms, historically important robots, or unusually important boundary cases.
Concept renders without physical prototypes are deferred until something exists. Wheeled exceptions are labeled rather than blended into the main bipedal category.
The Reality Score
Every robot on the roster carries a Reality Score from 0 to 100. The score is the sum of five components, each from 0 to 20:
Quality and readiness of the physical platform. Manipulation, locomotion, battery, durability. We ask: would this robot survive a year of real-world use without falling apart?
What the robot can verifiably do, not what marketing claims. Credit goes to tasks performed in front of independent witnesses, not edited promotional footage.
Customers, pilots, shipments, revenue. Credit goes to arrangements where money changes hands and to deployments visible outside the manufacturer's own facilities.
Third-party access — factory tours, hands-on press demos, customer interviews. Credit goes to companies that let outsiders pressure-test their claims.
How forthcoming the company is about specs, failures, runtime, costs. Credit goes to companies that publish numbers without spin and acknowledge what their robots can't do.
The total maps to one of three bands. The threshold isn’t subjective — it’s editorial rule:
Independently verified across all five dimensions. The robot is real, the claims hold up, the company is forthcoming.
The manufacturer says it works. Some evidence exists; not everything is independently verified.
Marketing material outweighs verifiable substance. The score moves with new evidence.
Scores are AI-assisted but rubric-bound: an AI model applies our fixed scoring rubric to the sourced evidence in each profile. The rubric, evidence standards, and final review are editorial.
Scores are reviewed at least quarterly. Each robot’s last review date appears on its profile.
Lifecycle stages
Seven stages, ordered roughly by closeness to shipping at scale:
Pre-prototype. Renders, design statements, hypothetical specs.
Physical robot exists. Functions demonstrated to a limited audience.
Capability shown publicly in scripted or hosted environments.
Deployed with at least one external customer for ongoing use.
Sold to multiple customers in small quantities. Public pricing.
Sold at industrial volume with consistent availability.
Production ended.
How we source
Every public claim on every robot profile maps to a citation. The citation list is built into each robot’s source data and renders with the profile.
We use manufacturer press kits for imagery, with credit attached. We do not use AI-generated images of robots. If a press image is not available, we use a placeholder block until original or licensed photography can be commissioned.
We do not accept payment, advertising, or sponsorship from manufacturers. We do not run affiliate links to robot purchase pages.
What we don't do
- Recommend robots as investments. The Markets section is educational only.
- Accept user-submitted profiles. Editorial control stays in-house.
- Show 3D renders or marketing videos as evidence of capability. Real demos only.
- Let manufacturer marketing copy override sourced evidence.