A robot that walks around the house picking up what we have left lying around, loads the dishwasher and even starts the washing machine. It is not a science fiction movie, it is the advertisement of the Figure 03 and it is not the only company interested in sell us the idea that soon we will all have a home robot. Detective Spooner doesn’t like this.
Robots for everyone
There are people convinced that in a few years Humanoid robots will be as common in homes as robot vacuum cleaners are now. One of those people is Elon Musk, who assured that In five or six years we will all be able to afford a personal robot. Peter Diamandis, well-known writer and “futurologist” predicts that the first humanoid robots will reach homes as early as 2026.
It is not an obsession of the West, In China they are also obsessed with robotics, although from a different approach. The government wants robots to have transformed the industry by 2035, but it also contemplates creation of robots as accompaniment within the home.
We do not know if this future will materialize or if humanoid robots will end up being an eccentricity for a few. Regardless of whether they succeed, These are the companies that want to make it possible.
Figure AI
Figure 03
Based in California, it is the company that has shown the most progress in creating a humanoid robot for the home. Its latest model, the Figure 03, is presented to us as a kind of robotic butler that does all the housework. Until now the previous models did not go much beyond the “wow” effect of the video, but this time it is different because Figure has a plan to mass produce them. The first year They hope to produce 12,000 robots a yearalmost nothing.
Figure is the spearhead of robotics in the United States. Its valuation is 39,000 million dollars and among its investors are NVIDIA, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsoft and Jeff Bezos himself. At the moment it is not for sale nor do we know the price it will have.
tesla
Tesla Optimus Gen 2
No introduction needed. The first time we learned that Tesla wanted to make a humanoid robot it was in 2021. In 2022 they had a functional prototype and in 2023 they presented the Optimus Gen 2. Although we have not seen him doing household chores, they did show how he was capable of handling fragile objects like an egg. According to Musk, the Optimus will be cheaper than a car (between 20 and 30,000 dollars), but the reality is that we are in 2025 and The promise has not yet come true.
Musk continues determined to build “an army of robots” and just showed your worry about who will control him. In Tesla’s latest earnings call, he stated that he wants to maintain strong influence over this hypothetical army.
1X Technologies
Neo Gamma
It is based in California, but it is a Norwegian company. 1x’s goal has been the home from the beginning and its goal is a robot that does cleaning, organizing and even running errands. A year ago they presented the Neo Beta robot and in February of this year they presented the Neo Gammaits most advanced model. It is capable of interacting with humans, can manipulate all types of objects, and is covered in soft materials.
1X’s plan is to start deploying its robots in homes this year, but in a pilot project. The company has been set as a goal manufacture 100,000 units in 2027 and “millions more in 2028”. We don’t know anything about how much it will cost, although 1X says it is “expected to be priced competitively within the home robotics market,” whatever that means. The company is valued at 10 billion dollars and between your most powerful investors There are OpenAI and EQT.
Unitree Robotics
Unitree H2
Based in Hangzhou, it is one of the companies that form the ‘Six Little Dragons’ and leader in robotics in China. We knew her for her quadruped robotsbut recently they have moved on to humanoid robots. Its most advanced model, the Unitree H2was announced just a few days ago and is capable of dancing and even doing kung-fu, but it is not as focused on the home as other proposals.
In China, spectacular demonstrations of robots that dance or box have become very fashionable, but for the moment They are not showing practical applications for these humanoid robots. Of course, it is the only one that already has humanoid robots for sale and at very competitive prices. The Unitree G1 costs $16,000, but the Unitree H1 costs 131,000 euros.
Deep Robotics
DR02
It is also a Chinese company and part of the ‘Six Little Dragons’, which are the six most cutting-edge companies in the country in AI and robotics. Like Unitree, they also launched quadruped robots and recently switched to humanoids. Its focus is the creation of resilient models so that they can work in sectors such as industry, logistics or public services.
Their latest model is the DR02, a robot resistant to water and dust and is designed to work outdoors. In the future the company also wants to expand to other areas such as the home.
What is the point of a humanoid robot?
There are other voices at the opposite end of these visionaries, such as that of Rodney Brooks, the co-founder of iRobot. Brooks believes that humanoid robots are a fantasy and they are a format that is anything but practical. Keeping such a robot standing requires a lot of energy and can be a huge risk if it falls. Furthermore, he states that Imitating the dexterity of a human hand is practically impossible.
For Ehsan Saffari, robotics engineer, There is no point in making human-shaped robots. At least not if we want them to be efficient. To illustrate this, he gives a very good example: “Imagine that instead of building a washing machine, we had created a humanoid robot to perform the task exactly as we did it: by hand.”
“Imagine that instead of building a washing machine, we had created a humanoid robot to perform the task exactly as we did: by hand.”
One reason to give a robot a human form is to make it more familiar to us, almost as if it were a roommate. There have been studies that suggest that we tend to empathize more with robots that have anthropomorphic characteristics. This may make sense in the case of companion robots like the ones China wants to build. However, it has been seen that robots that are too realistic tend to provoke rejection; is what is known as “the uncanny valley”.
Finally there is the issue of price. Most companies haven’t even said how much their inventions will cost, and that can’t be a good sign. In the end, it seems that the obsession with humanoid robots responds more to an influence of popular culture and science fiction films such as ‘I, Robot’, than to a practical need. A robot designed for a specific task, such as vacuum the floor either clean the glassthan a humanoid robot trying to imitate us.
Images | Figure, Tesla, 1X, Unitree, Deep Robotics
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