Once upon a time, robots were largely confined to factory cages, with human interaction kept to a minimum. Today, they are moving into shared spaces from warehouses, hospitals, laboratories and construction sites to museums, restaurants and public roads. At the same time, the commercialization of robotics and physical AI is accelerating.
In our new monthly series, we explore a selection of robotics stories from society, business, research, and culture, as we track the field’s ongoing journey from specialized industrial machines to an increasingly visible social phenomenon.
Is the world ready for humanoid robots?
In May, humanoid robots kept bumping into the invisible architecture of public life: legal categories, regulatory gaps, workplace expectations and cultural traditions.
Exhibit A: A humanoid robot named Stewie reportedly flew on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Dallas Love Field after its owner bought it a passenger seat. Days later, Southwest clarified its policy to prohibit human-like and animal-like robots from traveling in the cabin or as checked baggage, citing safety concerns around lithium-ion batteries.
Exhibit B: The Kathmandu Post reported that Geologic Dome and Fourteen Peaks Expedition have proposed testing a Unitree G1 humanoid robot in the Everest region under a project called PEMBA, with the long-term aim of exploring robotic support for waste collection, glacier monitoring and hazardous mountain operations.
However, with no legal framework in place governing non-human climbers on Everest, those plans have had to be put on hold while Nepalese authorities draft the appropriate guidelines.
Exhibit C: The month’s most compelling humanoid footage came via a multi-day livestream showing humanoid robots working on a simple package sorting task. The accompanying live chat was a case study in anthropomorphism, as viewers instructed the bots to “take a cigarette break,” “reconsider your life choices,” and, in one case, “eat the rich.” When a robot takes human form and performs repetitive labor, people quickly default to the anthropomorphic moral and political vocabulary of work, and any errors are harshly judged. Numerous comments on the livestream suggested that the humanoids were secretly being teleoperated, a suggestion Figure CEO Brett Adcock addressed in a Bloomberg interview.
Exhibit D: Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that a humanoid robot named Gabi was initiated as an honorary Buddhist monk, in Seoul, South Korea, receiving adapted precepts, 108 prayer beads and a certificate listing its manufacture date where a human birth date would normally appear. Gabi can neither suffer nor achieve enlightenment, of course, but humanoids can play a symbolic role in connecting older traditions with younger generations and a society increasingly shaped by AI. Gabi, which means ‘mercy’, pledged, among other things, to conserve energy by not overcharging.
So, is the world ready for humanoids? Perhaps that is not quite the right question.
Clearly, regulators and policymakers are playing catch-up. Domestic and industrial safety standards for humanoids are works in progress. But even with rules and regulations in place, once robots enter public life, their meaning is no longer entirely in roboticists’ hands.
As is the case with artists and works of art, robot creators can shape the object, frame the encounter and suggest an interpretation. But the final meaning emerges through interaction with the public, and with our traditions, cultural values and laws.
In that sense, human-humanoid interactions will always be a work in progress and will continue to throw up surprises.
Big bets on humanoids, AI, and robot hands
While humanoids were busy bumping into public life, investors and manufacturers placed large bets on the technologies that might bring them into industrial use.
German motion technology supplier Schaeffler is moving deeper into humanoid robotics, both as a customer and as a component supplier. UK-based Humanoid plans to deploy between 1,000 and 2,000 robots at Schaeffler’s global manufacturing sites by 2032, with the first systems scheduled for German facilities from late 2026 into mid-2027. Initial applications include box handling and near-full-scale testing.
Meanwhile, Mind Robotics, a Rivian spinout, was valued at $3.4 billion in May following a new funding round, up from $2 billion in March 2026. Mind Robotics is developing foundation AI models, purpose-built robots and deployment infrastructure for industrial manufacturing, with Rivian’s facilities providing a live production environment for training and deployment.
Chinese robotics startup Linkerbot, a maker of high-degree-of-freedom robotic hands for humanoids, is seeking a US$6 billion valuation in its next financing round, after closing a Series B+ round at a US$3 billion valuation. The company also announced plans to scale production from nearly 5,000 units per month to 10,000.
As these stories show, the humanoid market is fast becoming a race to build the supply chains, AI models, actuators, hands and deployment environments that could eventually make humanoids commercially viable and capable of handling industrial, warehouse, and manufacturing tasks.
Until then, with rather less fanfare, traditional industrial robots, cobots and AMRs will continue doing most of the automated work.
The Return of Japan’s Robot Wolf
If Pablo Picasso’s head on a dog-like quadruped wasn’t enough to strike fear into your heart (see April Roundup), see how you fare with the return of Japan’s terrifying -but also sold out- Monster Wolf.
Credit: AFP-JIJI
The Japan Times reported that demand for the hand-built robots soared in May due to a rise in bear attacks on humans. Built by Ohta Seiki, the Monster Wolf uses motion sensors, flashing red eyes and loud howls or growls to frighten bears and other wild animals away from farms, roads and rural communities.
This month’s stories suggest that robots are, at least in part, judged and interpreted through the social roles they appear to occupy. And that those social roles are shaped by, but not limited to, their intended application: passenger, mountain climber, monk, worker, scarer of bears. It turns out that robots don’t only have to navigate cluttered and dynamic shared spaces with people. They also have to navigate the less visible terrain of laws, regulations and culture.
Have a robotics story, research paper or topic area you’d like to see covered in a future roundup? Drop us a line at [email protected]
Emmet Cole – Science Communicator
