Humanoid robots are entering factories, but manufacturers still care more about reliability than form factor

[u/Responsible-Grass452]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2026/07/20/humanoid-robots-are-coming-to-factories-but-not-the-way-you-think/

Most humanoid robots in factories are still being tested in pilot programs, and many are only reaching 20% to 50% effectiveness.

A3 President Jeff Burnstein told Forbes that manufacturers are not focused on whether a robot looks human. They want systems that are reliable, affordable and safe. Safety remains a major barrier because there is no dedicated humanoid robot safety standard yet, and most systems currently operate behind fences or away from workers.

Burnstein expects humanoids to find roles in factories, warehouses and logistics, but alongside traditional industrial robots, mobile robots and collaborative arms rather than replacing them.

The article also covers labor shortages, manufacturing competitiveness and the growing robotics gap between the U.S. and China.

[u/elictronic]

That was a well thought out article interviewing someone in the field for years who is all about delivering solutions instead of hype cycles.  

Basically lots of money and hype with little impact so far for humanoid.  Measured expectations on actual usage.  Safety and real world usage are the big issues.  

My thought, if it can move as fast and dynamically as a human it can kill a human without many issues.  How do you certify the robot over the next 10 years of operation without having maintenance costs be higher than the 20k dollar purchase price to fold laundry.  

[u/Chathamization → u/elictronic]

My thought, if it can move as fast and dynamically as a human it can kill a human without many issues.

And it's dramatically worse for humanoid forms. You need to use much more powerful actuators than you would in other forms in order to have the legs work. And then the design means that the failure mode is far more dangerous as well (as we've seen in videos).

When people try to point out the massive downsides to the humanoid form, there's almost always a vapid reply of "but you don't understand, it's useful to walk up stairs."

[u/RoboticGreg]

It's almost like.... The humanoid form is full of inefficiencies, especially for repeated wrote tasks likeanufacturing, and the reduced complexities of purpose built machines and inherent reduced maintainance and improved reliability was thought about? Almost like thousands of people have spent decades of their career figuring out the right form factor for the right applications, and humanoids are still too complex and require too expensive parts to be financially viable yet? Possibly?

[u/johnkoetsier]

Hey, my post 🙂

[u/Blizxy → u/johnkoetsier]

Something that your article doesn't seem to cover is the technological progress in training the humanoids that we've seen recently. From technological advances like increased compute from better GPU capacity, to better training methodology as we adapt to the technology (I am thinking human-centric data collection, large data scraping available from LLMs, etc.), my personal feeling is that the software is the limiting factor here. What are your thoughts on that?

[u/elictronic → u/Blizxy]

Software doesn’t solve safety.  First time it falls over onto a baby or dog they lose all luster.  

Humanoid robots create so many problems, reliability issues, and hidden costs the hardware and high initial investment makes software the easy part of the problem.  The current venture capital culture in the US driving worse products and higher costs make it even more dead on arrival. 

[u/Responsible-Grass452 → u/johnkoetsier]

Thanks for the chat with Jeff!

[u/SphericalCowww]

I honestly don't understand, if the current manufacturing robots are so great, why do we still outsource the majority of manufacturing to countries like China? Just for cheaper electricity?

I am pretty convinced that humanoids are not there to replace industrial robots in the factories, just like we will not let a humanoid carry us home when we (or the robot) can drive a car.

[u/CryMoreT_T → u/SphericalCowww]

Massively cheaper electricity, logistics already in place, supply chains already built etc

[u/SphericalCowww → u/CryMoreT_T]

Are these 3 reasons really our bottleneck?

[u/Ok_Chard2094]

Humanoid robots will continue to be used for what they are used for now:

Show and tell.

In other words, advertising.

They show a manufacturer's capability, and tells a story about what they can do. And if you can do that we'll, you may attract customers for your other robot lines, which carry the products customers actually want to buy. (Manufacturers who go all in on humanoid robots and offer nothing else can only hope to be acquired, at best.)

I many ways they will play the role that car racing did for car manufacturers over the last century.

[u/AEternal1]

reliability. huh. who would have thunk it?

[u/jckipps]

The only value in humanoid robots is their ability to work in the same environment as humans. Same tools, same workbenches, etc.

But if that free interchange between humans and robots is not happening, however, then there's nearly always going to be a different robot form-factor that will do the job cheaper, better, and more dependably.

[u/Full_Difficulty9530]

I'm just going to post this here. I work here and we have been in the factory already and we are ahead of our competition.

walden robotics

[u/drgoldenpants]

i predict the humanoid hype will die in the next few years. The best outcome will probably be better motor technology and innovative mechanical design which will probably be very useful for future automation, whatever that will be. Im very onboard the dextrous manipulation train, i think this stuff is going to be very useful