Robot makers are in a full-on sprint to take over factories, warehouses and homes, but lofty visions of rapid adoption are outpacing the technology’s reality.

With stats like that, one can’t help but suspect that the first country to have a million humanoids will be China.

Unlike traditional industrial grippers, which are optimized for repetitive, single-purpose tasks, ROBOTERA’s hands are anthropomorphic, five-fingered systems built for varied, unstructured environments.

Airbus ordered UBTech’s Walker S2, a full-size humanoid that stands 176 cm tall (5’9"), weighs 70 kg (154 lbs), and walks at about two meters/second (4.5 mph). It has dextrous hands with 11 degrees of freedom and tactile sensors, and can hold 7.5 kg (16.5 lbs) in each hand and 1 kg (2.2 lbs) with each finger.

Three robotics experts said humanoid robots need to move beyond flashy demos to performing tasks that are actually useful in the real world at scale.

Humans are desperate to put the robots to work. The only problem is, the robots don’t “work” to any degree. These humanoid bots are interesting. Some are even cute. Few, if any, are anywhere close to prime time. It was a dour scene at CES 2026, so much so I can’t help but wonder if they ever will be.

Humanoid robots will be able to recharge just by stepping on this new inductive charging platform, says Figure CEO Brett Adcock.

Living with robots could lead to plenty of societal improvements, but they also pose risks to how we socialize and co-exist with other human beings.

On Jan. 22, Louisiana's economic development agency and St. Bernard-based SSE Steel Fabrication announced an agreement with Houston-based tech startup Persona AI to launch a pilot program at SSE to develop humanoid robotics for industrial uses. Greater New Orleans Inc., southeast Louisiana's economic development nonprofit, also is participating.