London-based robotics company Humanoid has unveiled the HMND 01 Alpha Bipedal, its first humanoid robot. The company developed the robot from initial concept to functioning prototype in just five months. According to Humanoid, the Alpha Bipedal was able to walk steadily only 48 hours after its final assembly.
Advanced Capabilities
Artem Sokolov, the company’s founder and CEO, said the robot can walk along straight or curved paths, turn on the spot, sidestep, squat, hop, run, and carry out precise manipulations.
He added to The Robot Report that the robot can recover from pushes, work alongside other humanoid robots, and engage with people using its head display, LEDs, speakers, and audio sensors. “When paired with our VLM/VLA-based framework, it’s capable of advanced reasoning and executing complex tasks,” he explained.
The Alpha Bipedal stands 179 cm (5 ft. 10 in.) tall and has 29 degrees of freedom (DoF), not counting the end effectors. The robot can carry a bimanual payload of up to 15 kg (33 lb.). Its modular end effectors can be equipped with either 12-DoF, five-fingered hands or 1-DoF parallel grippers.
For visual and sensory input, the robot’s head includes six RGB cameras, two depth sensors, and a six-microphone array. The body is outfitted with haptic sensors, force/torque sensors, and joint torque feedback. The robot’s processing is powered by NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX and Intel i9 processors. Its battery offers three hours of swappable power, allowing for prolonged use during testing and development.
What Tasks will Alpha Bipedal Perform?
To build its bipedal robot, Humanoid utilized highly precise 3D modeling to create prototypes that closely align with simulations. The company claims this approach reduces the “sim-to-real” gap, which often hinders progress in robotics development.
By using NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab, the team was able to train over 52.5 million seconds of reinforcement-learning locomotion data in just two days—equivalent to nearly 19 months of traditional training. The robot successfully took its first steps in the real world after just 3.2 million seconds, requiring only minimal adjustments to cope with external pushes of up to 350 Newtons.
Humanoid stated that Alpha Bipedal was designed for consistent and reliable performance across a variety of applications.
“Alpha Bipedal is designed to pave the way for a wide range of home and service applications,” said Sokolov. “In the initial phase, we’ll focus on research and development, safety validation, and AI training across industrial, household, and service environments. Our primary focus has been on hardware durability and upper body strength to ensure that the robot can deliver real value in the use cases we target.”
Expanding Deployment
Regarding deployments, Humanoid explained that the robot will expand its role from industrial and logistics tasks—such as warehouse automation, picking, and palletizing—into domestic support applications. Once the robot begins deployment in commercial settings, Humanoid will closely track its performance.
“We’ll gauge success based on key performance indicators like task completion rates, throughput (units per hour, items inspected, etc.), autonomy levels, and error rates,” Sokolov noted. “We’ll also measure the value it provides to customers. The platform is designed to offer a low total cost of ownership with a high payload-to-cost ratio. We’ll look for reductions in operational costs, including labor savings, lower training and recruiting needs, and enhanced shift coverage.”
Humanoid Transitions from Mobile Manipulators to Bipedal Robots
Serial entrepreneur Sokolov launched Humanoid in 2024, and since then, the company has secured $50 million in founder-led funding.
In September, Humanoid introduced its first robot, the HMND 01 Alpha. According to Sokolov, the company initially developed a wheeled robot to accelerate bringing a product to market. This approach also allowed them to address mobile manipulation challenges separately from balance-related issues.
“A stable wheeled robot is quicker to market because it’s a safer, simpler solution,” Sokolov explained. “It builds on AMR safety principles, separating balance from manipulation to significantly reduce technical risks, especially the risk of falling.”
“For many industrial settings, a wheeled humanoid is more than adequate,” Sokolov noted. “Most warehouses and factory floors are flat, smooth, single-level spaces with wide aisles and freight elevators. “Most items in these environments weigh under 15 kg, so legs aren’t needed for most tasks.”
The company also gained valuable insights from developing its mobile manipulator.
“We learned a lot from creating our wheeled Alpha robots, and applied those lessons to the HMND 01 Alpha Bipedal,” Sokolov said. “From the start, we designed our subsystems for modularity, so components like the head, torso, and arms could be reused across platforms.” This helped us move quickly when transitioning from a wheeled to a bipedal design.”
“We also reused and optimized many of the processes and tools that enabled us to develop the wheeled version so efficiently,” he continued. “Furthermore, building our first-generation robots provided valuable experience in integrating and testing complex systems in real-world conditions. These lessons played a key role in shaping how we built the HMND 01 Alpha Biped.”
How does Humanoid Guarantee the Safety of its Robots?
Sokolov emphasized that safety is a top priority for Humanoid. “Safety is one of our core competitive advantages,” he said. “Our robots are designed and tested to meet safety, machinery, electrical, EMC, radio, battery, waste, and workplace regulations.”
The company also places a strong emphasis on data security, according to Sokolov.
“We take AI and data safety very seriously,” he stated. “Throughout data collection and model development, we adhere to the EU AI Act, GDPR/Data Protection Act, Network & Information Security Directive, and consumer and product liability regulations.” Sokolov added, “As a second mover in humanoid robotics, our team’s experience helps us avoid early mistakes and speed up safe commercialization.”
What are Humanoid’s next Steps?
Earlier this year, Humanoid formed a partnership with QSS AI & Robotics to fast-track the development, production, and deployment of humanoid robots throughout Saudi Arabia. The company also has several exciting projects in the works, according to Sokolov.
“We’ve received 19,500 pre-orders, completed four POCs, with three more in progress—this is the highest at our stage, surpassing anyone else in the market,” he said. “Humanoid is already fully booked for early-year POCs in 2026, and we’re focused on securing long-term partnerships and increasing pre-orders.”
“On the product front, our goal is to advance both the wheeled and bipedal platforms to their beta stages and prepare them for broader deployment,” he added.
Read the original article on: The Robot Report
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