I met a lot of weird robots at CES — here are the most memorable - TechCrunch
One of the exhibits that drew the largest crowds involved robots from the Chinese company EngineAI, which is developing humanoid robots. The bots, dubbed the T800 (a nod to the Terminator franchise), were in a mock boxing ring and were styled as fighting ma...
Key takeaways
The most recent development in humanoid robotics comes from a proof‑of‑concept completed on 15 January 2026, in which Humanoid’s wheeled HMND 01 Alpha robot was deployed in live operations at Siemens’ Electronics Factory in Erlangen, achieving the target throughput of 60 tote moves per hour, handling two tote sizes, running autonomously for over 30 minutes and maintaining more than eight hours of uptime. This marks the first real‑world industrial test of Humanoid robots and paves the way for a broader partnership aimed at scaling deployment in logistics environments. At the same time, CES 2026 in Las Vegas showcased a wave of new humanoid prototypes—from generative‑AI‑driven models like Italy’s Gene.01 and LG’s CLOiD to Chinese units such as Unitree’s T800 and a high‑speed humanoid claimed to run 11 mph—but observers noted frequent reliability issues, with several bots stumbling, losing balance or failing to perform tasks without human assistance, underscoring that while commercial interest and investment are surging, practical, autonomous performance remains a work in progress.
One of the exhibits that drew the largest crowds involved robots from the Chinese company EngineAI, which is developing humanoid robots. The bots, dubbed the T800 (a nod to the Terminator franchise), were in a mock boxing ring and were styled as fighting machines. That said, I never saw any of the bots actually hit each other. Instead, they would sort of shadowbox near each other, never actually making contact. They were also a little unpredictable. One kept walking out of the ring and into the audience, which naturally got a rise out of onlookers. At another point, one of the bots tripped over its own feet and then face-planted on the floor, where it lay for awhile before it decided to get up again. So, not exactly a Mike Tyson situation, but the machines still managed to evoke a spooky Lucas Ropek
CES has always been a robot extravaganza, and this year’s event saw the announcement of a number of important robotics developments, including the new, production-ready debut of Atlas, the humanoid from Boston Dynamics. Then there were all the robots on the showroom floor, where bots often serve as good marketing for the companies involved. If they don’t always give a totally accurate representation of where commercial deployment is at the moment, they do give visitors a peek at where it might be headed. And, of course, they sure are fun to look at. I spent a decent amount of time perusing the bots on display this week. Here are some of the most memorable ones I encountered.
The ping pong player The dancer
Dancing robots have long been a staple at CES, and this year was no different. This year, the dance-move torch was carried by bots from Unitree, a major Chinese robotics manufacturer that has been scrutinized for potential ties to the Chinese military. Unitree has made a number of impressive announcements about its product base, including a humanoid bot that can supposedly run at speeds of up to 11 mph. I didn’t see any evidence of anything nefarious at Unitree’s booth this week—just a lot of bots that were feeling the groove.
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