Interview with Columbia professor and co-founder of SceniX Yuhnzu Li: ‘Simulation is central’ - Robotics & Automation News
He also explains why warehouses, factories, laboratories, and retail environments are likely to see widespread robotic deployment before ordinary homes, and what still needs to happen before robots can operate reliably in truly unstructured environments.
Key takeaways
The most recent headlines show a surge of activity around commercial‑grade humanoid robots. At NVIDIA’s GTC event in Taipei in early June, the company unveiled an open‑source reference design built on the Isaac GR00T platform that pairs a Unitree H2 Plus humanoid body with NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor board featuring the new Blackwell GPU, along with Sharpa five‑fingered hands and a full suite of AI models and simulation tools; sales of the research‑focused system to labs such as Stanford and ETH Zurich are slated to begin later this year. NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang emphasized that “physical AI” could generate a multi‑trillion‑dollar market, and the partnership is intended to lower the barrier for embodied‑AI research. Unitree, the Chinese robot maker supplying the H2 Plus, is preparing an October launch of the upgraded H2 Plus and is pursuing a Shanghai STAR‑board IPO that could raise about 4.2 billion yuan, while reporting that over 40 % of its revenue already comes from overseas customers. In the United States, 1X Technologies has started full‑scale production of its NEO humanoid in Hayward, California, marketing the robot as quieter than a refrigerator for domestic environments, and London‑based Humanoid announced a joint proof‑of‑concept with Bosch aimed at scaling production. Fraunhofer IPA introduced a new benchmark suite for evaluating humanoid performance, underscoring the growing focus on real‑world manipulation rather than just locomotion, a point echoed by Columbia professor Yunzhu Li who warned that general‑purpose manipulation in fully unstructured settings remains a longer‑term challenge. China continues to dominate shipments, with analysts projecting roughly 28 000 units shipped in 2026—up from 13 000 in 2025—and forecasts that global advanced‑robot deliveries could exceed one million per year by the early 2030s, driven by state support and rapidly falling prices.
He also explains why warehouses, factories, laboratories, and retail environments are likely to see widespread robotic deployment before ordinary homes, and what still needs to happen before robots can operate reliably in truly unstructured environments.
Interview with Yunzhu Li
Robotics & Automation News: There has been enormous attention around humanoid robots recently, particularly around manufacturing scale and deployment targets. Do you think the industry is becoming overly focused on locomotion rather than real-world manipulation capability?
Yunzhu Li: I would not say the industry is ignoring manipulation. People understand that manipulation is critical for unlocking the real commercial potential of humanoid robots. R&AN: There is currently a huge amount of investment flowing into humanoid robotics. From your perspective, where do you think expectations are realistic, and where might the industry be overestimating near-term progress?
YL: Expectations around hardware, manufacturing, and locomotion are relatively realistic. We will continue to see humanoids become more capable, reliable, and easier to produce at scale.
Where I think expectations may be too aggressive is general-purpose manipulation in fully unstructured environments. I expect faster progress first in semi-structured settings, such as warehouses, factories, labs, or retail backrooms, where the environment can be partially standardized and the task distribution is clearer. SceniX is developing tools that enable robotics companies to generate training data, build realistic simulation environments, evaluate robot performance, and accelerate the transition from laboratory demonstrations to reliable real-world deployment.
The company’s approach is based on a simple premise: robots themselves are relatively easy to model, but the environments they operate in are not. Closing that gap may prove critical to the next stage of robotics development.
In this Q&A, Li discusses why manipulation remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in robotics, the limitations of today’s humanoid robots, the growing importance of simulation in physical AI, and where he believes industry expectations may be running ahead of reality.
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