The role of humanoid robots in future public transport systems - Nature
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Key takeaways
The most recent headlines show humanoid robots moving from laboratory prototypes to commercial deployments across several sectors. On March 18, 2026, Agibot demonstrated large‑scale reliability by staging a fully robot‑led live show, highlighting coordinated performance of dozens of units and confirming that more than 5,000 humanoids had been delivered worldwide by the end of 2025, signaling a shift toward repeatable, scalable supply. At the same time, IntBot announced that its general social‑intelligence engine now powers the Nilo concierge robot, which is operating 24 hours a day in three U.S. hotel chains and can handle multilingual guest interactions, underscoring a focus on hardware‑agnostic, socially aware services. In the consumer market, the San‑Francisco‑based startup Sunday secured a $165 million Series B round that values the company at $1.15 billion as it prepares to launch the household robot Memo for chores such as laundry and table clearing. Meanwhile, automakers continue to test humanoids in factories: BMW is trialling the Hexagon‑developed Aeon robot at its Leipzig plant, and Mercedes‑Benz is investing in Apptronik’s Apollo platform for parts‑moving and inspection tasks. Academic analysis published on March 13 notes that despite advances in vision‑language‑action models and compliant actuation, humanoids still struggle with fine‑motor manipulation of small objects, indicating that technical challenges remain even as commercial use expands.
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