Research Labs
University robotics labs, institutes and national research centers publishing the humanoid, manipulation and locomotion research the industry builds on.
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute
One of the oldest and largest robotics research organizations, covering manipulation, field robotics, perception, and human-robot interaction, with degree programs.
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics
Joint centre of the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, training robotics PhDs and running research on humanoids, manipulation and marine robotics.
MIT CSAIL
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, one of the largest academic labs working on robotics, manipulation, planning and machine learning.
Toyota Research Institute
Toyota's US research arm, whose robotics group works on large behavior models, home-assistance robots and manipulation research shared through open publications.
Festo
German automation supplier of pneumatic and electric drives, grippers and controllers, and publisher of the Bionic Learning Network robot research projects.
IHMC Robotics
Florida research institute known for humanoid balance and walking control software, including work on Atlas and Valkyrie platforms and its own exoskeletons.
Open Robotics
Steward of ROS and Gazebo, the open-source middleware and simulator that much of the robotics industry builds on, alongside community events and support.
NAVER LABS
Korean research subsidiary working on robotics, autonomous driving and spatial AI, including service robots deployed in its own headquarters building.
DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics
German Aerospace Center institute that developed lightweight robot arms and humanoid torsos such as Justin, with technology licensed into industry.
Honda Robotics
Honda's robotics program, which produced the ASIMO humanoid and continues with avatar robots, walking assist devices and autonomous work vehicles.
Hugging Face (LeRobot)
AI platform company whose LeRobot project publishes open robot learning models, datasets and low-cost robot designs; it also owns Pollen Robotics.
Clearpath Robotics
Ontario maker of rugged mobile robot platforms such as Husky and Jackal used by research groups, and the parent of the OTTO industrial AMR line.
Barrett Technology
Newton company making the WAM backdrivable robot arm and BarrettHand, long-standing tools in manipulation research and rehabilitation robotics.
Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR)
UC Berkeley's AI research center, a major source of robot learning research including reinforcement learning and vision-based manipulation.
ROBOTIS
Korean maker of DYNAMIXEL smart servo actuators and the TurtleBot research platform, widely used in university robotics courses and labs.
Trossen Robotics
Illinois supplier of research robot arms, mobile manipulators and components, including platforms used for imitation-learning datasets.
PAL Robotics
Barcelona manufacturer of humanoid and mobile research robots such as TALOS, TIAGo and ARI, widely used in European research projects.
Penn GRASP Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania's robotics lab, known for aerial robotics, multi-robot coordination, legged robots and perception research.
Kinova
Quebec manufacturer of lightweight robotic arms for research, assistive use on wheelchairs, and industrial and medical applications.
MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab
MIT lab behind the Cheetah and Mini Cheetah legged robots, researching high-speed locomotion, actuator design and dynamic control.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Italian research institute whose robotics department created the iCub humanoid and works on soft, wearable and industrial robots.
Oxford Robotics Institute
University of Oxford institute researching mobile autonomy, legged robots, perception and learning for robots that work outdoors.
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Stanford's AI lab, whose robotics groups work on manipulation, imitation learning and household robot research alongside core AI.
Elephant Robotics
Shenzhen maker of the myCobot family of compact robot arms and companion robots aimed at education, makers and light automation.
Hello Robot
California maker of Stretch, a lightweight mobile manipulator sold to researchers and used in assistive and home-robot studies.
Booster Robotics
Sells humanoid robots aimed at developers, universities and robot competitions, with an SDK for custom motion and AI research.
Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Georgia Tech's robotics institute, spanning manipulation, healthcare robotics, human-robot interaction and autonomous systems.
NASA JPL Robotics
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's robotics group, building planetary rovers, sampling arms and autonomy for extreme environments.
Michigan Robotics
University of Michigan's robotics department, with work on bipedal walking robots, autonomous vehicles and robot learning.
UC Berkeley AUTOLAB
Berkeley lab researching robot grasping, cloud robotics and the Dex-Net grasp datasets and models used across the field.
Robotnik
Spanish manufacturer of autonomous mobile robots and mobile manipulators for industry, inspection and research.
WPI Robotics Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute's robotics engineering department, which offered one of the first dedicated undergraduate robotics degrees in the US.
ETH Zurich Robotic Systems Lab
Swiss lab behind ANYmal and other legged robots, researching locomotion, learned control and field autonomy.
Google DeepMind Robotics
DeepMind's robotics research group, publishing the Gemini Robotics vision-language-action models and demos of robots reasoning about physical tasks.
Petoi
Maker of small programmable quadruped robot kits such as Bittle, used for STEM education and hobby robotics.
TUM Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence
Technical University of Munich institute combining robotics, machine intelligence and health research, with work on safe human-robot interaction.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What counts as research labs?
University robotics labs, institutes and national research centers publishing the humanoid, manipulation and locomotion research the industry builds on.
What are research labs?
University robotics labs, institutes and national research centers publishing the humanoid, manipulation and locomotion research the industry builds on.
Can I buy a humanoid robot today?
A few companies sell or lease to businesses and research groups. Consumer availability is limited. Each maker's site states its current status.