UK-based robotics and AI company Humanoid has launched HMND 01 Alpha, the country’s first humanoid robot for industrial use. Built in just seven months, the company says that Alpha represents the fastest humanoid development cycle in history.
Within its founding year, Humanoid has completed two commercial Proofs of Concept (POCs), positioning HMND 01 as the only industrial humanoid robot on track for commercial deployment within the next 12 months.
The launch comes as industries face widening shortages and productivity challenges. In the UK alone, manufacturers report more than 58,000 unfilled vacancies, while across Europe more than one in four manufacturers (26%) cite labour shortages as a critical barrier to growth and one of the sector’s biggest challenges. In the United States, the situation is even more severe, with around 600,000 jobs currently unfilled – a figure projected to rise to 2.1 million by 2030.
HMND 01 can take on repetitive, physically demanding tasks in warehouses, logistics hubs, and retail facilities such as picking and sorting goods, machine feeding, kitting, loading and unloading inventory, and supporting packaging and fulfilment. By working alongside people in environments designed for humans, the robot is claimed to boost throughput, reduce errors, and improve working conditions – all without the costly infrastructure changes typical of traditional automation.
“Robots shouldn’t replace people, they should support them,” said Artem Sokolov, Founder of Humanoid. “After scaling my family’s manufacturing business, I saw firsthand the toll repetitive work took on employees, including my own grandparents. HMND 01 is built to fill the labour gaps, letting people focus on more meaningful work.”
Humanoid’s robots use a proprietary combination of 360° simulation training and real-world data flywheels. This dual system is claimed to deliver twice the development speed at half the cost compared to traditional methods.
Standing 220cm, Alpha is a wheeled humanoid that the team believes is the most robust wheeled robotic platform in the world. It can reach speeds of up to 7.2km/h and carry bimanual payloads of 15kg, with the ability to lift even more when objects are closer to the body. Its reach spans from the floor up to 2m, with shelf depths of up to 60cm, allowing it to pick goods directly from the ground or from high storage locations.
Alpha features 29 active degrees of freedom (DOF), excluding end-effectors, and is powered by AI-driven, end-to-end reasoning. Its end-effectors can be fitted with either a 12-DOF five-fingered hand or a 1-DOF parallel gripper, allowing the robot to adapt to tasks requiring either dexterity or simple/heavy handling. The head is equipped with 360-degree RGB cameras and two depth sensors for comprehensive perception.
HMND 01 Alpha is primarily designed for testing across industrial facilities, gathering insights on which functions are market-ready, which need refinement, and what new capabilities are required. These learnings will help to shape Beta wheeled robot, scheduled for launch in Q3 2026.
Humanoid is backed by $50 million in founder-led capital and a 175-strong team that includes alumni from Apple, Tesla, Google, Boston Dynamics, Sanctuary AI, and Nvidia. The company will operate on a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, enabling enterprise customers to achieve a fast ROI, with potential labour cost savings of up to 50% annually, while experiencing firsthand how intelligent humanoid robots can enhance productivity, improve working conditions, and transform the future of industrial work.
The wheeled Alpha is just the beginning of Humanoid’s journey. Humanoid says that it will unveil the bipedal Alpha in the coming months, which will be used for pilot projects, testing, and gathering real-world operational and safety data. Lessons from the Alpha will guide the development of the bipedal Beta, scheduled for late 2026, designed specifically for home and service environments.
