The top five in humanoid robotics, September 2026
In September humanoid robots made beds in houses they had never been inside, learned to sort parts on a car plant floor, and started cleaning apartments by the hour. Two factories in China began building them on production lines. These are the five biggest robot stories of the month.
1. Figure sent its robots into 30 homes they had never seen
On 17 September Figure released Helix 2.5, the latest version of the model that runs its humanoid. To show it, the company rented 30 homes in the Bay Area and sent robots in with no extra training for any of them: the same model in every house, working out unfamiliar furniture, towels and toys as it went.
The jobs were tidying living rooms, folding towels and making beds. Across 420 attempts the robots finished 237 tasks, a success rate of 56 per cent. Figure also published four hours of footage of the robots at work.
2. Boston Dynamics and Hyundai are training Atlas on a car plant floor
On 21 September Boston Dynamics opened the Robotics Metaplant Application Center, a training centre for its Atlas humanoid at Hyundai’s Metaplant America site outside Savannah, Georgia. Atlas is learning logistics work there first: sorting car parts and placing them in the order the assembly line needs them. Component assembly is on the plan by 2030.
Hyundai Motor Group says it plans to deploy 25,000 robots across Hyundai and Kia plants over the next few years, and a new US factory is planned to build 30,000 robots a year. The centre itself is set to grow to about ten times its current size in 2027.
On 30 September Boston Dynamics followed it with a short film made with Hyundai and Bloomberg Media Studios, on how Spot and Stretch reached customers and how Atlas is now learning in real working environments.
Inside the Robotics Race on YouTube · Boston Dynamics on the training centre
3. XPeng switched on a production line for its Iron humanoid
On 8 September XPeng, the Chinese car maker, commissioned a production line for Iron, its humanoid robot. More than 80 per cent of the core processes are automated, and the first robot off the line walked off it on its own. XPeng’s chief executive, He Xiaopeng, called it the world’s first automated production line for advanced general-purpose humanoids.
Mass production is due to start by the end of the year. The first robots go to work in XPeng’s own stores and campuses, with an official launch, and sales outside China, planned for 2027. XPeng already sells cars in Australia; it has not said which countries get the robot.
XPeng’s announcement · CnEVPost report
4. UBTECH opened a factory built to make a humanoid every 10 minutes
On 12 September UBTECH started production at a plant in Liuzhou, in southern China, sized for more than 10,000 humanoid robots a year. At full pace the line is designed to finish one robot every 10 minutes. It builds UBTECH’s Walker S industrial humanoid and its Cruzr service robot, and robots do part of the building.
Xinhua report · Seoul Economic Daily report
5. You can book a humanoid to clean an apartment in San Francisco
Tau Robotics is sending humanoid robots to clean San Francisco homes at US$30 an hour, or US$60 for two. They vacuum, wipe down surfaces, take out the rubbish and pick up clutter. Booking is invite-only with a waitlist, and someone has to be home during the visit.
The robots are not working alone. A remote operator works alongside the software on every visit, and Tau plans to hand more of the job to the robot over time.