Overview

HMND 01 is the first humanoid robot from British company Humanoid, founded in 2024 by entrepreneur Artem Sokolov and operated under SKL Robotics. Headquarters are in London, with additional locations in Boston and Vancouver. The company positions itself as a British pioneer for commercially scalable humanoids and developed HMND 01 for tasks in warehousing, manufacturing, and retail.

Design

The bipedal robot stands 175 centimeters tall and weighs 70 kilograms. It walks at speeds up to 1.5 meters per second, carries around 15 kilograms, and achieves approximately four hours of runtime per charge. Notable is its deliberately minimalist design: the head forgoes human-like eyes to avoid the uncanny valley effect, and the robot wears light textile covers instead of heavy plastic shells. These covers protect the technology and can be exchanged depending on the application.

Technology and AI

HMND 01 is controlled by the proprietary KinetIQ framework, which builds on vision-language and vision-language-action models. Proprietary locomotion and whole-body control methods enable the robot to navigate precisely even in confined spaces. The fully modular construction allows the upper body, lower body, and end effectors to be combined according to the specific application, thus reducing costs.

Market Significance

Humanoid has tested HMND 01 in initial practical trials, including in automotive manufacturing logistics in collaboration with partners such as SAP, Siemens, and Martur Fompak. A beta version of the wheeled model is announced for 2026. According to the company, it has raised approximately 50 million US dollars in seed capital and employs over 200 specialists, making it one of Europe's most ambitious humanoid projects.