To Humanoid or Not? Is that the question?

• To humanoid or not? Rodney Brooks questions the prevailing assumption: humanoid form factors don’t guarantee dexterity or generalizability, even if our world is built for human dimensions.

• Video isn’t enough: He argues that visual learning alone, without rich tactile and force feedback, can’t bridge the gap to dexterous manipulation—especially in unstructured environments.

• What this means for us: In industrial domains, we’re more interested in pragmatic capability than human mimicry. Although we’re open to experimentation with humanoids (reach out, folks!), our bets so far favor specialized, form-adapted manipulators—while keeping an eye on whether future hybrids or new sensor modalities shift the calculus.

Source: "Why Today’s Humanoids Won’t Learn Dexterity"