I usually start these annual posts by saying that this was the best year ever. robotics. But this year I'm not so sure. At the end of 2024it really looked like AI and humanoid robots were ready to make significant progress towards some kind of practicality. While progress has indeed been made, it's difficult to explain what actually happened in 2025 given the amount of money and hype that swept robotics throughout the year. For better or worse, humanoids overshadow everything else, raising questions about what will happen if the companies that create them ultimately fail.
We will enter 2026 with optimism and skepticism and continue to do what we always do: talk to experts, ask as many tough questions as possible, and be sure to share them. All cool robots, even (or especially) ones you won’t see anywhere else.
So, thanks for reading, and to all of you amazing robotics people out there, thanks for sharing your work with us! IEEE spectrum There's plenty of exciting new stuff planned for 2026, and as we wrap up 2025, we're taking a quick look back at some of our best robotics stories of the year.
Eddie Guy
Humanoid robots are complex, and they are complex in many ways. In some of these ways, we at least understand the problems and possible solutions. But there are other problems that have no clear solution, and most humanoid companies, especially well-funded ones, seem to quite happy to brush aside these problems while continuing to raise extraordinary amounts of money. We'll continue to talk about it whenever we see it, and expect even more skepticism in 2026.
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Safety is one of those annoying little things that is very important in robotics, but in the early stages robotics companies usually treated as an afterthought because it does not encourage investment. Chinese manufacturer Unitry is truly the only company offering humanoid robots that are accessible and affordable enough for smart people to do safety testing. And, to the surprise of no one, Unitree robots had serious vulnerabilitieswhich are not all fixed at the moment.
What do I value in people from Amazon Robotics how tireless they are in finding creative solutions for problems at scale. Amazon simply doesn't have time to mess around, so they develop robots that do what robots do best: specific repetitive tasks in structured environments. Honestly, in the current climate of robotics, this is refreshing.
Did I mention that humanoid robots are complex? Regardless of whether anyone can fulfill the promises made about him (and personally I am increasingly inclined to do so), progress is done to the side humanoids that are far more capable and versatile than ever before. Cooperation between Toyota Research And Boston Dynamics on large behavioral models – this is just one example how far have we comeand how far we still have to go.
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My least favorite story happened at the very end of the year.iRobot filed for bankruptcy. This was not a complete surprise; Regulators' closure of Amazon's acquisition in 2024 essentially devastated the company, and it has been inching toward the inevitable ever since. Immediately after the announcement of this news, we spoke with iRobot co-founder and former CEO Colin Englewho had a lot to say about where things went wrong and what we can learn from it.
Evan Ackerman
My favorite story of 2025 was about both cows and robots. I was amazed to find out how completely autonomous robots work hard on dairy farms around the worldand am thrilled to know that these robots are actively improving the lives of both dairy farmers and the dairy cows themselves. Dairy farming is endless hard work, but thanks to these robots, small family farms can remain sustainable (and smart). Everyone wins thanks to robots.
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