Humanoid Founder Artem Sokolov on Pragmatic Path to Commercial Robotics, Prioritizing Market-Ready Solutions

Humanoid Founder Lays Out Strategy for Practical, Market-Ready Robots

Artem Sokolov, founder of UK-based robotics firm Humanoid, recently shared insights into his company's approach to the burgeoning field of humanoid robotics. In an interview with Unite.ai, Sokolov emphasized a strategy centered on rapid commercialization, practical applications, and developing robots designed to integrate seamlessly into human-centric environments. His vision is less about headline-grabbing acrobatics and more about delivering tangible value in sectors like logistics and manufacturing.

The "Why Humanoids?" Question: A World Built for Humans

Sokolov's motivation stems from a personal connection to the toil of manual labor, having witnessed its impact on his family. This experience fueled his ambition to create robots that can alleviate humans from physically demanding and monotonous tasks.

Addressing the debate over form factors, Sokolov argues that the humanoid design is inherently practical. "The world is designed for humans," he stated, suggesting that humanoid robots can more naturally fit into existing infrastructure without requiring costly redesigns of warehouses and factories. This versatility, he believes, allows a single humanoid platform to learn and adapt to a multitude of tasks, offering a more flexible solution than specialized industrial robots.

Differentiating in a Competitive Landscape

Acknowledging a growing field of competitors, including Tesla, Agility Robotics, and Figure AI, Sokolov views competition positively, believing it drives market development and ultimately lowers costs. Humanoid, founded in May 2024, aims to differentiate itself by prioritizing "practical, market-ready solutions" over pure research. "Warehouses or production lines don’t need robots that can dance," Sokolov remarked, underscoring a focus on immediate real-world utility.

Humanoid is targeting a swift time-to-market, with commercial testing already underway just a year after its inception. Sokolov attributes this pace to a "second-mover advantage," leveraging a team of over 130 professionals with experience from other leading robotics and AI companies. This allows Humanoid, he claims, to "skip early R&D, and avoid expensive mistakes."

Bolstering Technical Leadership with New CTO

Underscoring its commitment to rapid development and market readiness, Humanoid announced in May 2025 the appointment of Jarad Cannon as its new Chief Technology Officer. Cannon brings over 13 years of experience in robotics and AI, with a notable focus on delivering scalable, real-world products and managing cross-functional engineering teams.

His prior role as CTO at Brain Corp was marked by his significant contribution to scaling the company's deployed robot fleet from a handful to over 40,000 units, alongside substantial growth of the engineering team. Before Brain Corp, Cannon spent six years at iRobot, where he worked on telepresence robots, reconnaissance and defense robots, and advanced mapping and cleaning behaviors for the Roomba line.

At Humanoid, Cannon’s key priorities for the next 6 to 12 months include scaling the engineering team, ensuring the on-schedule delivery of alpha prototypes, and leading successful proof-of-concept deployments to lay the groundwork for customer applications. "Compute, data, and frontier AI are finally powerful enough to breathe true intelligence into machines," Cannon commented on his appointment. He added, "We have the rare combination of timing, world-class talent, and technology to make humanoid robotics real, at scale, starting now." This strategic hire signals Humanoid's intent to combine its ambitious vision with seasoned execution capability.

AI, Modularity, and a Phased Approach to Autonomy

Humanoid's AI strategy involves building its application layer models on top of existing Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, with a long-term goal of developing a fully proprietary autonomous generalization model. Sokolov emphasized that success will hinge not just on foundational AI, but on "application-specific data, hardware, and seamless real-world integration."

The company is adopting a staged approach to robot autonomy:

1. Shared Autonomy: Robots can request human assistance when needed.
2. Increased Independence (2026-2027): Robots performing 80% of industrial tasks with minimal human help.
3. Full Autonomy (Late 2027): Robots operating independently in targeted industrial settings.

Modularity is a cornerstone of the HMND 01 robot's design. Humanoid is initially focusing on a wheeled version to tackle manipulation challenges more quickly, as this platform is deemed safer, more flexible, and addresses over 80% of current logistics use cases. The upper body design is shared with its planned bipedal counterpart, allowing manipulation skills learned by the wheeled robot to be transferred. This modularity also extends to cost-effectiveness through easier upgrades, repairs, and customization, including branded protective garments.

Addressing Locomotion and Societal Impact

For bipedal locomotion, a notoriously complex challenge, Humanoid will leverage model-predictive control (MPC), whole-body control, and learning-based strategies. However, the initial focus on wheeled mobility allows the team to concentrate on perfecting manipulation first.

Sokolov addressed societal concerns about job displacement, framing humanoid robots as collaborators that will augment human capabilities and fill labor shortages, rather than wholesale replacements. He drew parallels to the internet's societal impact, which transformed work rather than rendering workers obsolete, though he acknowledged that shifting public perception and developing new workplace regulations will take time.

Commercialization and Future Milestones

Humanoid aims for a low total cost of ownership (TCO). Sokolov cited industry estimates of humanoid robot prices dropping, suggesting a realistic range of $50,000-$70,000 for industrial use, which he argues would be economically compelling compared to human labor costs when factoring in a multi-year lifespan.

Key upcoming milestones for Humanoid include the launch of recently teased alpha models (both wheeled and bipedal) later this year and initiating pilot projects with partners in logistics and manufacturing. Sokolov expressed confidence in announcing significant developments and partnerships soon, building on the momentum from their recently released HMND 01 product video. The company is also expanding its talent pool with new offices in the U.S. and Canada.