UK Startup Humanoid Claims "Fastest-Developed Humanoid in History" with HMND 01 Alpha Reveal

UK-based robotics startup Humanoid has officially entered the competitive humanoid race, revealing its first prototype, the HMND 01 Alpha. Announced via social media, the company made the bold claim that the industrial robot was built in just seven months, making it the "fastest-developed humanoid in history."

In a sector often characterized by carefully managed demonstrations, Humanoid opted for a more transparent approach. Alongside the reveal, the company released a 22-minute documentary (video below), "What’s it really like to build a humanoid robot?", detailing the intense, globally-coordinated effort required to bring the machine from concept to reality in such a short timeframe.

An Unfiltered Look at a 7-Month Sprint

The documentary reveals that the rapid development was the result of a high-pressure push by teams spread across London, Boston, and Vancouver. The film eschews a polished corporate narrative, instead highlighting the genuine challenges and setbacks faced during the build process. "I have never seen a first integration go smoothly," one engineer notes early on. "Something always goes wrong."

The footage bears this out, showing the team grappling with everything from shipping delays holding up the robot's arms in customs—a "huge deal" that threatened to cascade across the company—to simply tripping the circuit breakers in an office building repurposed as a robotics lab. "It's the hardest I've ever worked in my career," says a team member, capturing the sentiment of a project built on what the company calls an "aggressive schedule."

This transparency provides context for the seven-month claim, portraying it not as an effortless feat but as the outcome of a relentless, problem-solving sprint by a team of experienced roboticists drawn from companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics.

HMND 01 Alpha: What We Know

According to the company's announcement, the HMND 01 Alpha is a substantial machine designed for industrial use. Key specifications include:

Height: 220 cm (approx. 7'2")
Speed: 7.2 km/h (approx. 4.5 mph)
Payload: 15 kg (33 lbs)
Degrees of Freedom (DOF): 29, excluding end-effectors

The documentary clarifies that this Alpha version is a wheeled platform. This aligns with the company's previously stated strategy to focus first on perfecting manipulation in logistics and manufacturing environments, where wheeled mobility can address a majority of use cases. The film shows the robot has a humanoid torso, arms, and a head, with parallel jaw grippers instead of hands. A bipedal version with legs is expected to follow, with a target date of October mentioned for its arrival.

The design philosophy emphasizes functionality and human-robot collaboration over futuristic aesthetics. The team consciously avoided the "uncanny valley" by designing a simplified head without unsettling, human-like eyes. A unique feature is the use of fabric clothing, or "uniforms," which serve a practical purpose—being lighter than plastic or metal—and a psychological one. The goal is for human workers to see the robot as a familiar "colleague" rather than an intimidating "monster" when it's deployed on a factory floor.

Strategy and Next Steps

The HMND 01 Alpha is the first physical manifestation of Humanoid's pragmatic, market-focused strategy. As previously articulated by founder Artem Sokolov, the company is prioritizing commercially viable solutions for labor shortages over R&D-heavy projects.

With the hardware now assembled, the documentary notes that the "shift is now moving from hardware to software and AI teams." The next phase is an equally aggressive six-week sprint to develop the AI capabilities for specific industrial tasks like tote handling and machine feeding.

Humanoid states that proof-of-concept projects with real customers are set to begin as early as next month. These real-world deployments will be the true test of whether the speed of the robot's development can be matched by the performance of its AI-driven brain in messy, unpredictable industrial environments.

Watch the documentary below: