Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO, Humanoid.
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The robotics conversation in 2026 focuses heavily on humanoid robots. The demonstrations look impressive, investment is growing, and forecasts are very large. Bank of America projects that the global number of humanoid robots could reach 3 billion by 2060, more than the number of cars on Earth today.
However, the robots already helping solve labor shortages look very different from the standard sci-fi movie versions. The most urgent demand is coming from industrial sectors facing aging workforces and persistent labor shortages. For these environments, wheeled robots are a practical fit, and most of them move on wheels, not legs.
Early deployments are not focused on robots that can perform household tasks such as loading a dishwasher or climbing stairs. Instead, companies are using robots for simple and repeatable jobs, including moving materials across warehouse floors, carrying tools between workstations and restocking shelves.
For these tasks, wheels are the most practical solution.
The Market Has Already Chosen
A clear example came in June 2026, when Amazon unveiled the next generation of its wheeled warehouse fleet. Like wheeled humanoids, these systems are built for structured, high-throughput environments, prioritizing mobility and efficiency over human imitation. Almost all of these robots move on wheels. They transport inventory, move shelves and sort packages in warehouses designed for automated systems.
Where Humanoid Robots Will Appear First
Most forecasts point to the same starting point: industrial environments. Bank of America, using data from Counterpoint Research, estimates that by 2027, most humanoid robot deployments will occur in three industries: Warehousing and logistics will account for 33%, automotive manufacturing for 24% and general manufacturing for 15%.
The study also describes an early stage of deployment from 2025 to 2027. During this stage, robots will be used in small numbers in structured environments such as factories and logistics centers. Their tasks will include moving materials, performing simple assembly, sorting items and carrying out quality checks.
A growing number of pilot projects already reflect this pattern, from warehouse picking trials to automotive logistics tests, including HMND 01 Alpha wheeled deployment in a live manufacturing environment with such companies as Schaeffler, Siemens, Bosch and others. Moreover, Schaeffler and Humanoid plan to begin deploying thousands of humanoid robots in production environments starting in late 2026.
These robots will not be the fully general machines often imagined in science fiction. In practice, early systems will look more like mobile robots with robotic arms operating inside controlled environments.
Wheels Are An Engineering Decision
As of early 2026, IDTechEx reports that market activity has shifted from trade show demonstrations toward structured pilot deployments in logistics and warehousing, though the segment still lags behind automotive as the leading adoption pathway.
The main challenge is not investment; it is the engineering complexity of building robots that can safely and reliably operate in dynamic environments. Humanoid robots must manage balance, mobility, perception and manipulation at the same time. These abilities allow them to work in spaces designed for humans, but they also increase system complexity.
Wheeled robots solve a narrower problem. They move through structured spaces and transport items from one location to another. Because the environments are more structured, with flat floors, defined workflows and no stairs, these robots can often be deployed earlier and at greater scale. Homes and other unstructured settings present very different challenges.
Wheels are well suited to controlled industrial environments, while legs become essential in spaces designed for humans, where robots must navigate stairs, uneven terrain and more complex layouts.
The Task Determines The Design
The key question is not whether wheels or legs are better. The real question is what the task requires. Moving a container from one location to another inside a warehouse mainly requires reliable navigation, sufficient payload capacity and long operating time. Wheeled robots already perform these tasks.
Humanoid robots address a broader challenge. They are designed to operate in environments built for people and to perform tasks that require mobility, manipulation and flexibility. As the technology matures and costs decrease, humanoid robots are expected to expand beyond structured industrial settings into more complex roles in logistics, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and eventually domestic environments.
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