A thread of robot friends that I have met in person, because I meet lots of robots.

The first legit robot I worked on, Avatar-HUBO for an XPRIZE competition. Beast of a machine. IIRC, 200 lbs, 5’ 8”, harmonic drives and position-controlled. I got tackled by this thing once! Rating: 7/10 - crazy strong, makes cool noises, scary looking! Great robo-NFL pick.

DARwIn OP2 (modified with a new head and arms here). Cute little guy! About 8 lbs, 1’6”. We did a cool hack by driving the “humanoid hand” on the right with 1 DoF of tendons. Rating: 5/10 - Fun to play with, fun to teleop. Not super capable, and the face is a lil weird.

Toddy from @HaochenShi74. SUCH a cool little guy. About the same size as OP2, but very smart and athletic! I think it could do more push ups and cartwheels than me. Rating: 8/10. The head really makes you think - now that’s a robot!

ADAM from PNDBotics. This is seriously one of the coolest looking terminator-bots that is out there when it’s on. The lights in the actuators are surprisingly aesthetic! I just really love the raw-look of this guy. Rating: 7.8 / 10. Raw, strong, and a little scary!

Fourier GR3. I hate to admit it, but a mesh wrap and anime-ish eyes really make this thing look so friendly. Also, the really really anthropomorphic design helps too! Rating: 8.4 / 10. Wouldn’t mind seeing these guys daily.

LIMX Oli. This thing actually broke my mind when I met it during Humanoids 2025. Completely silent, human scale, and walking around the venue. Snuck up on me! Although it’s got some things I don’t like (wrists), I can’t help but love the design. Rating: 8.6 / 10.

Feather! Love the team, really serious about high quality hardware. The arms on this guy are nuts! No doubt it’d crush me during arm day at the gym. Look at all that metal! Rating: 7.4 / 10. Very robust, very solid.

Atlas-Electric, BD: THE COOLEST thing I have ever seen in my life. Continuous rotation joints, crazy hands, gargantuan power, strangely inhuman design - this thing IS what robots should be. Absolutely radical. Rating: 9.7/10. I actually like the one on the left more 🤐

Digit from Agility. This is an older version. They’ve been bulking him up a lot for deployment recently. Unfortunate, because I think 2023 digit was really proportional and even kinda “cute” for a full-size humanoid! Rating: 7.2 / 10 (Current digit) 8/10 (2023 digit)

TOCABI from SNU. Love the arms and color of this robot! Subtly expressive, competent, and just so cool looking! What a fantastic platform. Rating: 6.8/10 - very robot-y. I think more covers could help the aesthetics.

Spun out of SNU is this guy! I think he’s functioning on similar tech to TOCABI. I believe playing with the eye sizing (like how @pollenrobotics does for reachy) would make this look a lot friendlier. Rating: 6.9 / 10 - super long arms and neck, he’s been lank-maxxing

@pollenrobotics makes the cutest, friendliest looking robots in the world at this point. Fun fact: Reachy is the name of the robot’s arm - so Reachy mini being a head is a bit strange. Rating: 9/10 - this thing is so cute and fun to play with!

Orihime from Japan are marvelous robot avatars. They’re remotely operated by people with disabilities, so they can still help out in the economy. Amazing story, amazing purpose, and such good design execution. Rating: 9.2 / 10. (An extra 0.1 pts for pirate orihime!)

Another Geminoid from Noetix, I think? This one is actually insane. Full facial movement with heated skin. they’re really close to eliminating that uncanny valley. Although every time I asked what this would be used for, someone said “companionship”… 🤨 Rating: 8.2/10

Balloon bots from @DennisHongRobot. This was at a robot fashion show… I know, wild. They’re just like they are in the videos online. Whimsical, bouncy, and trapped in a prison they cannot comprehend, bound by forces they cannot percept. Rating: 8.7/10, existential!

ALLEX from WIRobotics! Super compliant, uses lots of proximal-mounted tendon drives and smart mechanisms. Gives a great handshake, too. You can’t not love this guy! Rating: 8.8/10. Best robot high five I’ve ever gotten.

Stretch4. Super practical, smart design. I love humanoids, but I can’t lie, I am a sucker for mobile manipulators with strange looking forms. Rating: 8/10, very fun to drive around with a joystick!