Are humanoid robots in 2035 more fiction than science?
Summary based on Robin R. Murphy’s 2026 Science Robotics focus article
The 2004 Hollywood movie I, Robot paints a vision of 2035: widespread Nestor‑series humanoid robots seamlessly integrated across society, doing household chores, delivery, public‑service and labour work with one universal robot model. This futuristic scenario attracts huge investor confidence: firms like Agility Robotics and Figure AI have reached multi‑billion‑dollar valuations for their bipedal humanoid robot projects.
There is no single agreed‑upon definition for “humanoid robot”. Researchers evaluate how human‑like a robot is either by its visible physical traits (shape, limbs, facial features, movement) or by combining appearance, cognitive signals and simulated emotional performance. Even robots with human‑shaped bodies may suffer awkward motion and poor intelligence, falling into the uncanny valley.
Despite investors’ optimism, critical technical bottlenecks remain. Limitations include insufficient sensors for dexterous manipulation, unsolved complex task‑planning challenges, sparse training data that prevents skills from generalizing to new scenarios, and incomplete autonomy. Many current humanoid robots still rely on human teleoperation to handle unexpected real‑world situations.
A debate at the 2025 IROS conference surveyed roughly 3000 robotics researchers about whether humanoids would replace most human workers within 25 years. At the debate’s start, 80% of attendees voted against this prediction. After discussion, this number rose to 90%.
Roboticists generally agree that before 2050, humanoid robots may become economically practical only for narrow, highly‑specialized tasks. Such limited‑use robots would not have large‑scale impacts on overall employment. To sum up: investors bet on the I, Robot‑style 2035 humanoid future, while most robotics experts are highly sceptical.
Source: Murphy, R.R. (2026). Are humanoid robots in 2035 more fiction than science? Science Robotics, 11(117), eaek6923