Astribot is bringing its T1 humanoid to North America starting at $18,000. The debut falls at the IROS 2026 conference in Pittsburgh, with orders open for immediate delivery. The company positions the machine as a development platform for researchers and developers, not a finished household product.
Key takeaways
- US starting price: $18,000, orders open with immediate delivery
- Dimensions: roughly 1.55 m tall and 66 kg
- 23 degrees of freedom excluding end effectors, cable-driven architecture
- Payload up to 5 kg per arm, modular end-effector interface
- In-house Lumo models and Astribot OS with a natural-language interface
Smaller and cheaper than the flagship
T1 is a markedly lighter build than the company's own flagship S1.
| Parameter | T1 | S1 |
|---|---|---|
| Height | approx. 1.55 m | 170 cm |
| Weight | approx. 66 kg | 80 kg |
| Arm span | undisclosed | 194 cm |
| Payload per arm | up to 5 kg | 5 kg |
| Degrees of freedom | 23 excluding end effectors | 7 per arm |
| Price | from $18,000 | undisclosed |
The core working figures stay similar. Both models quote 5 kg of payload per arm.
In T1 the whole thing runs on cable-driven actuation, which moves the motors away from the joints and lightens the end effector?End effector: The part mounted at the tip of the arm that actually touches the object — a gripper, a suction cup or a tool..
The platform has a modular end-effector interface, automatic charging and quick battery swap. Those are choices made for continuous lab work, not for a demo.
What the robot can actually do
The company shows T1 running Lumo-2 on a task of gathering items into a backpack, including deformable objects.
That is a real test of dexterous manipulation, because a soft object cannot be grasped from a rigid plan.
Astribot does not pretend the problem is solved. More complex household work requires further training, the company says. Data from operations and from teleoperation feeds back into retraining, with updates installed remotely or on-site.
A platform, not a product
The robot ships with an SDK and API covering joint-space control, Cartesian motion, whole-body coordination and access to sensor data. Astribot OS adds a set of reusable skills and a natural-language interface.
The company cites the outcome of its second OS hackathon: 15 teams built more than ten working applications in 36 hours.
Why it matters
At that threshold a university or a small research group buys the machine out of a project budget rather than an instrumentation grant.
For the market, lowering the entry barrier matters more than the spec sheet.
What's next
- Orders in North America are open and the company states immediate delivery
- Astribot names further training as the condition for handling more complex household tasks
- The robot is on show at IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh
Sources
- Humanoids Daily — Astribot Brings Its $18,000 T1 Robot to North America at IROS
- Astribot — Product specifications
