A very new humanoid The robot in the square, Spriut, is not designed to handle boxes or stack shelves. Instead, this stylish and relatively cheap model, which is about the size of a 9-year-old child, is intended to serve customers in hotels, shops and restaurants.
“We said, ‘What if we could build something that’s lightweight, engaging, and safe to be around, and capable enough to do fun things?’” says Robert Cochran, founder and CEO of Fauna, the startup behind Sprout.
The Sprout is available for purchase starting today from $50,000. Cochran added that his company is already talking to hotels about using Sprout as a butler that delivers toothbrushes and other items to guests in need.
The launch of Sprout is part of a growing industry in the United States. The humanoid business is booming despite the fact that it is still unclear how effective and practical these systems will be. More than a dozen US companies are working on humanoids, including Boston Dynamics, which recently signed a deal to use Google’s AI in its robots; Tesla, which developed a system called Optimus; and startups like Agility Robotics, Figure AI, and 1X.
Unitree, a Chinese robot maker, has also found success selling inexpensive humanoids for entertainment and research purposes. Some of Unitree’s humanoids cost less than $20,000. When fully equipped with sensors and computers, however, they cost about the same as the Spruit.
Early animal customers include Disney, which already uses robots in some of its theme parks, and Boston Dynamics, which makes a range of legged robots for industrial use, including large, sturdy humanoids.
Hosted by Fauna
Hosted by Fauna
Cochran says Sprout is designed to be easy to program, making it especially useful in research settings. The robot comes with software libraries that allow it to explore its environment, navigate autonomously, access language models, and more. The robot can also be used out of the box, which can be useful for robot training purposes. Scientists at New York University are using Spriut to research new techniques for robot manipulation and human-robot interaction. The company also says it has developed proprietary technology to help Sprout recover its balance if it stumbles.
While many robots are made by humans as factory workers, and some are already being tested by automakers, Cochran says Fauna believes the first market for robots may be in the entertainment and service industries.
Cochran showed me several of Sprout’s interfaces, including an app that shows the robot’s vision and a coding interface that can be used to program the system in real time. Unlike most humanoids, Sprout is designed with human interaction in mind, which is why it comes with mechanical eyebrows to express interest, surprise, or confusion.
Cochran previously worked at Meta. Some members of the founding team are from Google. Cochran notes that AI systems capable of identifying objects, such as those developed for smart glasses, will also be useful for robots tasked with interacting with human environments.
At one point during the demo, Cochrane asked Sprout to go check what was in the fridge. The robot interpreted the command using LLM and walked to the corner of the office unlike a 9-year-old. After peering through the glass door of the machine, Sprout stepped back to report the presence of a few sodas.
Cochrane believes this type of ability could help humanoids break through. “You can get a ‘Hello World’ example of a robot where you can talk and automatically map yourself and navigate the environment effectively,” he says. “And from then on, the world is your oyster.”
