The future of humanoid robots may not involve walking at all. LG Electronics' commercial robot subsidiary Bear Robotics announced the acquisition of Kinisi Robotics, a UK-based startup, combining autonomous mobile robots with advanced robotic arm technology to create what the industry calls "Physical AI" systems. Rather than pursuing the bipedal walking robots that dominate headlines, this strategy reflects a growing industry consensus: wheeled robots with manipulation capabilities offer a faster, more practical path to real-world automation.

Why Are Companies Moving Away From Bipedal Humanoids?

Bipedal walking robots face significant hurdles that wheeled alternatives simply don't encounter. Walking humanoids must solve complex engineering challenges including maintaining stability on uneven surfaces, achieving battery efficiency, managing high manufacturing costs, and navigating safety certifications for human-adjacent environments. These obstacles have slowed commercialization despite years of development and billions in investment.

In contrast, wheeled autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have already proven themselves in real-world settings. Bear Robotics, for example, has deployed approximately 16,000 robots across more than 5,000 locations in over 20 countries, primarily in restaurants and logistics facilities. By adding robotic arms and manipulation AI to these proven platforms, companies can dramatically expand what robots can do without redesigning infrastructure or solving the physics problems that plague bipedal systems.

"With the addition of manipulation AI through this acquisition, we have evolved into robots that perform actual work beyond movement and delivery," stated Ha Jung-woo, CEO of Bear Robotics.

Ha Jung-woo, CEO of Bear Robotics

What Technologies Are Making Wheeled Humanoids Practical?

The Kinisi acquisition brings several critical technologies to Bear Robotics. The company secures Kinisi's KR1 platform, a robot combining a humanoid upper body with a wheeled mobile base, along with advanced AI systems including vision-language-action (VLA) models and robot foundation models (RFM). These technologies allow robots to perceive their environment visually, understand natural language instructions, and execute physical tasks without requiring traditional step-by-step programming.

The shift toward Physical AI represents a fundamental change in how robots operate. Rather than following rigid, pre-programmed sequences, modern robots can now dynamically perceive unstructured environments, reason through unexpected variabilities, and execute precise actions autonomously. At Hannover Messe 2026, a major industrial technology fair, Siemens demonstrated a collaborative robot arm using VLA technology to pack flexible textile items like shoes into boxes, adjusting its grip and motion in real time based on visual feedback, something traditional rule-based programming cannot handle.

How to Understand the Practical Advantages of Wheeled Humanoid Design

• Task Expansion: Wheeled robots can now perform picking, sorting, loading, shelf placement, and equipment operation tasks that were previously impossible for simple transport robots, dramatically expanding automation scope across logistics, manufacturing, and hospitality sectors.
• Infrastructure Compatibility: Unlike bipedal robots designed for human-scale spaces, wheeled systems integrate seamlessly with existing factory layouts, warehouse designs, and commercial facilities without requiring costly renovations or safety redesigns.
• Commercialization Speed: Wheeled AMRs have accumulated years of real-world operational data and proven reliability in indoor environments, allowing companies to add manipulation capabilities faster than developing entirely new bipedal platforms from scratch.

Kinisi founder Brennan Pierce, who previously co-founded Bear Robotics, will join the company as Chief Robotics Officer after the deal closes, continuing to lead KR1 platform development. This leadership continuity signals Bear Robotics' commitment to advancing the wheeled humanoid approach rather than pivoting toward traditional bipedal designs.

Is This Trend Spreading Across the Industry?

The wheeled humanoid strategy is not unique to Bear Robotics. South Korea's Everybot, a company known for robot vacuum cleaners, reorganized its research institute into a "Physical AI Research Institute" in March, explicitly positioning autonomous mobility platforms and service-type humanoid robots as mid-to-long-term goals. The company plans to extend indoor autonomous driving technology and data accumulated through cleaning robots to humanoid and upper-body-driven service platforms.

Globally, similar trends are emerging. Denmark's MiR has introduced mobile cobots combined with robotic arms, while humanoid specialist Agility Robotics emphasizes its Digit robot's capability to integrate with existing logistics automation systems. Spain's AMR company Kivnon has presented collaboration models where AMRs and humanoids share roles at manufacturing sites, suggesting a hybrid future rather than a winner-take-all outcome.

Bear Robotics will showcase this vision at Automate 2026, North America's largest robotics and automation exhibition in Chicago, demonstrating the KR1 alongside its existing AMR lineup and presenting its Physical AI robot platform strategy spanning serving, logistics, and humanoid applications. The event will provide the first public glimpse of how the combined company plans to position wheeled humanoids as the practical alternative to bipedal robots.

A robotics industry insider captured the underlying logic: "What matters in industrial settings is not whether a robot looks like a human, but whether it can reliably perform actual tasks. The reason autonomous driving-based robot companies are trying to attach arms and manipulation functions is ultimately to fill the final gap in automation". This pragmatic focus on functionality over form suggests that the next wave of humanoid robot adoption will look quite different from the bipedal prototypes that have captured public imagination.