Guide · 2026
Best Research Labs (2026)
The 10 most complete research labs listings on Humanoid Lab, ranked by how much verified public information each publishes: description, services, pricing, and a live website. 53 are listed in this category. Order is not a quality rating, and no listing pays for its rank.
- 1
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute
One of the oldest and largest robotics research organizations, covering manipulation, field robotics, perception, and human-robot interaction, with degree programs.
- 3 services listed, including robotics degrees, field robotics, manipulation research
- 2
Edinburgh Centre for Robotics
Joint centre of the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, training robotics PhDs and running research on humanoids, manipulation and marine robotics.
- 3 services listed, including doctoral training, humanoid research, marine robotics
- 3
MIT CSAIL
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, one of the largest academic labs working on robotics, manipulation, planning and machine learning.
- 3 services listed, including robotics research, manipulation, machine learning
- 4
Toyota Research Institute
Toyota's US research arm, whose robotics group works on large behavior models, home-assistance robots and manipulation research shared through open publications.
- Listed under Humanoid & General-Purpose Robot Makers, Research Labs, Robotics Software & AI
- 3 services listed, including large behavior models, manipulation research, home robotics
- 5
Festo
German automation supplier of pneumatic and electric drives, grippers and controllers, and publisher of the Bionic Learning Network robot research projects.
- Listed under Robot Components, Research Labs
- 3 services listed, including pneumatic drives, electric automation, bionic research
- 6
IHMC Robotics
Florida research institute known for humanoid balance and walking control software, including work on Atlas and Valkyrie platforms and its own exoskeletons.
- 3 services listed, including humanoid control, walking algorithms, exoskeletons
- 7
Open Robotics
Steward of ROS and Gazebo, the open-source middleware and simulator that much of the robotics industry builds on, alongside community events and support.
- Listed under Robotics Software & AI, Research Labs
- 3 services listed, including ros, gazebo simulator, open-source stewardship
- Serves the whole US
- 8
NAVER LABS
Korean research subsidiary working on robotics, autonomous driving and spatial AI, including service robots deployed in its own headquarters building.
- Listed under Robotics Software & AI, Research Labs
- 3 services listed, including service robots, spatial ai, robot cloud
- 9
DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics
German Aerospace Center institute that developed lightweight robot arms and humanoid torsos such as Justin, with technology licensed into industry.
- 3 services listed, including lightweight arms, humanoid research, space robotics
- 10
Honda Robotics
Honda's robotics program, which produced the ASIMO humanoid and continues with avatar robots, walking assist devices and autonomous work vehicles.
- Listed under Humanoid & General-Purpose Robot Makers, Research Labs
- 3 services listed, including humanoid research, avatar robot, walking assist