How are humanoid robots teleoperated?

Most often with a VR headset that tracks the operator's head and hands and maps them onto the robot's arms and hands, while the robot's own controller handles balance. Full-body work uses motion-capture suits or exoskeletons, and walking is usually steered with a joystick.

Which humanoid robots can you actually buy?

As of October 2026 the humanoids you can order are mostly Chinese research platforms: Unitree (G1, H1, H2, R1), Booster, AgiBot X2, EngineAI and LimX, sold directly or through resellers. Agility Digit and the Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1 are sold through sales teams, 1X NEO is on preorder, and Tesla Optimus and Figure 03 are not for sale. Each model page states its availability with a source.

How much humanoid teleoperation data do you need to train a policy?

It depends on the task and the model. Fine-tuning a pretrained vision-language-action model on one task often starts at a few hundred demonstrations; general skills need far more. A one-week trial on your robot gives you the rate per operator hour to plan from.

Can remote operators take over a humanoid when it gets stuck?

Yes. The robot asks for help, an operator takes control through the same interface used for data collection, finishes the task and hands control back. The takeover is recorded as a correction episode.

Robots · Humanoids

Humanoid robot teleoperation, model by model

Humanoids learn from people. Here is how each model is driven remotely, what data it produces, who can actually buy one, and what it takes to run operators on it every day.

Illustration

Updated October 16, 2026

Every humanoid that does useful work today learned it from human demonstrations, and most still need a person to take over when they get stuck. The hardware differs a lot from model to model. The teleoperation problem is the same: map a human body onto a robot body, fast enough and cleanly enough that the result can be trained on.

How humanoids are teleoperated

VR headsets with hand tracking

An Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest streams the operator's head and hand poses; the robot's cameras stream back to the headset. Open stacks such as OpenTeleVision and Unitree's xr_teleoperate made this the default for upper-body manipulation data.

Motion-capture suits and exoskeletons

Full-body suits or arm exoskeletons capture the whole body, including the legs and torso. They cost more and take longer to set up, but they are the way to collect loco-manipulation and whole-body data.

Joysticks plus a learned controller

For walking, most teams let the robot's own locomotion policy keep balance and give the operator a joystick for direction and speed, while the arms follow VR or a leader device.

Supervision and takeover

On robots that already run a policy, the operator watches several units and takes over only when one asks for help. Each takeover becomes a correction episode for the next training run.

What makes humanoid data good

Consistent operators. The same people, trained on the same protocol, give the policy one way to do the task rather than ten.

Clean episodes: a defined start pose, a clear success or failure, and a reset between attempts.

Complete streams: every camera, joint states, hand states and the operator's commands, time-aligned.

Honest labels. A failed grasp labeled as a failure is useful; a failed grasp hidden in a success is poison.

Our guide on human-in-the-loop fallback covers the takeover side, and the data collection guide covers formats and quality checks.

Several humanoid makers have sent us robots to test our operating protocols. For your program, pilots are trained on your unit and your tasks, and the same group stays with you.

Pick your humanoid

Each page below covers one model: specs and SDK, how it is teleoperated today, public datasets, whether you can actually get one, and how we staff it.

Model	Type	Best for	Driven with
Unitree G1Unitree	Compact research humanoid (1.32 m)	Manipulation and loco-manipulation datasets, research fleets	unitree_sdk2 (C++ / Python), unitree_ros2, xr_teleoperate (Vision Pro, PICO, Quest 3), LeRobot unitree_g1
Tesla OptimusTesla	General-purpose humanoid (not for sale)	Tesla internal factory use only	Motion-capture suit (data collection), VR headset teleop, Helmet and backpack camera rigs, No public SDK
1X NEO1X Technologies	Home humanoid with remote Expert Mode	Household chores, with scheduled remote experts	Voice and 1X mobile app, Expert Mode (remote 1X operator), Quest 3 headset + controllers (1X Experts), Redwood AI on-board policy
Unitree H2Unitree	Full-size humanoid (1.82 m, 31 DoF)	Human-height manipulation and whole-body data	unitree_sdk2 (EDU), xr_teleoperate v1.6 (H2, 7-DoF arms), NVIDIA Isaac TeleOp + GR00T (H2 Plus), unitree_mujoco (C++)
Unitree R1Unitree	Low-cost compact humanoid (1.23 m)	Multi-robot tabletop data fleets, teaching labs	unitree_sdk2 (EDU), xr_teleoperate v1.6 (R1_A5, R1_A7), Vision Pro, PICO, Quest 3, LeRobot v3.0 datasets
Unitree H1Unitree	Full-size research humanoid (H1 and H1-2)	Whole-body teleop research, full-size loco-manipulation	unitree_sdk2 / unitree_ros2, xr_teleoperate (H1 4-DoF, H1_2 7-DoF), Open-TeleVision (Vision Pro, Quest 3), OmniH2O / H2O (non-commercial)
Figure 03Figure AI	General-purpose humanoid (commercial deployments only)	Figure's own commercial and home programs	Helix / Helix 02 VLA (on-board), Teleoperation equipment (Figure operators), Human video and motion data, Figure Index app (human data)
Boston Dynamics AtlasBoston Dynamics	Electric industrial humanoid	Automotive and industrial material handling	VR teleop on BD's MPC controller, Tablet steering interface, Autonomous mode (LBM policies), Orbit fleet software
AgiBot A2AgiBot	Full-size service and performance humanoid	Reception, guiding, performances, recorded motion	AgiBot VR Teleoperation Kit (A2 only), AimMaster record and playback, Handheld remote controller, Swarm and dance control software
Fourier GR-1Fourier	Full-size research humanoid	VR teleop data collection and GR00T research	Fourier teleoperation (F.A.R.T.S.), Apple Vision Pro / Meta Quest 3, GRx SDK and fourier-grx-client, ROS 2 on Ubuntu 20.04 host
Agility DigitAgility Robotics	Bipedal warehouse and logistics humanoid	Tote handling and material moves in warehouses	Agility Arc fleet cloud, Warehouse and MES integration, Swappable ISO-flange end-effectors, No public SDK or teleop stack
UBTech Walker S2UBTech Robotics	Industrial humanoid with autonomous battery swap	Factory material handling around the clock	SDK via UBTech partner training, WalkerS2-Model URDF / USD, GHRC 2026 Isaac Sim baseline (LeRobot v3.0), Gigabit Ethernet / USB 3.0
Booster T1 (and Booster T2)Booster Robotics	Mid-size research humanoid (T1, now T2)	RoboCup teams, locomotion research, custom teleop builds	Booster Robotics SDK (C++ / Python), Booster Studio, booster_gym (Isaac Gym), booster_train / booster_deploy
AgiBot X2AgiBot	Compact interaction and performance humanoid	Performances, interaction, motion data on Ultra	Handheld controller and mobile app, Secondary development (X2 Ultra only), AIMA Open Platform, Custom VR or mocap teleop
Pollen Robotics Reachy 2Pollen Robotics (Hugging Face)	Wheeled bimanual humanoid (open source)	VR teleop datasets in LeRobot, mobile manipulation research	Reachy2Teleoperation VR app (Windows), LeRobot reachy2 robot and teleoperator, pollen_data_acquisition_server, Python SDK (reachy2-sdk)
EngineAI PM01EngineAI	Mid-size open-SDK humanoid (1.40 m, 24 DoF)	Locomotion and motion-tracking research, custom teleop builds	EngineAI native SDK (ROS 2 Humble / Jazzy), engineai_ros2_workspace (Cyclone DDS), engineai_rl_lab (Isaac Lab), MuJoCo sim2sim
LimX Dynamics OliLimX Dynamics	Full-size humanoid (165 cm, 31 DoF body)	Whole-body motion data, mocap-driven teleop, research	Remote Control and High-Level Motion APIs, limxsdk-lowlevel (C++ / Python), GMR retargeting (Xsens, OptiTrack, PICO), Studio Package (data collection, optional)
Booster K1Booster Robotics	Kid-size humanoid (95 cm, 22 DoF)	RoboCup, locomotion and motion data, low-cost fleets	Booster Robotics SDK (C++ / Python), Booster Studio and Agents, booster_train (Isaac Lab), booster_deploy (MuJoCo, Webots)
AgiBot Genie G1AgiBot	Wheeled dual-arm data-collection humanoid	Teleop data collection and GO-1 fine-tuning	VR or motion-capture teleop (built in), Genie Studio, AgiBot World / LeRobot format, GO-1 foundation model
Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1Rainbow Robotics	Wheeled bimanual humanoid (mobile manipulator)	Leader-arm bimanual datasets, mobile manipulation research	rby1-sdk (Python / C++), ROS 2, Leader Arm and Stand Leader Arm (14 DoF), Tele-Op by VR (option)

Frequently asked questions

How are humanoid robots teleoperated?: Most often with a VR headset that tracks the operator's head and hands and maps them onto the robot's arms and hands, while the robot's own controller handles balance. Full-body work uses motion-capture suits or exoskeletons, and walking is usually steered with a joystick.
Which humanoid robots can you actually buy?: As of October 2026 the humanoids you can order are mostly Chinese research platforms: Unitree (G1, H1, H2, R1), Booster, AgiBot X2, EngineAI and LimX, sold directly or through resellers. Agility Digit and the Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1 are sold through sales teams, 1X NEO is on preorder, and Tesla Optimus and Figure 03 are not for sale. Each model page states its availability with a source.
How much humanoid teleoperation data do you need to train a policy?: It depends on the task and the model. Fine-tuning a pretrained vision-language-action model on one task often starts at a few hundred demonstrations; general skills need far more. A one-week trial on your robot gives you the rate per operator hour to plan from.
Can remote operators take over a humanoid when it gets stuck?: Yes. The robot asks for help, an operator takes control through the same interface used for data collection, finishes the task and hands control back. The takeover is recorded as a correction episode.

Quote operators for your humanoids