Robotics Competition Winners Advance Military Exploration of Humanoid Capabilities

 Sept. 29, 2026 | By Eleanor Kent, Army FUZE |

The Army named five companies as winners of its xTechHumanoid competition Sept. 11, capping an effort to assess how emerging commercial humanoid technologies could contribute to future military operations.

As the Army looks to robotics and autonomy to reduce soldier exposure to dangerous and physically demanding tasks, preserve combat power and give commanders more options, humanoid systems represent a growing area of exploration. That work extends across the joint force through the Humanoid Community of Collaboration, which was established in December 2023 to advance the technical development and operational integration of humanoid capabilities. 
 
The competition was a partnership between HCoC and the Army FUZE xTech program, which scouts and accelerates dual-use technologies that directly enhance soldier readiness and mission success. 
 
They launched xTechHumanoid to identify promising commercial approaches and establish a technical baseline for an emerging capability area. The competition offered Army and joint force stakeholders a direct look at the maturity of technologies in development across the commercial humanoid robotics market. 
 
"Humanoid robots are part of a broader autonomy push to increase the depth and breadth of robotic platforms, and [the] components industry can provide for a range of missions," said Alex Miller, the Army's chief technology officer. "We are identifying the problems, mission needs and opportunities to enable our formations with the right mix of tools. xTech is our method of surveying the industry landscape and fast-tracking promising technology rather than falling victim to yearslong studies." 
 
The competition drew 103 white paper submissions spanning baseline humanoid forms and advanced subsystem technologies. The top 10 companies advanced as finalists, with nine ultimately demonstrating their technologies for military leaders, technical experts and evaluators at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 9-10.
 
Following the demonstrations, the Army selected five xTechHumanoid winners: 

• ACES Group — an integrated power system designed to address energy needs across humanoid robotic systems with scalable energy storage technologies for applications ranging from larger operational infrastructure to individual robot batteries.  
• IHMC Robotics — "Alex," a humanoid robot featuring impact-resilient actuators, ballistic protection and hybrid autonomy combining artificial intelligence and human control for complex and dangerous missions. 
• Hydroplane Limited — a lightweight, compact mobile power-generation system designed to provide long-duration power in contested logistics environments.
• Ras Labs — highly sensitive fingertip tactile sensors designed to enable robotic systems to detect force, object form, slip and other physical interactions. 
• Velocity Explorations — software that builds on the company's command-and-control technology to translate trusted information and command intent into discrete actions for humanoid robotic systems. 

For participating companies, xTechHumanoid created a direct connection between commercial technology development and operational demand, providing opportunities to challenge their solutions, sharpen their understanding of mission needs and better identify where their capabilities could deliver military value.  
 
"The xTech competition is really an interesting and unique one because it allows you to pressure test your technology in a field exercise paradigm," said Alec Leesberg, Velocity Explorations president and cofounder. 
 
Anita Sengupta, founder and CEO of Hydroplane Limited, said competing makes companies better and connects them to a network of people across the military and the industry. 
 
With the competition complete, xTechHumanoid provides the Army and joint force a clearer picture of both the progress commercial industry has made in humanoid robotics and the technical challenges that remain, helping inform where continued development and experimentation can deliver the greatest value to the warfighter. The Humanoid Community of Collaboration is already building on those insights through its next lines of effort, including work to address power and energy constraints that could shape the operational employment of humanoid and other robotic systems.