Foundation Robotics Phantom

A full-size humanoid from the US company Foundation, explicitly aimed at industrial and military high-risk tasks.

Phantom is the full-size humanoid robot from Foundation, formally Foundation Robotics, a San Francisco startup founded by Sankaet Pathak in 2023; the current model is the Phantom MK1. It is reported to stand about 1.75 meters tall and weigh about 80 kg, using in-house backdrivable cycloidal actuators, and relies mainly on cameras for sensing rather than lidar. Unlike most humanoid companies, which focus on factories or the home, Foundation has openly named defense as a priority direction, with target tasks including reconnaissance and bomb disposal, meaning “send the robot in first” high-risk work, while stating that humans retain lethal decision-making authority. The company has set an aggressive production target: it is reported to plan deploying about 10,000 units in 2026 and reaching a cumulative 50,000 by the end of 2027, at a reported lease price of about $100,000 per unit per year. These are plans, not figures already achieved.

ExampleFoundation envisions Phantom entering a suspicious area first in a bomb-disposal scenario to inspect and handle it, with an operator supervising from a distance.

Also called

Phantom, Phantom MK1

Related

Foundation Robotics · Full-size Humanoid Robot · Special-purpose Robot · Cycloidal Reducer · Vision-Only Approach · Robot Rental

Sources

US firm Foundation plans to build 50,000 humanoid robots by 2027 - Interesting Engineering
Foundation Emerges With Phantom Humanoid - Humanoids Daily

As of

2025-12