Skip to content
September 27, 2025Cryptopolitan logoCryptopolitan

Robotics investments based on flawed, unsustainable assumptions, renowned researcher

Rodney Brooks, a renowned roboticist who co-founded iRobot and former MIT researcher, has warned that current investments in humanoid robots are based on flawed assumptions and may not be sustainable in the long ￰0￱ argues that many companies, including Tesla and Figure, rely on optimistic assumptions about robots learning that do not conform to the laws of physics, sensing, and manipulation in the real ￰1￱ to Brooks, approaches that rely on video-based learning to teach human-like dexterity won’t be ￰2￱ characterized the approach as pure fantasy thinking, saying that human hands have multiple touch receptors that no robot can ￰3￱ highlighted the things a robot may fail to replicate, including human tactile feedback to pressure, vibration, and slip detection, which are central to ￰4￱ robots won’t look human, Rodney predicts In an essay published by Rodney Brooks, he highlights the lack of established infrastructure in the robotics industry to capture, store, and use touch ￰5￱ vision and speech, where there are plenty of datasets and signal processing frameworks, touch remains underdeveloped in hardware and algorithm ￰6￱ to Brooks, many robot systems today lack adequate force feedback, fine finger control, and robust tactile sensing, which are essential for general-purpose ￰7￱ also highlighted safety concerns when robots continue to ￰8￱ believes that as size increases, so does the size and body of robots, meaning a fall from a larger robot could be far more dangerous than from a smaller ￰9￱ up in size for robots means its mass grows with the cube of linear scaling, while also structural strength grows with the square, creating safety ￰10￱ revealed that walking upright is another major hurdle for the existing humanoid robots , pointing out that they use energy-intensive control and are not yet structurally safe to be near humans when in ￰11￱ argues that to operate in human environments, robots must be certified as safe when people stand within mere centimeters, pointing out that the current designs have not achieved ￰12￱ predicts that in the next fifteen years, the most successful robots marketed as humanoid will not look like humans; instead, they will rely on wheels, multiple arms, and specialized sensors rather than walking upright on two ￰13￱ added that the current funding rounds to support humanoid experiments are unlikely to result in the mass production of humanoid ￰14￱ humanoid robot adoption is much further away than expected Chris Camillo, a renowned investor who turned $20K to $60 million by investing in robotics, has also sounded his warnings, revealing that after spending more than 400 hours researching the space, he remains optimistic about long-term potential.

Still, the challenges ahead are being misinterpreted by many ￰15￱ the Independent Investor summit, Camillo points out that the perception that manufacturing capacity is the key bottleneck for humanoid robots is misguided. “Most people I speak to that are deeply engaged with this space, we all agree on one thing: at the point where we actually have a scalable humanoid robotics platform, fully scalable that has met all the KPI thresholds… we will start a 10–15 year supply-demand imbalance, where it doesn’t matter how much you can manufacture,” – Chris Camillo , Renowned Robotic Investor Camilllo explained that the difficulty lies in deployment, not production, and pointed out the integration challenges companies face when adopting generalized ￰16￱ cited that it’s hard to deploy generalized robots at Walmart, FedEx, or Coca-Cola, and that it will take years of strategic work, integration, preparing a workforce, and digitizing inventory before incorporating humanoid robots into the manufacturing floor or attempting to do ￰17￱ Camillio and Brooks point out that much of the investor community currently fails to appreciate how long and complex the process will ￰18￱ a result, while humanoid robots may eventually play a role in global industries, the timeline for real-world value may be far longer than they ￰19￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds?

Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.

Cryptopolitan logo
Cryptopolitan

Latest news and analysis from Cryptopolitan

Bitcoin Supply Shrinks on Binance While $7B In Stablecoins Arrive – Bullish Fuel Loading

Bitcoin Supply Shrinks on Binance While $7B In Stablecoins Arrive – Bullish Fuel Loading

Bitcoin is entering a decisive phase as the market faces renewed selling pressure and short-term sentiment turns cautious. After weeks of volatility and failed attempts to hold above key resistance zo...

Bitcoinist logoBitcoinist
1 min
Wintermute CEO Denies Lawsuit Plans Against Binance After October Crypto Crash

Wintermute CEO Denies Lawsuit Plans Against Binance After October Crypto Crash

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy has firmly denied any plans for a lawsuit against Binance after the October crypto market crash, stating no changes have occurred and no legal action is...

CoinOtag logoCoinOtag
1 min
Bitcoin Sell-Off Continues — Downside Momentum Builds Across Crypto Market

Bitcoin Sell-Off Continues — Downside Momentum Builds Across Crypto Market

Bitcoin price is gaining bearish pace below $108,800. BTC could continue to move down if it stays below the $109,500 resistance. Bitcoin started a fresh decline below the $109,000 support. The price i...

NewsBTC logoNewsBTC
1 min