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A group of school students is drawn to a large tent at IIT Bombay’s Techfest, held earlier this week, where a line of supercars and superbikes is on display, but it is not these machines that interest them.
Instead, their attention is fixed on a quadruped robot confidently weaving through the crowd, greeting them and evoking laughter as it jumps and waves its front legs while balancing steadily on its rear ones, much like a real-life canine.
What are quadruped robots and where are they used?
Beyond entertainment, quadruped robots, also known as robodogs, are proving their value in real-world applications such as security and surveillance, exploration, and search-and-rescue operations, particularly in environments where human access is limited or unsafe.
As the name suggests, these are stable autonomous or semi-autonomous robots with four legs, a set of sensors to map and understand the environment, a processing unit, and batteries for their energy needs.
“These work best in areas that are hazardous by human standards or industrial areas where human intervention is risky. Humanoids, quadrupeds, or drones (underwater and air) are still manufactured in China, whereas a bunch of complex programming and code can be done locally,” said Fahad Baig, business manager at XBoom, a Bengaluru-based robotics firm.
Why do Indian startups still source robotics hardware globally?
Startups on the IIT campus showcasing their robots at the university’s Techfest said much of the hardware continues to be sourced from markets such as China and Switzerland, supply chains that have posed challenges in the past, particularly during the pandemic.
Take a humanoid, for instance. It is a robot designed to mimic human form and movement, allowing it to perform tasks ranging from lifting light to medium loads to surveillance, inspection, and precision sorting.
However, to build one, Indian companies must turn to countries such as China for most of the robot’s hardware, including actuators, motors, batteries, thrusters, and other components. For high-precision sensors, Switzerland remains a key sourcing market.
“When we source models from China, we get access to multiple SDKs (software development kits) that can be customised to our liking from a software perspective. The lack of research and development in India is forcing everyone to look elsewhere to procure hardware components,” a technical lead at a startup that sells humanoids said.
How mature is the humanoid robotics market?
Humanoids continue to remain a niche category of robots.
A 2025 report by the International Federation of Robots stated that few commercial deployments had been announced, with true multipurpose humanoids still some time away.
The focus on humanoids continues to remain at the research and development stage, with manufacturing still reliant on specific demand purchases. However, companies continue to build prototypes for trial applications.
How are Indian startups approaching humanoid development?
This has not deterred Indian startups from building humanoid versions.
Pune-based Muks Robotics is building two different humanoid models with distinct use cases. The company claims to be completely bootstrapped, funding development on its own.
“We are building most of the humanoid locally except for parts such as motors that have to be imported. The LLM on the humanoid is also run locally and based on open source code,” said Anshu Jain, technical product manager at the company.
The company’s humanoid model, Spaceo M1, has an arm payload capacity of 1 kg each and is being tested to lift luggage. The humanoid is capable of carrying a total of 50 kg on its trolley.
How is industrial robot deployment shaping up in India?
While humanoid deployment continues to remain a niche category for the Indian robotics sector, the deployment of industrial robots has grown over the past few years.
In 2024, 9,123 such robots were deployed in India, up from 8,510 in the previous year. Over the past decade, the number has more than quadrupled from 2,126 deployments, according to IFR data.
In comparison, the US saw around 34,000 industrial robot deployments in 2024, down 9 per cent from about 38,000 in 2023. In 2014, deployments stood at 26,000.
