Humanoid actuators are responsible for bringing humanoid robots to life with physical motion, allowing humanoids to walk, lift objects, handle tools, and interact with the environment. As the humanoid robot market grows, there are increasing opportunities for materials and component suppliers to enter the supply chain. This article from IDTechEx looks at the current state of humanoid actuators and highlights some of the directions and outlook for next generation of humanoid actuation.
The humanoid robotics industry is transitioning from prototype development and demonstrations toward structured pilot deployments and early commercial adoption. The new IDTechEx report "Materials and Processing for Advanced Semiconductor Packaging 2027-2037: Technologies, Players, Forecasts" expects 2026-2027 to represent key transition years, with more players moving from pilot testing toward production readiness and early-scale rollout.
A major component at the heart of humanoid hardware is the actuator, which is responsible for the physical motion of the humanoid robot, allowing humanoids to walk, lift objects, handle tools, and interact with the environment. With a 47% CAGR for humanoid unit sales expected over the next decade, there are emerging opportunities for materials manufacturers and component suppliers to enter the supply chain of this rapidly growing market.
The distribution of actuators in a typical humanoid robot. Source: IDTechEx
Current state of humanoid actuators
Actuators can be linear and rotary, and use pneumatic, electric or hydraulic power to generate movement, with electric actuators being the most popular among current humanoid robots. According to IDTechEx analysis of over 50 humanoid robots and prototypes, typically there are 31 actuators in a humanoid robot (excluding end-effectors such as grippers or dexterous hands) giving rise to the degrees of freedom (DOF) around joints of a humanoid's frame. The actuators also vary depending on the requirements of the joint. For instance, wrists, and ankles typically use smaller actuators, while load-bearing joints like hips and knees require larger, heavy-duty actuators.
IDTechEx's analysis estimates that around 56% of the humanoid's weight is from the actuators alone. These systems rely on rigid, heavy-duty materials like metal alloys (e.g. steel, aluminum, etc.) for key structural components of actuators. In addition, rare-earth permanent magnets (REPM) such as NdFeB are critical for actuator motors in humanoid robots, providing high torque density, power density, and smoother torque curves. IDTechEx's report 'Materials for Humanoid Robots: Technologies, Players, Forecasts' provides detailed insights into material requirements and outlines the challenges for actuators, with 10-year demand forecasts for key materials, including metals and rare-earth permanent magnets.
A future for soft actuators?
Rigid actuators are particularly suitable for heavy-duty movements and loads with high precision, often required by humanoid joints. However, there are limitations, which can include poor adaptability to unstructured environments, shock absorption leading to impact vulnerability, mechanical wear, and fatigue. Additionally, these systems use heavy-weight materials like steel (predominantly) and aluminum alloys which add to the weight and bulk of the humanoid with ultimately reduce movement and battery efficiency.
Compared to rigid actuators, using soft actuators based on "soft" materials compared to metals enables actuators to have biomimetic functions and behave like artificial muscles. Typical materials used for soft actuators include electroactive polymers, shape memory alloys, piezoelectric materials, etc. These materials respond to an external stimulus (e.g. current, voltage, temperature, pressure, magnetic field, etc.) to generate movement. However, these technologies are still at developmental stages with several challenges that need to be addressed.
Although the vast majority of current humanoid designs use rigid actuators and IDTechEx thinks this will continue to be the mainstay, there is potential for soft actuators to play a role in the future (e.g. in hybrid designs) with soft actuators deployed in areas where human-like movement has a greater priority while retaining rigid actuators for high load bearing areas.
Outlook
On the whole, the current focus of the humanoid industry is on standardizing components, optimizing designs for manufacturability, and building supply chains. This is also giving rise to partnerships emerging between humanoid OEMs and actuator suppliers that traditionally cater to the automotive industry to leverage existing expertise and supply chains. Lightweighting without compromising structural integrity is also a key challenge when it comes to humanoid actuators. In the long term, materials innovations will be a key cornerstone in underpinning the development of next-generation humanoid hardware that can address the challenges faced by today's state-of-the-art technologies.
At this pivotal stage for the humanoid robotics market, IDTechEx's report 'Materials for Humanoid Robots: Technologies, Players, Forecasts' delivers essential market insights and trends, highlighting key emerging opportunities for materials and component suppliers. The report offers an in-depth analysis of material requirements and roadmaps, challenges and bottlenecks, overview of supply chains and industry players for the major components in humanoid robots, including actuators, structural elements (frames, shells & panels, and skin), thermal management, and tactile sensors. The report also provides 10-year demand forecasts segmented by material type, including metal alloys (steel, aluminum & magnesium), rare-earth permanent magnets, engineering plastics (e.g. PEEK, PC-ABS), and more.
For more information on this report, including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/MatsForHumanoids. More information on the Rare-Earth Magnets market can be found at www.IDTechEx.com/REM. A report on technologies, markets and opportunities in humanoid robots can be found at www.IDTechEx.com/Humanoids.
