Humanoid robots are still novelty acts, but investment is surging to make them real tomorrow

By the time the humanoid robots arrived at the Humanoids Summit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, on December 11, the registration line had already extended downstairs to the lobby.

Controlled by accompanying human handlers, the humanoids were herded into the elevator, sparing them the challenge of climbing the stairs to the mezzanine registration desk. 

"No one shows you climbing stairs when it comes to these humanoids," observed Abhinav Gupta, co-founder of Skild AI, during a presentation later that morning.

Gupta did, though, in a video demonstrating how the Skild foundation model can help a robot to climb stairs and step over unstable terrain. 

Humanoids Summit chair and founder Modar Alaoui, general partner at ALM Ventures, a VC firm backing several attending companies, would later remark, "Locomotion is a solved problem." 

That's a ...