Persona AI Gen 1

Shipyard welding was the founding use case for Persona AI's first-generation humanoid. The Houston-area company was co-founded by Nicolaus Radford, formerly an engineer on NASA's Robonaut programme, together with Jerry Pratt and Jide Akinyode, and it aims the biped at welding, grinding and painting in shipbuilding as well as assembly work and mining.

The electric platform uses a quick-swap battery with a target of two shifts per day, is described as water- and dust-protected without a stated IP rating, and signals its status by light and sound. Teleoperation is the declared route to autonomy, serving as a way to gather data.

Since May 2025 Persona has worked with shipbuilder HD Hyundai; the schedule foresees a prototype by the end of 2026 and field trials in 2027. The company publishes no numbers, and its website already refers to a fourth generation, so height, weight, joint count, payload and runtime of Gen 1 are unknown. Leasing is offered alongside purchase; price on request.

The later third generation is listed as Persona AI Humanoid. Buyers weighing industrial bipeds with published figures may look at Moby.