Rainbow Robotics RB-Y1

What it's for

The RB-Y1 does not walk; it drives. Instead of legs it has a wheeled base, and all the engineering went into what happens higher up: two seven-axis arms and a single-axis torso. It is a robot for working with both hands at table, shelf and conveyor height, not for wandering up stairs. Sources describe pilots: in 2026 the RB-Y1 entered a Coupang logistics center and Samsung and Toyota production lines. Those are three different worlds, logistics, electronics and automotive, with one thing in common: two-handed manipulation. These are tasks a single-arm robot can handle only after modifications: gripping a large box from both sides, working with an object that flexes, passing a part from hand to hand. The second field is research. Since 2024 the robot has gone to universities (MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Washington, Georgia Tech), where it is used for experiments in manipulation and control based on “VLA Models: How AI Controls Humanoid Robots in 2026”. If you are thinking about warehouses or factories applications, it is one of the few humanoid-style designs with commercial pilots behind it. We do not recommend it for restaurants, gardens or hospitals: nobody has confirmed such deployments, and its 131 kg mass and price point it exclusively at professional uses.

Who it's for

A good fit: research centers that want to work on hardware already proven in foreign university labs, and logistics integrators planning a two-handed manipulation pilot before committing to a larger rollout. It also suits innovation departments in big companies that must show the board a working robot rather than an animation. Who it does not suit: anyone who needs stair climbing, walking over uneven terrain or work in narrow passages; the wheeled base and 131 kg rule those scenarios out. Nor is it a robot for a small business looking for a first automation: at about USD 150,000 (not officially confirmed), a classic cobots or a mobile robots with an arm will be cheaper and more predictable. Do not buy it in Poland "right now" either: there is no Polish distributor, so a purchase means importing, remote servicing and no local support. If you are only starting to learn how humanoid designs differ, begin with the article “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work” and the explainer on “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots”.

Deployments

The confirmed deployments are pilots, not series production: a Coupang logistics center (2026, according to Tech Times), Samsung and Toyota production lines, and the labs of four universities, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Washington and Georgia Tech. In Poland: there are no confirmed deployments, and the robot itself is unavailable here. In the category, Polish companies today tend to reach for quadruped robots and mobile warehouse platforms; for what already works in factories, see the article “Humanoid Robots in Factories 2026”. If you want to see what humanoids look like in logistics, read “Agility Digit in Warehouses”; those are another manufacturer's deployments, but the same problem: people working with bins and parcels.

The closest in idea is Reachy 2, a dual-arm research robot from France, 151 cm tall and 50 kg; the catalog lists a 3 kg payload and a price of about USD 70,000, less than half of what is quoted for the RB-Y1. For a lab without an industrial budget, it is a sensible entry point. A second option is Galaxea R1: a 200 cm design with 24 DOF, on sale, with a 5 kg payload; the manufacturer gives no price in our catalog, so you need to ask for a quote. If high-payload mobile manipulation matters, look at Franka Mobile FR3 Duo, a prototype with a 125 kg payload, though it weighs 225 kg. For research into learning from demonstration there is the stationary Trossen AI Stationary, successor to the ALOHA kit, cheaper in concept though without a moving base. If, however, you need walking, look at Unitree G1: bipedal, 132 cm and 35 kg, available in Poland, but with a payload of only 2 kg. An older cousin from the same family, Rainbow Robotics HUBO-2, is described in its own entry.

Rainbow Robotics was founded in 2011 in Daejeon, on the Daedeok Innopolis campus, and today is a company listed on the KRX exchange; its shareholders include the Samsung group. The firm's roots go back to Korean work on humanoids of the HUBO family, and the RB-Y1 is the latest child of that tradition, clearly geared toward manipulation, not walking. The company presented it in March 2024 as a wheeled mobile manipulator with two arms, and sales started later that same year. The following months were mostly universities: MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Washington and Georgia Tech. The breakthrough in the robot's story came in 2026, when industry media described its work in a Coupang warehouse, and sources also pointed to pilots at Samsung and Toyota. There are no separate RB-Y1 generations in our catalog, so we are talking about a single product line; we find no newer versions in the sources.