Persona AI · Humanoid · 2026
Persona AI is a Houston-based industrial-humanoid startup founded in 2024 by Nic Radford — former technical lead of NASA's Valkyrie and Robonaut programs and founder of Houston Mechatronics / Nauticus Robotics — with CTO Jerry Pratt, former CTO of Figure AI and founder of Boardwalk Robotics. Rather than chasing general-purpose or consumer humanoids, Persona builds rugged bipedal robots purpose-built for the 'dull, dirty and dangerous' work of heavy industry, starting with a robot-welder engineered to HD Hyundai's shipbuilding specifications. It gave a first public look at its Gen1 robot and a tendon-driven dexterous hand in late 2025, backed by a $42M pre-seed round (investors include RTX Ventures). A May 2025 MoU with HD Hyundai (HD KSOE and HD Hyundai Robotics) plus welding-tool partner Vazil became a formal commercialization partnership in March 2026 after a prototype showed 'sufficient technological feasibility'. The platform runs on a Robotics-as-a-Service model; a full prototype is targeted for end of 2026 with field testing and commercial deployment in 2027. Detailed hardware specs (height, mass, DOF) have not yet been publicly released.
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View full interactive profile, comparisons & videos →| Category | Humanoid |
| Sub-type | Industrial Humanoid |
| Status | Development |
| Year | 2026 |
| Origin | USA |
| Also known as | Persona Gen1 |
| Announced | 2025 |
| Actuator type | Rugged, heat-resistant design for welding, grinding & structural assembly |
| Use cases | Shipyard welding, Grinding, Painting, Material handling, Inspection, Hull assembly |
| Made in | USA |