cleaning
Fine manipulation: wire plugging, item handling
Controlled demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Teleoperation used heavily; autonomy on trained tasks
Research record R-046Prototype
Phoenix
By Sanctuary AI · Canada · announced May 2023
The humanoid with the industry's best hands, from a company that has pivoted from full robots to the hands themselves.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
Phoenix is Sanctuary AI's humanoid, notable for one component above all: hydraulic hands with about 21 degrees of freedom and tactile sensitivity in the millinewton range, widely regarded as the closest thing to human hands in the industry. The eighth-generation Phoenix, revealed in December 2024, was built primarily as a data-capture platform for the company's Carbon control models.
Sanctuary's corporate journey has been rough: founding CEO Geordie Rose was removed in late 2024 amid layoffs, and in June 2026 the board appointed former MDA chief Daniel Friedmann as CEO with an explicit strategy shift toward scaling existing technology, centering industrial-grade hands and simpler item-moving robots rather than near-term full-humanoid commercialization. Reporting through 2026 describes ongoing fundraising pressure.
Nothing is for sale, and prior pilots (such as with Magna) predate the pivot. A June 2026 demonstration of automotive wire and connector plugging showcased the dexterity thesis that remains the company's core asset.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Not demonstrated
None; internal research and demos
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
1 material claim are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Controlled demo; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
Hardware record.
- Height
- 170 cm
- Weight
- 70 kg
- Locomotion
- Bipedal (walking secondary to manipulation research)
- Payload
- 25 kg class
- Runtime
- Research sessions
- Charging
- Tethered and battery research configurations
- Top speed
- Not a focus
- Degrees of freedom
- About 21 DoF in each hydraulic hand; body figures not emphasized
- Hands
- Industry-leading hydraulic hands with about 5 millinewton tactile sensitivity
- Face / expression
- Sensor head
- Sensors
- Vision suite plus dense hand tactile sensing
Software record.
- AI platform
- Carbon AI control system; teleoperation-driven data capture
- Voice
- Not a focus
- Languages
- Not applicable
- Visual recognition
- Manipulation-focused perception
- Memory
- Task models
- Processing
- Onboard plus lab infrastructure
- Autonomous abilities
- Task autonomy demonstrated on narrow manipulations; teleoperation central to data pipeline
- Teleoperation
- Core methodology
- Software updates
- Research iteration
- Developer access
- Partnerships
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Not applicable (no product)
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Not applicable
- Camera / microphone controls
- Lab controlled
- Data deletion
- Not applicable
- Account required
- Not applicable
- Emergency stop
- Lab e-stop
- Children and pets
- Not applicable
- Security updates
- Not applicable
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Prototype
Phoenix Gen 6 unveiled
- Prototype
CEO removed; layoffs; strategy questions
- Prototype
Gen 8 released for data capture
- Prototype
New CEO Daniel Friedmann; pivot to scaling hands and simpler robots
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.