Trust
Do not copy third-party Gen 1 numbers (175 cm / 70 kg / 32 DoF) from humanoid.guide. Do not copy POSCO DX investment from Seoul Economic Daily. Specs stay empty until Persona publishes a sheet.
Not for sale Persona AI
Persona AI humanoid (Gen 1)
The Persona AI humanoid is a modular industrial robot developed by Houston-based Persona AI for skilled heavy-industry work such as shipyard welding, fabrication, inspection and maintenance. Its Gen 1 prototype has welded under teleoperation in a live shop. Persona offers it through a lease program, with pre-orders targeting Q3 2027 deployment.
Maker: persona.ai
| Status | Research / prototype |
|---|---|
| Maker | Persona AI |
| Use | Shipyard welding, fabrication, inspection |
| Payload | — |
| Height | — |
| Battery | Quick-change; 2-shift design target |
| Price band | Lease (RaaS); rates not published |
| Availability | Lease pre-order · Q3 2027 target |
| Evidence | Maker site + PR Newswire pre-seed + Louisiana MOU |
| Last verified | 29 Sep 2026 |
Sources: persona.ai · Industrial design page · $27M pre-seed (14 May 2025) · Louisiana SSE Steel pilot MOU · RaaS brochure (Q3 2027 target) · Also: Methodology · Robot catalog · Agility Digit · Figure 03 · Apollo · News: shipyard humanoids · Research catalog
Decision
Availability
Not for sale as a catalog SKU. Official path is a lease or pre-order targeting Q3 2027. Constructor Programme members may receive development units earlier.
All-in
RaaS; rates are not public.
Plan-change
Persona humanoid stays this URL. A named SKU with a datasheet would still live here until a split is warranted.
What is the Persona AI humanoid?
Persona AI was founded in 2024 by Nic Radford (CEO), Jerry Pratt (CTO) and Jide Akinyode (COO) and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Instead of building a general-purpose home or warehouse robot, the company is aiming at skilled trades in heavy industry: shipbuilding, steel fabrication, energy infrastructure and construction.
The robot is designed as a modular platform. Persona describes role configurations it calls "Personas", including Welder, Fabricator, Assembler, Builder and Miner, that can be fitted with industrial tooling modules for a given job. Its published design goals are two work shifts per day, operation in hot and cold environments, outdoor use, a textile protective skin against weld spatter, UV and saltwater, and a quick-change, field-serviceable battery.
Persona has not published a specification sheet. Height, weight, degrees of freedom, payload and runtime are therefore left blank on this page until the company publishes them.
Published outline
Key specs (draft)
Height
—
Weight
—
DoF
—
Payload
—
Runtime
Design target: 2 work shifts/day; quick-change battery
Speed
—
| Environment | Hot/cold; designed to work outdoors; protective textile skin |
|---|
Status
Prototype (Gen 1). Not for outright purchase. Lease pre-orders target Q3 2027 deployment (RaaS). Hardware specs — height, weight, DoF, payload, runtime — are not published.
All-in
Lease (RaaS) · rates not published
Lease rates not published
Systems
What is on the public file
Base
Bipedal (maker design page refers to bipedal robots)
Hands
Maker claims human-like dexterity; no hand spec published
Sensing
—
AI
—
What Persona AI is building it to do
- Shipbuilding and marine: welding, painting and grinding, including confined-space work. Persona has an agreement with HD Hyundai to deploy humanoids into shipyards.
- Steel fabrication: a pilot under an MOU with the State of Louisiana at SSE Steel Fabrication's facility in St. Bernard Parish.
- Energy and utilities: inspection, maintenance and equipment servicing.
- Construction and manufacturing: modular assembly and high-volume fabrication.
Persona says its robots will learn through expert teleoperation first, with a human operator in a VR headset guiding the robot, and that this data will train autonomous behaviours later. The Gen 1 welding video was teleoperated. It is a capability demonstration, not evidence of autonomous production work.
Development timeline and availability
- 2024: Persona AI founded in Houston.
- May 2025: $27M oversubscribed pre-seed closed; agreement with HD Hyundai to deploy humanoids in shipyards (initial delivery "expected within 18 months").
- January 2026: MOU with the State of Louisiana for a humanoid pilot at SSE Steel Fabrication.
- July 2026: Gen 1 humanoid, off-gantry, strikes an arc and lays a weld under teleoperation at ARC Specialties, Houston.
- 2026: Leasing program open. Pre-orders target a Q3 2027 deployment, with 1-year pilot, 2–3-year and 4–5-year lease terms. Constructor Programme members "may receive development units earlier".
There is no outright purchase price. Persona sells access as robotics-as-a-service, and lease rates are not public.
Prior generation
Noted on-page. Not a second URL.
One URL per model. Generations for Tesla Optimus (Gen 1 / 2 / 3) live in the body of this page — not as extra URLs. Digit and Figure generations are treated as separate product lines.
Gen 1
Off-gantry Gen 1 executed a weld under expert teleoperation at ARC Specialties, Houston (8 Jul 2026). Persona calls current performance a starting point. Teleoperation is a data-collection method on the way to autonomy — not evidence of autonomous production work.
How it compares
- vs Digit: Digit is the warehouse benchmark on this site, with a public paid-deployment record for tote handling. Persona aims at skilled trades (welding, fabrication) in harsher outdoor and hot-work settings and has not yet published deployment hours.
- vs Figure 03: both are enterprise-only with no catalog SKU. Figure targets factory and logistics work. Persona is narrower and puts ruggedness (weld spatter, saltwater, outdoor work) ahead of general-purpose manipulation.
- vs Apollo: both are US industrial humanoids sold through partner programs. Persona is the only one of the three built around shipyard and steel-fabrication pilots.
Do not add a numeric spec comparison until Persona publishes specs.
In the record
News on this model
Research / prototype units get news links. They are not ranked Best.
Persona AI raises $27M for shipyard-purpose humanoids
Source: Persona AI / PR Newswire
Persona AI humanoid FAQ
- Can you buy a Persona AI humanoid?
- Not outright. Persona AI offers its humanoid through a lease (robotics-as-a-service) program. Pre-orders target a Q3 2027 deployment, and lease terms run from a 1-year pilot to 4–5-year strategic deployments. Lease pricing is not published.
- What jobs is the Persona humanoid designed for?
- Skilled heavy-industry work: welding, grinding, painting, fabrication, inspection, maintenance and material handling in shipyards, steel shops, energy facilities and construction sites.
- Is the Persona humanoid autonomous?
- Not yet, according to Persona. Its Gen 1 weld demonstration used expert teleoperation, which the company uses to collect training data for future autonomous operation.
- How tall is the Persona humanoid and how much can it lift?
- Persona AI has not published height, weight, payload or runtime. This page will add them when the company publishes a specification sheet.
Next action
Follow research
These models are Research / prototype. Not for sale · no public SKU. This is not a demo request and not a vendor intro.
Watching: Persona humanoid.