Muks Spaceo M1
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| Muks Spaceo M1 | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Manufacturer | Muks Robotics |
| Country of origin | India |
| Year unveiled | 2025 |
| Status | In production |
| Locomotion | Wheeled |
| Price | ~$11,000 USD |
| Website | muksrobotics.com |
The Spaceo M1 is an autonomous social humanoid robot built by Muks Robotics, a Pune-based artificial intelligence and robotics startup in India, for customer-facing service roles in airports, malls, hotels, hospitals, and offices. It stands about 1,625 mm tall, weighs roughly 45 kg, moves on a wheeled base at up to 1.5 m/s, and, according to Muks Robotics, runs the company's proprietary FusionMax AI entirely on-device with conversation in 85-plus languages and a starting price of approximately $11,000 USD.[1][4][5] In February 2026 the Airports Authority of India trialed the Spaceo M1 at Pune Airport, one of the first public deployments of an Indian-made humanoid robot in a live airport.[6][7]
The Spaceo M1 was unveiled alongside the industrial Spaceo Pro at the India Today Conclave in March 2025 and is the service-oriented entry point in the Spaceo product line, which also includes the heavy-duty Spaceo Pro and the in-development Spaceo Prime bipedal robot intended for planetary exploration.[1][2][3] Many of the robot's headline figures, including the language count, payload, and the company's separate claim to have built the "world's first" artificial general intelligence system for robots, are vendor-stated and have not been independently benchmarked or peer-reviewed; coverage to date is largely based on company demonstrations and press materials.[5][14][19]
The M1 runs the company's FusionMax Omni-Modal AI system on-device, which Muks Robotics says enables multilingual conversation, emotion recognition, autonomous navigation, and real-time decision-making without cloud connectivity. Priced at approximately $11,000 USD, the Spaceo M1 is positioned as an affordable social humanoid targeting mass production for the Indian and global service industries.[1][4][5]
The Spaceo M1 is a wheeled, AI-driven social humanoid robot designed to greet, guide, inform, and assist people in public and commercial spaces. Muks Robotics markets it as "an autonomous intelligent social humanoid robot" capable of long conversations in multiple languages, expressive gestures, and autonomous indoor navigation.[2][14] Unlike a fixed information kiosk, the M1 can move through a building, walk alongside a person, carry items, and respond to spoken questions, which the company positions as its main differentiator for airports, retail, hospitality, healthcare, and corporate reception.[1][6]
The "M1" is the lightweight service tier of the broader Spaceo lineup. It shares the FusionMax AI core and modular design with the industrial Spaceo Pro but trades the Pro's heavy lifting and 7-degree-of-freedom arms for a lighter, cheaper, more maneuverable platform aimed at human interaction rather than factory work.[1][2]
The Spaceo M1 is made by Muks Robotics (formally registered as Muks Robotics AI Pvt. Ltd.), founded in 2021 by Dr. Mukesh Bangar and headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India. The company name "MUKS" stands for Machine Understanding and Knowledge Synthesis. Dr. Bangar is a self-taught AI and robotics engineer who, according to multiple profiles, originally trained in medical science (dentistry) before moving into robotics research, and serves as the company's Founder, CEO, and CTO. Muks Robotics describes him as having spent more than a decade studying cognitive processes including consciousness, learning, imagination, reasoning, and machine self-awareness.[8][9][10]
Muks Robotics operates as a full-stack robotics company, handling research, design, and manufacturing in-house, though the robots rely on globally sourced computing and sensing hardware (NVIDIA Jetson, Intel RealSense, and AMD processors) paired with the company's own software. The company's stated mission is "to build fully autonomous humanoids for Earth and beyond." According to GetLatka, the company reported roughly $4 million in annual revenue at an estimated $11.9 million valuation, and Tracxn lists it as employing about 36 people as of 2026, with the company stating it has remained bootstrapped without external venture capital.[9][11][20] Muks Robotics says it has secured enterprise clients including Tata Motors, Indian Railways, Adani Wilmar, CG Power, and Parker Hannifin.[8][9][11]
Beyond the Spaceo humanoid line, Muks Robotics also develops the DeepVision Pro AI machine-vision system for industrial defect detection, the WatchMan video-analytics surveillance platform, and the Guardeo quadruped robot dog for security applications.[10][12]
The Spaceo product line evolved through several phases at Muks Robotics:[8][9]
The India Today Conclave demonstration drew significant public attention. During a session titled "Robo Soldiers & Cyber Hounds," the Spaceo humanoid and Guardeo robot dogs performed synchronized dances on stage while Dr. Bangar presented the company's vision, and videos of the robots circulated widely on social media and Indian news outlets.[3][13]
The Spaceo series comprises three distinct variants, each targeting a different market segment:
| Variant | Role | Locomotion | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spaceo M1 | Social interaction and service | Wheeled | In production |
| Spaceo Pro | Industrial automation and logistics | Wheeled | In production |
| Spaceo Prime | Planetary exploration and extreme environments | Bipedal | In development (target: 2032) |
All three variants share the FusionMax AI core but differ in physical capabilities, sensors, and target markets. The M1 is the lightweight, affordable service robot; the Pro handles heavy industrial workloads with its stated 200 kg payload capacity; and Spaceo Prime is the most ambitious variant, described by the company as intended for autonomous sample collection, environmental analysis, and infrastructure assistance on the Moon and Mars. Dr. Bangar has stated: "Robots will be the first settlers on Mars. They will gather data, prepare habitats, and support human crews that come later."[2][14][15]
The Spaceo M1 has a compact wheeled humanoid form factor standing 1,625 mm tall, 420 mm wide, and 390 mm deep, with a total weight of approximately 45 kg including the battery. The body uses an aluminum frame with polymer covers for a lightweight yet durable build, and the design prioritizes approachability and safety in human-facing environments through soft composite materials and rounded surfaces.[1][4]
The M1 includes a 7-inch LED touch display mounted on its chest area, used for visual communication: it can show flight information, wayfinding maps, promotional content, or interactive menus depending on deployment context. The robot also features expressive LED interfaces and can produce facial expressions and hand gestures to support social interaction.[1][4][5]
Note that some aggregator listings mix up the M1 and the larger Spaceo Pro, citing a 65 kg weight, 16 degrees of freedom, a single 6-DOF arm, an Intel Core i5, or a 2 m/s top speed; those figures correspond to the Pro, not the M1.[5][17] Compared with the Spaceo Pro, the M1 is lighter (about 45 kg versus roughly 65 kg) and shorter (1,625 mm versus the Pro's adjustable 1,670 to 2,100 mm), making it better suited to crowded indoor spaces where maneuverability matters more than raw lifting power.[1][2]
The Spaceo M1 is equipped with two articulated arms, each with 5 degrees of freedom. Each arm has a combined forearm and upper-arm length of 600 mm, enough reach for handing items to users, pointing directions, or carrying luggage, and terminates in a 5-finger gripper (10 fingers total) for grasping objects of varied shape.[1][4]
Muks Robotics states the M1 can carry luggage and goods weighing up to 50 to 60 kg via a trolley attachment or trunk platform, with a reported peak lifting capacity of 100 kg under optimal conditions. These figures are far below the Spaceo Pro's stated 200 kg platform payload but, per the company, are adequate for the M1's service tasks such as moving passenger luggage or delivering supplies. These payload claims are vendor-stated and have not been independently load-tested in published reporting.[1][4][5]
The robot uses low-inertia, high-speed brushless DC (BLDC) servo motors across its joints, which Muks Robotics says offer responsive movement with effective heat dissipation for continuous public operation. Each joint includes a single encoder for position feedback.[1]
The M1 moves on a wheeled base with 2 degrees of freedom, for a total of 12 degrees of freedom (5 per arm plus 2 in the base). Its maximum speed is 1.5 m/s (about 5.4 km/h or 3.4 mph). The wheeled design enables smooth, quiet movement across the flat surfaces typical of airports, malls, and offices.[1][4]
The Spaceo M1 runs on an AMD Ryzen 7 processor paired with 16 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SSD for its standard computing module. For AI inference, the robot is equipped with either an NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX module (which the company cites at approximately 275 TOPS of INT8 AI performance) or an NVIDIA RTX 5070, depending on configuration. The company says this lets the robot run computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, and motor control workloads simultaneously, on-device, without cloud connectivity.[1][4]
The software stack runs on a Linux-based operating system, with the FusionMax AI layer handling high-level reasoning, perception, and action planning on top of the base OS.[1][5]
At the core of the Spaceo M1's intelligence is FusionMax, Muks Robotics' proprietary omni-modal AI system. Muks Robotics describes FusionMax as a Vision-Audio-Language-Action (VALA) model with 2 billion optimized parameters trained on real-world data, purpose-built for robotics rather than a general-purpose large language model, integrating perception, language comprehension, and physical action planning into one system. Dr. Bangar has said: "FusionMax was designed to bring intelligence closer to the edge. It allows our robots to think, adapt, and learn in real time, even in disconnected settings like outer space."[2][10][12]
Key capabilities of FusionMax on the M1, as described by Muks Robotics, include:
These capability descriptions originate primarily from Muks Robotics and demonstration coverage; they have not been verified against published, independent benchmarks.[5][14]
Muks Robotics has also announced the Muks Core B1, which the company describes as "the world's first Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) system made for robots with all new computing hardware."[19] The Core B1 is presented as a computing hardware platform combining a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and an AGI software layer, intended as the next-generation intelligence backbone across the Spaceo line. As of early 2026, the company had not published deployment timelines or technical benchmarks for the Core B1, and its AGI claim has not been independently evaluated; AGI remains an unachieved goal across the field, so the label should be read as a marketing claim rather than a verified capability.[2][14][19]
The Spaceo M1 integrates multiple sensor modalities for environmental awareness and human interaction:
| Sensor | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| RGB camera | 5MP Full HD | Facial recognition, object detection, and visual scene understanding |
| Depth camera | Intel RealSense | 3D spatial perception, depth mapping, and obstacle detection |
| LiDAR | 2D LiDAR | Autonomous navigation, path planning, and obstacle avoidance |
| Microphone array | 4-channel with noise and echo cancellation | Voice command reception, speaker localization, and audio awareness |
| Tactile sensors | Gripper and body-mounted | Contact detection for safe object handling and collision avoidance |
The 2D LiDAR provides continuous environmental scanning for navigation, while the Intel RealSense depth camera adds high-resolution 3D perception at closer ranges for object recognition and human interaction. The four-microphone array with noise and echo cancellation is intended to process voice commands even in the noisy environments typical of airports and shopping malls.[1][4][5]
The M1's sensor configuration differs from the Spaceo Pro, which uses a more advanced 4D LiDAR for industrial-grade mapping. The M1's 2D LiDAR is described as sufficient for the structured indoor environments where it operates, while keeping costs lower to maintain the $11,000 price point.[1][2]
| Category | Specification | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Physical | Height | 1,625 mm |
| Physical | Width | 420 mm |
| Physical | Depth | 390 mm |
| Physical | Weight (with battery) | ~45 kg |
| Physical | Body material | Aluminum frame with polymer covers |
| Mobility | Locomotion type | Wheeled |
| Mobility | Maximum speed | 1.5 m/s (5.4 km/h) |
| Mobility | Total degrees of freedom | 12 |
| Manipulation | Arm DOF | 5 per arm |
| Manipulation | Base DOF | 2 |
| Manipulation | Arm length | 600 mm (forearm + upper arm) |
| Manipulation | Carrying capacity (vendor-stated) | 50-60 kg (100 kg peak) |
| Manipulation | Fingers per hand | 5 (10 total) |
| Manipulation | Max arm torque | ~160 kg-cm |
| Actuators | Type | Low-inertia BLDC servo motors |
| Actuators | Encoder | Single encoder per joint |
| Computing | CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 |
| Computing | RAM | 16 GB |
| Computing | Storage | 500 GB SSD |
| Computing | AI module | NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX (~275 TOPS) or RTX 5070 |
| Computing | AI system | FusionMax Omni-Modal AI (2B parameters, vendor-stated) |
| Computing | Operating system | Linux-based |
| Sensors | RGB camera | 5MP Full HD |
| Sensors | Depth camera | Intel RealSense |
| Sensors | LiDAR | 2D |
| Sensors | Microphones | 4-channel array (noise/echo cancellation) |
| Audio | Speaker | 5W |
| Display | Touch display | 7-inch LED |
| Power | Battery | 25.6V, 45Ah LiFePO4 |
| Power | Active operation | Up to 6-8 hours |
| Power | Standby | 72 hours |
| Power | Charging | Autonomous docking station |
| Connectivity | WiFi | WiFi 6 (dual-band) |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth | 5.2 |
| Software | OTA updates | Yes |
| Software | Languages supported (vendor-stated) | 85+ |
| Warranty | Coverage | 24 months |
The Spaceo M1 and Spaceo Pro share the FusionMax AI core and modular design philosophy but are optimized for fundamentally different use cases. The M1 is the service-oriented social humanoid, while the Pro is built for heavy industrial automation.
| Feature | Spaceo M1 | Spaceo Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Primary role | Social interaction and service | Industrial automation and logistics |
| Height | 1,625 mm (fixed) | 1,670-2,100 mm (adjustable) |
| Weight | ~45 kg | ~65 kg |
| Total DOF | 12 | 20 |
| Arm DOF | 5 per arm | 7 per arm |
| Hand DOF | Not specified | 7 |
| Waist DOF | None specified | 1 (rotation, 66 N-m torque) |
| Carrying capacity | 50-60 kg (100 kg peak) | 200 kg (platform) |
| Arm payload | Not specified | 10 kg per arm |
| Positioning accuracy | Not specified | +/- 2 mm |
| Maximum speed | 1.5 m/s | 2 m/s |
| LiDAR | 2D | 4D ultra-wide-angle |
| Depth camera | Intel RealSense | Intel RealSense D435i |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 | Intel Core i5 |
| AI module | Jetson Orin AGX or RTX 5070 | NVIDIA Ampere (2,048 CUDA, 64 Tensor cores) |
| AI performance | ~275 TOPS | 275 TOPS |
| Motor type | Low-inertia BLDC servo | Harmonic drive with dual encoders |
| Battery | 25.6V 45Ah LiFePO4 | Not specified |
| Battery life (active) | 6-8 hours | 4+ hours |
| Standby | 72 hours | Not specified |
| Display | 7-inch LED touch | None specified |
| Body material | Aluminum with polymer covers | Not specified |
| Charging | Autonomous docking | Autonomous charging |
| Languages | 85+ | Multilingual |
| Approximate price | ~$11,000 USD | ~$60,000 USD |
| Target markets | Hospitality, healthcare, retail, airports | Manufacturing, logistics, warehousing |
The most notable differences are in payload capacity, degrees of freedom, and price. The Spaceo Pro's 7-DOF arms with harmonic-drive actuators and dual encoders are aimed at the precision and strength needed for industrial pick-and-place, while the M1's 5-DOF arms with BLDC motors are aimed at handing items to visitors, gesturing during conversation, and carrying luggage. The M1 trades the Pro's lifting power for a longer active battery life (6 to 8 hours versus 4 hours for the Pro), a customer-facing touch display, and a price point roughly one-fifth that of the Pro.[1][2][4]
The Spaceo M1's most prominent deployment to date has been at airports. In February 2026, the Airports Authority of India deployed the robot at Pune Airport for an 8 to 10 day pilot trial. During the trial, the M1 was stationed on the arrivals side and, per reporting, performed over 35 independent tasks, including:[6][7][16]
Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke was reported as saying the trial aimed to "evaluate the robot's technical reliability, crowd-handling ability and passenger response." If the trial proved successful, at least three M1 units would be needed for full airport coverage. Additional trials were planned for Pune Metro's Civil Court station in March 2026, with potential deployment at Navi Mumbai International Airport in the future. A future enhancement under consideration is the ability to scan boarding passes for instant gate information retrieval.[6][7][16]
In hotels, Muks Robotics positions the M1 for check-in assistance, concierge services, room directions, and personalized recommendations, with its multilingual capabilities pitched as valuable for international chains. In retail settings, the company says the robot can assist shoppers with product information, store navigation, promotional offers, and restocking monitoring.[1][5][10]
In hospitals and clinics, the Spaceo M1 is pitched for patient wayfinding, appointment check-in, supply delivery between departments, and general information provision. Its claimed ability to operate without cloud connectivity is presented as relevant where patient-data privacy is a concern.[5][10]
The M1 is positioned as an intelligent receptionist handling visitor registration, employee notification, meeting-room directions, and general workplace information, with its semantic-learning capability said to build institutional knowledge over time.[1][4]
While primarily a service robot, the M1 includes sensor-based capabilities for detecting unusual activity during patrols, positioned as a secondary security asset that complements rather than replaces dedicated security systems.[1][6]
The Spaceo M1's deployment at Pune Airport in February 2026 was a notable milestone for both Muks Robotics and India's broader adoption of humanoid robots in public infrastructure. The trial was initiated by the Airports Authority of India and began on February 26, 2026.[6][7]
During the 8 to 10 day testing phase, the robot was evaluated across multiple airport zones, including the main entrance, check-in and check-out areas, boarding gates, and baggage claim sections. The M1 navigated these areas autonomously, interacting with passengers in multiple languages and assisting with flight information, directions, and luggage transport.[6][7][16]
The trial attracted significant Indian media coverage from outlets such as Pune Pulse, The Bridge Chronicle, and VarIndia, and was notable as one of the first instances of an Indian-designed and manufactured humanoid robot trialed in a live public-infrastructure setting managed by a government authority. As a short pilot, it tested feasibility and passenger response rather than long-term reliability, and as of mid-2026 no published independent assessment of the trial's measured outcomes (uptime, error rate, passenger satisfaction scores) had been released.[6][7][16]
Following the Pune Airport trial, Muks Robotics announced plans for additional public deployments, including a trial at Pune Metro's Civil Court station and potential integration at the under-construction Navi Mumbai International Airport, indicating a broader strategy to establish the Spaceo M1 in India's transportation infrastructure.[6][7]
Much of the public information about the Spaceo M1 comes from Muks Robotics' own marketing, demonstrations, and the press coverage built on them, rather than from independent testing. AI Wiki notes the following as company claims that have not, as of mid-2026, been independently benchmarked, peer-reviewed, or audited:
| Claim | Source | Verification status |
|---|---|---|
| 85+ language conversation | Muks Robotics / press[6][7] | Vendor-stated; no published language-accuracy benchmark |
| 100 kg peak lifting capacity | Muks Robotics[1][5] | Vendor-stated; not independently load-tested in reporting |
| 2B-parameter FusionMax VALA model | Muks Robotics[2][10] | Vendor-stated; model not publicly released or benchmarked |
| Fully on-device, cloud-free operation | Muks Robotics[2][10] | Vendor-stated; not independently confirmed |
| Muks Core B1 "world's first AGI for robots" | Muks Robotics[19] | Marketing claim; AGI is an unachieved field-wide goal, not independently evaluated |
| ~$4M revenue / ~$11.9M valuation | GetLatka aggregation[20] | Third-party data aggregator estimate, not audited financials |
No independent expert critique of the Spaceo M1 appears in the public record, and AI Wiki does not assert that the claims are false. The point is narrower: the headline figures originate with the manufacturer, the FusionMax model and Muks Core B1 are not publicly available for testing, and the high-profile demonstrations (the India Today Conclave stage performance and the short Pune Airport pilot) showcase capability under controlled conditions rather than provide measured, reproducible benchmarks. Readers and downstream systems should treat the specifications above as manufacturer claims until corroborated by independent sources. This pattern, locally written AI paired with imported NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD hardware and ambitious self-described capabilities, is common across the emerging cohort of Indian humanoid startups.[2][14]
The Spaceo M1 emerges within a rapidly growing Indian robotics industry that has seen increasing government support and private investment. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has introduced schemes and incentives to support robotics innovation, and the country's "Make in India" initiative has encouraged domestic development of advanced technologies. The India robotics market in manufacturing alone reached 6,500 units in 2024, with projections of 26,700 units by 2033 at a compound annual growth rate of 16.7%.[17][18]
Several Indian companies are active in the robotics and humanoid space:
| Company | Location | Notable product | Focus area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muks Robotics | Pune | Spaceo M1, Spaceo Pro | Social and industrial humanoids |
| Addverb Technologies | Noida | ELIXIS-W | Warehouse robotics and humanoids |
| Invento Robotics | Bangalore | Mitra, Mini Mitra | Customer interaction and senior care |
| Genrobotics | Kerala | Bandicoot | Sewer-cleaning and bipedal R&D |
| Asimov Robotics | Kerala | Service robots | Hospitality and healthcare |
| Svaya Robotics | Hyderabad | Collaborative arms | Cobots for unstructured tasks |
| GMR Innovex | New Delhi | Airport robots | Aviation and passenger services |
Muks Robotics differentiates itself from these competitors by focusing on mass-producible humanoid robots with in-house AI development and a vertically integrated design-to-manufacturing pipeline. Its bootstrapped growth, reaching enterprise clients like Tata Motors and Indian Railways without external funding, is notable in a segment that typically requires significant capital. The $11,000 price point of the M1 also positions it as one of the more affordable social humanoids on the market, potentially enabling wider adoption in cost-sensitive markets like India.[8][9][11]
In the global humanoid robot market, the Spaceo M1 competes primarily with other service-oriented social humanoids. Its price point of approximately $11,000 places it well below many international competitors, though direct comparisons are complicated by differences in capability, maturity, and deployment scale.
Relevant competitors in the social and service humanoid segment include SoftBank Robotics' Pepper (one of the earliest commercial social robots), UBTECH's Walker series, and various Chinese service-robot manufacturers that have been scaling production rapidly. The M1's stated competitive advantages are its low price point, FusionMax on-device AI (which the company says eliminates ongoing cloud-computing costs), broad multilingual support (85-plus languages, vendor-stated), and positioning as an Indian-manufactured product eligible for "Make in India" procurement preferences.[1][2][17]
The M1's wheeled locomotion, while limiting use on stairs or uneven terrain, is a deliberate design choice that reduces mechanical complexity, lowers cost, and improves reliability for the flat indoor environments where it is intended to operate, distinguishing it from more expensive bipedal humanoids that prioritize terrain versatility over affordability.[1][2]