The name “T800” still triggers an automatic association with the science fiction film “The Terminator“. But the humanoid robot now carrying that label is not a cinematic prop. EngineAI’s T800 is a commercial machine, ready for sale, and it represents a very specific shift in how humanoid robots are being built and evaluated.
Rather than focusing on elegance or humanlike gestures, the T800 is designed around physical capability. Standing 1.73 meters (about 5 ft 8 in) tall and weighing 75 kilograms, the robot roughly matches an adult human’s scale. Its body uses an aviation-grade aluminum or magnesium–aluminum alloy frame, prioritizing strength-to-weight efficiency, and incorporates 29 degrees of freedom in the body.
The more striking figure, however, lies in its joints. The T800’s knees can reportedly deliver up to 450 newton-meters of torque, which you can think of as lifting and stabilizing human-scale loads during dynamic motion. Its top speed is about 3 m/s (6.7 mph), roughly twice the average human walking speed.
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EngineAI has been unusually direct in showing what that means. Public demos emphasize kicks, jumps, and rapid full-body movements rather than slow, scripted manipulation. The videos drew enough attention that the company released behind-the-scenes footage to address claims of CGI. In one widely shared clip on Instagram, even the company’s CEO is physically knocked back by the robot, underlining that the forces involved are not simulated.
The robot’s internal systems are built to support this kind of performance. It combines 360-degree LiDAR, stereo vision, and omnidirectional radar for environmental awareness. These sensors feed into onboard computing that includes Intel processors paired with Nvidia AGX Orin-class AI modules, allowing the humanoid to process its environment in milliseconds.
Power comes from a modular, hot-swappable battery rated for roughly four to five hours of operation, with advanced active cooling in the leg joints to prevent overheating during sustained high-load tasks.
For all that strength, the T800 is not optimized for delicate work. Its hands, even in higher-end versions with seven degrees of freedom each, are rated for about five kilograms of payload. That is significantly lower than competitors like Figure’s 03, Tesla’s Optimus, or Apptronik’s Apollo, which advertise much higher two-hand carrying capacities. EngineAI’s design choices clearly favor locomotion, balance, and whole-body force over fine manipulation.
That trade-off shapes its intended role. The T800 is aimed at industrial environments such as logistics, inspection, and repetitive factory tasks, where moving through human-built spaces and handling physical stress matters more than threading needles or folding fabric. EngineAI has also showcased the robot in retail settings as “cyber staff,” likely as a way to test reliability and interaction outside tightly controlled industrial floors.
Pricing places the T800 firmly in the industrial category. The base model is listed at about US$40,500, while higher-end Pro and Max versions, offering more compute, sensors, and degrees of freedom, reach around US$80,800. In automation terms, the pricing makes it accessible for industrial deployment, rather than positioning it as a luxury platform.
EngineAI enters a crowded field that includes Tesla, Figure, Boston Dynamics, and Unitree, alongside growing interest from major manufacturers already trialing humanoids on factory floors.
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What differentiates the T800 is its emphasis on raw mechanical output and its readiness for commercial sale rather than distant promises. With mass production reportedly planned and first shipments expected around mid-2026, the company is betting that strength and endurance will matter as much as dexterity in early humanoid deployments.
Taken together, developments like this suggest that 2026 could be a defining year for how robots begin to appear outside controlled labs and into real workplaces.
Sources: EngineAI, Forbes, New Atlas