Engineered Arts AmecaIIAssistedCompare

Revealed 2021.12Reassessed 2026.09.02Compare

Engineered Arts Ameca

Name: Engineered Arts Ameca
Brand: Engineered Arts

A research testbed for human-robot interaction, not a consumer product. The face articulation is genuine; the autonomy is not.

Price not confirmed $250K+Retail price not tracked

Revealed 2021.12Reassessed 2026.09.02

Autonomy Ladder

Why Level II.

One five-rung scale, every category, from acting only on command to working unsupervised anywhere.

VGeneralized AutonomyAny task, any setting. No consumer robot has reached it.
IVEnvironmental AutonomyCopes with everyday clutter and frees itself, shown by independent testing.
IIIConditional AutonomyFinishes whole jobs in familiar spaces; struggles at the edges.
To reach Level IIIMost sessions finish without intervention. Rescue is occasional, not routine.
IIAssisted AutonomyThis robot

Engineered Arts Ameca runs preset routines on its own, and the owner is its recovery system.
What it does on its own
- 61 total degrees of freedom: 27 in the head and face, 34 across torso, neck, arms and hands, driven by combined electric and pneumatic actuation.
- Articulated arms and hands used for gesture and expression alongside face and gaze tracking.
- Unattended conversational operation through Tritium software: speech recognition, response generation and translation across 70 or more languages.
- Three operating modes: Telepresence, Interaction and Conference.
- Two 8 MP eye cameras, ear-mounted microphones, a four-channel chest microphone array and a 20 W speaker for interaction.
Why this level
- Engineered Arts ships three operating modes: Telepresence, Interaction and Conference.
- In the unattended modes Tritium handles speech recognition, response generation, translation and face and gaze tracking without an operator, and that is the mode most public installations run.
- In telepresence a remote pilot drives the interaction directly.
- Conversation is the whole of the autonomy.
- The platform is stationary, does not navigate, and no autonomous task planning is documented.
- Which mode a given public appearance used is rarely disclosed, so individual demonstrations support neither an autonomy claim nor a teleoperation claim.
- Current classification is Level II, Assisted Autonomy.
What holds it at Level II
- Ameca does not move itself. There is no locomotion, no autonomous navigation and no documented task planning; the platform is repositioned by hand.
- Autonomy is conversational only. Tritium runs speech recognition, response generation, translation and face and gaze tracking unattended, with third-party AI services integrated for language understanding, so behavior depends on the chosen integration and on network availability.
- Arms and hands are articulated for gesture and expression. No object-manipulation task, payload figure or grip-force figure is published.
- Telepresence remains a shipped mode and Engineered Arts does not disclose which mode a given public appearance used, so demonstrations are not evidence of unattended operation.
Autonomy dimension 34 / 100 · 3 independent sources reviewed
IManual AutomationOne action on command; no independent operation.

How we assign a level →

Behind the classification

Sources on file.

Provisional3 independent sources reviewed

Two to four independent sources reviewed. Gaps remain across source types. The word says how much we read. It is not a grade.

Independent sources reviewed3

Monitoring record3 sources

Sources behind the tracker entries following this robot.

On file, not yet reviewedNot counted

Manufacturer documentation2 sources

Engineered Arts product and specification pages for Ameca.

Press & video reviews3 sources

Third-party specification aggregators and review coverage; figures here are not manufacturer-confirmed and disagree on price.

Our own recordNot counted

Longitudinal signal2 sources

Robovations dated log for this robot: 4 tracked entries spanning ~33 months.

How we evaluate evidence →

Human Readiness

Not consumer-ready.

One question: what does buying this robot today walk you into? The state is computed from the record, and recomputed daily.

Not consumer-readyThis robot

Engineered Arts Ameca ships to commercial and research buyers, not to households.

The readiness scale measures household purchase timing, so no tier applies. A consumer version reaching general availability would start the clock.

On the record

Shipping since December 2021 · 59 months on the market
3 independent sources reviewed

The scale, for reference

Ready NowAssessed, with a clean record on file. A successor may be shipping; the page says so when it is.
New to MarketOn sale under 90 days; the ownership record is still forming.
WaitA successor is announced and has not shipped; re-read the decision when it arrives.
Known IssuesDocumented problems stand on the record; read the case before buying.

How we assess readiness →

FIT CHECK

Will the Engineered Arts Ameca fit your scenario?

Describe your scenario using the controls. Each choice reads the spec sheet for you, flagging where the Engineered Arts Ameca is built for your space and where it isn’t.

Where it operates

Primary tasks

Supervision needs

Timeline

A classification of fit for the conditions you set, not a recommendation. Verdicts describe engineering design intent, not test results.

SPECIFICATION

The full spec sheet.

Manufacturer-published figures, measured against every humanoid robot we track.

Dimensional drawing

Key specificationsManufacturer-publishedSources: Product page

FootprintThe width, depth and height of the robot itself, without its dock.: 18.5 × 33.5 in, 73.6 in tall✓
WeightThe robot alone, without its dock, as the maker states it.: 137.7 lbs•
NetworkA radio the robot carries besides Wi-Fi, so it reaches the maker without your router.: Ethernet•
Degrees of Freedom: 61•

Where it lands · position among 71 humanoid robotsThis robotMedianTypical range

WeightThe robot alone, without its dock, as the maker states it.137.7lbs

26.46 lbs212.86+ lbs

Near median

Position shows where the figure sits across the tracked category, not a quality judgment.

Official referencesProduct page

RECORD

How the assessment has moved.

Every announcement, release and reassessment behind the current classification.

Coming soon

Just launched

Active updates

Settled

Discontinued

Oct 2026 · AssessmentPre-Release Assessment method revised
Sep 2026 · AssessmentRecord status: Provisional → Not Consumer-Ready
Aug 2026 · AssessmentRecord status: Verified → Provisional
Aug 2026 · AssessmentPre-Release Assessment revised 49 → 54
Jul 2026 · AssessmentRobovations Score recorded at 49 of 100
Jun 2026 · NewsAltus charter school buys two Engineered Arts Ameca robots for $500,000 pilot
Jul 2024 · NewsAmeca deployed at science museum venues for public-facing interaction pilots
Jan 2024 · DemoAmeca shown at CES 2024 with GPT-4 powered real-time interaction

Show 1 earlier entryHide earlier entry

Oct 2023 · AnnouncementEngineered Arts announces Ameca arm development in progress

Questions

What people actually ask.

6 answered

OperationIs Ameca autonomous or telepresence-driven?

Both are shipped modes. Engineered Arts offers telepresence alongside Interaction Mode and Conference Mode. In the unattended modes Ameca’s Tritium software listens, speaks, translates and tracks faces and gaze on its own across 70 or more languages, with third-party AI services integrated for response generation, and that is the mode most public installations run. In telepresence a remote pilot drives the interaction directly. Autonomy stops at conversation: there is no autonomous navigation and no documented task planning. Engineered Arts rarely states which mode a given public appearance used, so individual demonstrations are weak evidence either way.

OperationWhat can Ameca's face actually do?

Engineered Arts specifies 27 degrees of freedom in the head and face, controlling brows, eyelids, eye gaze, jaw and lip sync independently, with face and gaze tracking driven by the eye cameras. Published demonstrations show naturalistic blink, eyebrow raise and mouth shape changes.

OwnershipHow much does Ameca cost and what are the terms?

Engineered Arts does not publish pricing. Units are sold to institutional and commercial buyers and are deployed in museums, schools, airports and corporate lobbies. Third-party listings report figures in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars and do not agree with each other; none is confirmed by the manufacturer. Support, calibration and software terms are not published.

OperationCan Ameca understand and respond to natural conversation without pre-programming?

Yes, within the limits of its integration. Ameca runs Engineered Arts’ Tritium software, which handles speech recognition, response generation and translation across 70 or more languages and drives face and gaze tracking. Language understanding comes from integrated AI services (OpenAI, Google, custom LLMs), and processing is cloud-connected, so conversational quality and latency track the chosen integration and the network rather than the robot.

OperationIs Ameca available for consumer purchase?

No. There is no consumer retail channel and no published timeline for one. Deployments are institutional and commercial: museums, schools, airports, universities and corporate lobbies.

OperationWhat makes Ameca different from other humanoid research platforms?

Facial articulation is the distinguishing feature. Of the platform’s 61 degrees of freedom, 27 are in the head and face, with the remaining 34 across the torso, neck, arms and hands, driven by combined electric and pneumatic actuation. Ameca does not walk or navigate, so it is not comparable to locomotion-focused platforms on those axes.

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Robovations. "Engineered Arts Ameca: Autonomy Level II (Assisted Autonomy)." Autonomy Ladder™, assessed September 2026. https://robovations.com/robots/engineered-arts-ameca/

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Where to next

Three ways to keep going.

For evaluators

Compare with a peer.

See the Engineered Arts Ameca and AgiBot A3 Ultra side by side: autonomy level, Robovations Score, readiness, and price. Classification, not a verdict.

See the full comparison

Or compare with Foundation Phantom, Unitree H2-X, CASBOT 02.

For browsers

See every Level II.

Every robot we’ve classified at assisted autonomy. Sorted by readiness, score, and price. Filter by category, manufacturer, or release date.

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Engineered Arts Ameca

Will the Engineered Arts Ameca fit your scenario?

The full spec sheet.

How the assessment has moved.

What people actually ask.

Other humanoid robots we have classified.

AgiBot A3 Ultra

Foundation Phantom

Unitree H2-X

CASBOT 02

Reference the Engineered Arts Ameca classification.

Three ways to keep going.

Get the next reassessment.

Compare with a peer.

See every Level II.