Phoenix (Sanctuary AI)
Humanoid robotic platform developed by Sanctuary AI.
For the parent company, see Sanctuary AI (stub). For the co-founder and chief executive, see Geordie Rose.
Phoenix is a humanoid robotic platform developed by Sanctuary AI, a Vancouver-based robotics and artificial intelligence company founded in 2018. Phoenix is engineered with a distinctive combination of carbon fiber hydraulic actuators and high-precision multi-degree-of-freedom hands, positioning the platform for general-purpose enterprise tasks with specific emphasis on manipulation-heavy operations. As of mid-2026, Phoenix is deployed under enterprise pilot arrangements with customers in retail and light industrial sectors.
Development history
Sanctuary AI was founded in 2018 by Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, and Olivia Norton with a stated ambition to build human-equivalent general intelligence embodied in a humanoid form. The company's early work focused on the underlying components required for a general-purpose humanoid: hand manipulation, task-transfer learning, and the software architecture that would allow a single platform to operate across a range of tasks without task-specific training.
Phoenix was announced in 2023 as the company's first commercially disclosed humanoid platform. Successive Phoenix generations have refined the platform's manipulation capability, actuator architecture, and general-task software. The current commercial generation, Phoenix Generation 7, incorporates the company's mature hand design and integrates the software stack that supports task-transfer across operations without per-task training.
Specifications
- Height: approximately 170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
- Mass: approximately 70 kg
- Hand degrees of freedom: 20 per hand
- Actuation: Sanctuary-developed carbon fiber hydraulic actuators throughout body
- Payload: sufficient for retail and light industrial manipulation tasks
- Sensor payload: multi-camera vision, force/torque at hands, tactile
- Compute: Sanctuary-developed neural inference stack (Carbon)
Use case
Phoenix is positioned by Sanctuary AI for general-purpose enterprise pilots, with a specific emphasis on manipulation-heavy operations in retail and light industrial settings. The platform's high-degree-of-freedom hands and precision manipulation architecture support tasks that other 2026 humanoids handle only approximately, including detailed inventory manipulation, complex product handling, and multi-step assembly operations. The company's positioning of Phoenix reflects a strategic choice to differentiate on manipulation capability rather than on locomotion, form factor, or price.
Deployment status
Phoenix is deployed under enterprise pilot arrangements with customers in retail and light industrial sectors. Notable public deployments include a Canadian retail pilot announced in 2023 and subsequent industrial pilots through 2024 and 2025. Sanctuary AI has not published unit shipment volumes for Phoenix; industry estimates place cumulative deployments in the low tens of units through mid-2026.
Cost per unit
Sanctuary AI has not published unit pricing for Phoenix. Pilot deployments are structured as multi-year enterprise engagements that include hardware, software, deployment support, and updates in a single commercial arrangement, and unit pricing outside these bundled arrangements is not publicly disclosed.
References
- Sanctuary AI corporate communications on the Phoenix launch, 2023.
- Coverage of Sanctuary AI Canadian retail pilot, 2023.
- Coverage of Phoenix Generation 7 announcement.
- Industry coverage of Sanctuary AI corporate history and Phoenix development.