AI & Humanoid Robotics Weekly

Depth & stereo cameras

RGB-D/stereo cameras that give robots near-field 3D vision for manipulation.

Data updated

Why it matters

Structured-light, time-of-flight or active-stereo cameras (Orbbec Gemini, RealSense D400) in the head and sometimes the palms give dense depth for grasping and navigation. They are the main perception input for most VLA models.

Why it is a bottleneck. Commodity at the low end, but a few suppliers dominate humanoid designs; Cognex agreed in Sept 2026 to buy RealSense, which Intel spun out in 2025. US restrictions on Chinese robot components affect supplier choice, and Korean camera-module makers are moving in: LG Innotek is co-developing Atlas's vision module with Boston Dynamics, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans its first humanoid camera-module production in 2026.

Suppliers 5 Limited data: Few public sources for this category's figures. Supplier details are cited on each card.

Limited data. Share claims (Orbbec ~95% of China humanoid vision, a J.P. Morgan estimate; RealSense '80% of humanoid robotics', a company claim) are unverified estimates.

  • LG InnotekCamera modules and vision-sensing modules for robots
  • OrbbecGemini stereo/ToF 3D cameras
  • RealSenseD400/D500-series stereo depth cameras
  • RoboSenseAiry and E-series robotics LiDAR; expanding into cameras, tactile and joint modules
  • Samsung Electro-MechanicsCamera modules for humanoid robots; MLCCs

Sources for this category