In a shocking turn of events for robots previously only seen dancing or falling over in promotional videos, a humanoid has finally been put to work doing something profoundly useful: cleaning toilets. Chinese startup Zerith Robotics has deployed its Zerith H1 wheeled humanoid robots in over 20 real-world commercial locations, including shopping malls and office buildings in Hefei and Shenzhen. Instead of practicing parkour, these bots are tasked with the glamorous work of mopping floors, wiping sinks, and assisting shoppers, signaling a quiet but significant shift from choreographed demos to actual, commercially viable labor.
The company, Zerith Robotics, was only officially established in January 2025 by a team from the Tsinghua AI Robotics Laboratory. Despite its youth, the startup has already secured millions in funding and multi-million yuan orders, with plans to deliver over 500 humanoid robots this year. The H1 model, specifically designed for housekeeping and service tasks, navigates on wheels and features a height-adjustable body, allowing it to tackle various chores that were, until now, firmly in the human domain.
Why is this important?
While bipedal, backflipping robots grab headlines, the immediate commercial viability appears to lie with their less flashy, wheeled counterparts. The deployment of the Zerith H1 underscores a pragmatic industry trend: for now, the path to commercialization is paved, literally. By opting for wheels over complex, expensive legs, companies can deploy humanoids in structured environments like malls and hotels more reliably and cost-effectively. This isn’t the sci-fi dream of a robot butler in every home just yet, but it’s a critical, unglamorous step in that direction, proving that the business case for humanoids starts with scrubbing floors, not winning dance-offs.
