Bernt Børnich, founder of 1X, discusses building humanoid robots for the home, drawing on the company’s work and experience as a founder.
Børnich says 1X aims to make home robots that can take on everyday work and give people more time together. His interest began with an early fascination with coding and physical machines, and was shaped by Honda’s ASIMO. He says ASIMO struggled outside controlled settings because it relied on assumptions that don’t hold in unpredictable homes.
1X chose tendon-driven systems and low-energy designs to make robots more compliant around people and household objects. Børnich explains that kinetic energy rises with the square of speed, so fast-spinning gears can make collisions dangerous. In homes, where surroundings are not precisely mapped, robots need to learn through interaction while limiting the force they can apply.
Børnich says 1X began about a decade ago, when humanoid robotics was a small field and the team built its early ecosystem in Norway. COVID disrupted a planned funding round, forcing the company to cut its staff by half. He describes the company’s priorities as maintaining development speed and avoiding running out of money, while building its own components, production equipment, and factory processes.
Børnich describes robot learning as a progression from internet and simulated data to human demonstrations through teleoperation, followed by autonomous practice in the real world. He argues that consumer adoption can help humanoid robotics advance faster than enterprise sales, since early users can explore varied uses and create pressure for wider adoption. As robots become useful, companies can refine product details and build revenue.
Børnich recounts a 2018 demonstration where Eve accelerated backward into a wall and fell beside him onstage. He says teams should treat failed attempts as part of innovation when people have tried seriously and learn from what went wrong. He also advises founders to work on problems they find exciting, because a long and difficult journey needs to include enjoyment.
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