Phoenix

Name: Phoenix
Brand: Sanctuary AI

Research 2023

Sanctuary AI’s general-purpose humanoid, known for industry-leading dexterous hands; used as a pilot and research testbed rather than sold.

Overview

Phoenix is Sanctuary AI’s general-purpose humanoid, first unveiled in May 2023 and iterated to Generation 8 by January 2025, powered by the Carbon AI control system and notable for hydraulic dexterous hands with near-human tactile sensitivity. It has run enterprise pilots but has never been sold with a public price; in 2026 Sanctuary refocused on selling hardware-agnostic “Physical AI” software and hand technology.

Use cases

Manufacturing pilots Sorting & material handling AI training / data capture

Capability evidence

Auto parts handling

Magna International agreed to pilot Sanctuary AI's Phoenix humanoid for manufacturing tasks at a European Magna auto plant as part of a strategic partnership. TechCrunch ↗ · 2024-04
Rapid task learning

Sanctuary AI unveiled the seventh-generation Phoenix, demonstrating that the robot could learn new work tasks in under 24 hours via its Carbon AI control system. The Robot Report ↗ · 2024-04
Zero-shot cube reorientation

Sanctuary's 21-DoF hydraulic hand autonomously reoriented a lettered cube to target orientations 10 consecutive times without dropping it, using a simulation-trained policy transferred zero-shot to hardware. The Robot Report ↗ · 2026-04