For an industry that’s only just getting started, there’s a lot of hype around humanoid robots. You can thank Elon Musk and his bold pronouncements around Tesla Inc.’s Optimus robot. Morgan Stanley also threw gasoline on the hype fire with its forecast of nearly 1 billion humanoids in service by 2050 amid a $5 trillion market. And then there are the slick internet videos showing human-shaped robots doing back flips, cartwheels and other spectacular feats. The reality is that most people overestimate what robots can do at this point in their development. It’s also true that humanoid robots have advanced rapidly in the last decade when they were expensive laboratory experiments at universities and specialty firms such as Boston Dynamics. Now these mobile machines with arms are being deployed mostly as pilot projects in warehouses, factories and even hospitals.

Full opinion : Robots and humanoids will be integral to the economy and defense industry, and the United States must take charge of the supply chain and assembly.