With stats like that, one can’t help but suspect that the first country to have a million humanoids will be China.

On Jan. 22, Louisiana's economic development agency and St. Bernard-based SSE Steel Fabrication announced an agreement with Houston-based tech startup Persona AI to launch a pilot program at SSE to develop humanoid robotics for industrial uses. Greater New Orleans Inc., southeast Louisiana's economic development nonprofit, also is participating.

We're not shipping a lot of humanoid robots yet. But shipments are forecast to almost double each year for the next decade. Here's who's leading now

Many researchers agree that there has been a step change in humanoid capability over the past five years, owing to cheaper parts as well as innovations such as improved battery power and artificial-intelligence algorithms, which allow for better perception and autonomy.

Raj Subramaniam said "super humanoid robots" with a "couple of elbows" would be better at automating deliveries.

Boston Dynamics latest Atlas humanoid robot is big, strong, and increasingly smart, thanks to Google. The company has plans to ship up to 30,000 per year.