Realbotix Corp. has deployed its first humanoid robot and AI teacher's assistant inside a working U.S. school district, launching the Optio AI tutor and an M-Series humanoid robot at Salamanca City Central School District on the Seneca Nation Reservation in New York. Announced June 24, 2026, the pilot is the company's flagship push to bring embodied AI from lab demos into live classrooms.
Optio and the M-Series in the classroom
Optio is Realbotix's AI-powered teacher's assistant and at-home tutor, letting students interact with personalized avatars trained on district curriculum for concept reinforcement, individual tutoring, and 24/7 homework support across 100+ languages. The deployment pairs it with an M-Series humanoid — a modular robot with 39 degrees of freedom that uses natural conversation, facial expressions, and real-time interaction to drive hands-on engagement.
A Woz ED STEM district
Salamanca is a recognized Woz ED STEM Pathway district, founded by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to prepare students for emerging-technology careers. The initial Optio rollout supports high school students in Woz ED AI and Robotics courses, with planned expansion to roughly 500 students in the fall. The program ships with education-specific safety guardrails against inappropriate or inaccurate outputs, all under full district oversight.
From demos to deployments
"This deployment in a working school district represents a landmark moment for both AI and humanoid robotics," said Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Realbotix. The move lands as humanoid makers race to find real-world footholds — from UBTECH scaling Walker S2 production to Richtech's ADAM livestream and Lumos Robotics' touch-enabled humanoids. Realbotix plans to measure student engagement, concept mastery, and teacher workload reduction to build a repeatable "AI teaching assistant layer" for more districts.
Reporting based on coverage from Realbotix, Business Wire, and Investing News Network.