Cyborg Index · July 2026

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL vs Onyx-08

Both humanoids read on the same 8 axes and 40 sub-axes, using the published Index scores. Every difference below carries the public evidence behind it, and sub-axes with no public evidence count as 0 rather than being skipped.

Overall standing

Capability score · 0–5 over 40 sub-axes

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL

Extraordinarily Long Vendor Co.

2.34of 5

Rank

Coverage

24/40

Proof

1.74

Onyx-08

Vendor Hotel

2.74of 5

Rank

Coverage

25/40

Proof

1.20

The short answer

Onyx-08 scores 0.39 higher than Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL, but that lead rests mostly on vendor claims and demos.

Only 44% of Onyx-08's score is carried by independently verified material — the rest is claimed or shown in demos. Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL has more unscored ground than the gap between them, so this could change next month.

Where Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL is ahead

Deployment+1.03Rests on claims and demos

Where Onyx-08 is ahead

Manipulation+1.03Rests on claims and demos
Perception+0.82Rests on claims and demos
Safety+0.67Rests on claims and demos
Learning+0.61Rests on claims and demos

What would change it

10 sub-axes on the trailing side have no public evidence yet. If all of them scored full marks they would be worth 1.25 — against a gap of 0.39.

Manipulation · Force controlup to +0.125
Manipulation · In hand reorientup to +0.125
HRI · Social presentationup to +0.125
Locomotion · Uneven terrainup to +0.125
Locomotion · Disturbance recoveryup to +0.125

There is more unscored ground than there is gap, so this result could turn over after the next research month.

How much we know

61%of sub-axes covered

We have public evidence for 61% of the 40 sub-axes across these two.

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL · 60%

Onyx-08 · 63%

The shape of each score

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL2.34

24/40 sub-axes have evidence

Faint outline = Onyx-08

Onyx-082.74

25/40 sub-axes have evidence

Faint outline = Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL

Reading the wheels — clockwise from the top

1 Locomotion
2 Manipulation
3 Perception
4 Autonomy
5 Learning
6 HRI
7 Deployment
8 Safety

Each wheel has 40 spokes — five per axis. A longer spoke is a higher score, and the dashed rings mark 1 to 4. Hover or tab onto any spoke to read the axis, the sub-axis and the exact value. A missing spoke means there is no public evidence for that sub-axis yet, which is not the same as scoring zero. The faint outline on each wheel is the other humanoid, drawn on the same scale.

Every axis, every sub-axis

Manipulation1.03 Deployment1.03 Perception0.82 Safety0.67 Learning0.61 Locomotion0.48 Autonomy0.43 HRI0.13

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XLOnyx-08

Shared 0–5 track · widest gap first

Manipulation

2.54 / 3.57► 1.03

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 3/5 vs 5/5

Grasp variety

2.20 / 3.71► 1.51

Bimanual

2.31 / 3.12► 0.81

Force control

2.78 / 3.77► 0.99

In hand reorient

2.89 / 3.53► 0.64

Tool use

2.52 / 3.73► 1.21

Deployment

1.96 / 0.93◄ 1.03

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 1/5 vs 4/5

Named pilots

1.80 / 1.02◄ 0.78

Field hours

1.79 / 1.06◄ 0.73

Customer diversity

1.86 / 0.73◄ 1.13

Supportability

2.31 / 0.88◄ 1.43

Commercial posture

2.02 / 0.95◄ 1.07

Perception

2.48 / 3.30► 0.82

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 3/5 vs 3/5

Sensor stack

2.08 / 3.62► 1.54

Scene understanding

2.54 / 3.25► 0.71

Spatial memory

2.26 / 2.95► 0.69

Object permanence

3.02 / 3.41► 0.39

Semantic world model

2.49 / 3.25► 0.76

Safety

1.86 / 2.53► 0.67

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 4/5 vs 0/5

Functional safety

1.92 / 2.50► 0.58

Certifications

2.28 / 2.45► 0.17

E stop arch

1.84 / 2.23► 0.39

Incident transparency

1.58 / 2.62► 1.04

Force impact limits

1.70 / 2.86► 1.16

Learning

2.22 / 2.83► 0.61

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 4/5 vs 0/5

Imitation learning

1.93 / 3.07► 1.14

Sim to real

2.58 / 2.90► 0.32

Foundation policy

2.06 / 2.76► 0.70

Data flywheel

2.18 / 2.99► 0.81

Transfer fine tune

2.36 / 2.42► 0.06

Locomotion

2.85 / 3.33► 0.48

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 2/5 vs 5/5

Flat ground walking

2.90 / 3.01► 0.11

Uneven terrain

2.82 / 3.74► 0.92

Stairs

3.05 / 3.54► 0.49

Disturbance recovery

2.84 / 3.46► 0.62

Speed endurance

2.66 / 2.91► 0.25

Autonomy

2.63 / 3.06► 0.43

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 4/5 vs 4/5

Unattended operation

2.63 / 2.59

Task horizon

2.85 / 3.28► 0.43

Generalization

2.41 / 3.44► 1.03

Instruction following

2.59 / 2.72► 0.13

Recovery from failure

2.67 / 3.27► 0.60

HRI

2.20 / 2.33► 0.13

Rests on claims and demosEvidenced cells · 3/5 vs 4/5

Speech io

2.13 / 2.42► 0.29

Nl instruction

2.08 / 2.45► 0.37

Intent recognition

2.17 / 2.25► 0.08

Safe proximity

2.23 / 1.84◄ 0.39

Social presentation

2.39 / 2.70► 0.31

Segment length and thickness are the gapNo public evidence yet

Which is better for what

Each row is decided by the axes that matter for that kind of work, read off the same Capability scores as the ranking. Rows only appear where both humanoids have enough public record to answer.

Manufacturing and warehouse work

Named pilots and field hours, backed by what the hands can actually do.

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL scores higher on Deployment and Manipulation — 2.15 against 1.81 for Onyx-08.

Running without a human in the loop

Unattended operation and task horizon, backed by what the robot can perceive.

Onyx-08

Onyx-08 scores higher on Autonomy and Perception — 3.14 against 2.58 for Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL.

Moving through difficult ground

Uneven terrain, stairs and disturbance recovery.

Onyx-08

Onyx-08 scores higher on Locomotion — 3.33 against 2.85 for Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL.

Working alongside people

Functional safety and certification, plus how it reads and answers people.

Onyx-08

Onyx-08 scores higher on Safety and HRI — 2.47 against 1.98 for Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL.

Picking up new tasks

Imitation learning, transfer and generalisation across tasks.

Onyx-08

Onyx-08 scores higher on Learning and Autonomy — 2.91 against 2.36 for Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL.

Research and developer use

How much of the stack is documented and reproducible.

Onyx-08

Onyx-08 scores higher on Learning and Perception — 2.98 against 2.31 for Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL.

How solid the record is on each side

Meridian Long-Name Alpha-XL

Sub-axes on the record: 24 of 40 · 60%
Carried by verified material: 74%
Rests on claims and demos: 0.60

Best documented — Manipulation, Perception, Autonomy, Learning, HRI, Safety

Nothing on the record — every axis has at least one read

Onyx-08

Sub-axes on the record: 25 of 40 · 63%
Carried by verified material: 44%
Rests on claims and demos: 1.54

Best documented — Locomotion, Manipulation, Perception, Autonomy, HRI, Deployment

Nothing on the record — Learning, Safety

What this comparison cannot settle

Neither humanoid has a public read on 6 of the 40 sub-axes, so those cannot be compared at all.
19 sub-axes are read on only one side. A one-sided cell is undecided, not a zero for the silent side.
Demonstrations happen in different environments and product revisions are not always equivalent, so like-for-like uptime and throughput figures do not exist for most of the field.

Go deeper on either humanoid

Nearby comparisons

All comparisons →

Cyborg IndexJuly 2026 editionCapability scoremethodologypreview cohort