Viral mishaps underscore a big challenge for robot makers: How can they ensure a humanoid doesn’t hurt a human?

The robot race has a familiar look right now. Two legs. A face-like head. A body that tries very hard to look human. Genesis AI is taking a different route with Eno, its first general-purpose robot.

Last year, Norwegian-US tech company 1X announced a strange new product: “the world’s first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed to transform life at home”. Standing 168 centimetres tall and ...