Mercedes-Benz is now one of several automakers that see a role for humanoid robots in a car factory setting—an idea that would have seemed whimsical if not laughable a decade ago—and it’s now taking steps to further this vision at its Berlin-Marienfelde hub for new production technologies.
The robots are produced by US-based Apptronik, which got its start recently, launching at the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016. And they’re now being tested by Mercedes in a real factory setting.
Mercedes says it is making a a low double-digit-million-euro investment into the startup, seeing a future for humanoid robots in vehicle assembly plants, at least when it comes to repetitive tasks that concern the sorting of parts and boxes within the factory—but perhaps not the splicing of tiny wires in some kind of electrical component. At least not yet.
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