Humanoids face limits
- Manufacturers trialled humanoid robots in logistics and light assembly, but real factory tasks exposed practical performance limits. - Siemens trialled a wheeled humanoid, while Mercedes‑Benz photo reports showed robots struggling with production demands. - Industry guidance is to pick automation by task fit, favouring cobots or fixed robots until humanoids prove reliable. ( )
Humanoid robots are reaching factory floors, but the first live trials show they still fit narrow jobs better than whole production lines. (press.siemens.com) Siemens said on April 16 that Humanoid’s HMND 01 Alpha, a wheeled humanoid robot, completed autonomous logistics work at its electronics plant in Erlangen, Germany. The company said the robot handled totes at 60 moves an hour, ran for more than eight hours, and cleared a pick-and-place success rate above 90%. (press.siemens.com) That is a warehouse-style task: moving containers between people and stations. Siemens described the robot’s work as tote picking, transport and placement, not precision assembly on a line. (press.siemens.com) Mercedes-Benz has been testing Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid at plants in Berlin and Kecskemét, Hungary, with an initial focus on intralogistics and early quality checks. Mercedes said in March 2025 that Berlin-Marienfelde was its proving ground for AI and humanoid robots, and Assembly reported Apollo was moving parts and modules to the line rather than replacing fixed production equipment. (group.mercedes-benz.com (assemblymag.com) The current pitch for humanoids is simple: send a mobile robot into buildings already designed for people. The harder part is matching the speed, repeatability and certification of a robot arm that does one motion thousands of times a shift. (automateshow.com (evsint.com) That is why most factory guidance in 2026 still starts with the task, not the shape of the machine. EVS International said fixed industrial arms remain the better fit for high-cycle, precision-critical work, while cobots keep an edge where plants need safer, faster reconfiguration. (evsint.com) Trade groups and industry analysts are making the same distinction. The Automate Show’s 2026 industry guide said humanoids are moving from demos to pilot fleets, but mass deployment is still years away, with safety concerns and real-facility testing still limiting wider rollout. (automateshow.com) Even some supporters argue the human-like form is not the point. IndustryWeek wrote in February that factory buyers are shifting attention from whether a robot looks human to whether it can move, perceive and make decisions reliably inside changing industrial settings. (industryweek.com) For now, the clearest wins are the least glamorous ones: tote runs, parts delivery and other repetitive material-handling jobs around a plant. The robots are showing up, but the assembly line still belongs mostly to purpose-built machines. (press.siemens.com (assemblymag.com)
