Siemens said it had deployed a humanoid robot on its factory floor, in what the company is heralding as a game changer in physical AI’s transition from lab to real world.
The HMND 01 Alpha, built by U.K.-based robotics firm Humanoid, was rolled out at Siemens’ electronics factory in Erlangen, Germany.
The robot performed a number of autonomous logistics tasks, including picking and placing containers alongside human workers.
During the trial period, HMND 01 achieved 60 container moves per hour, ran continuously for more than 8 hours, and reported a pick-and-place success rate above 90%, according to Siemens.
The robot was designed specifically to work alongside humans in industrial applications, with Humanoid combining an omnidirectional wheeled base with advanced manipulation and a proprietary AI decision-making system.
Siemens integrated the robot through its Xcelerator platform, establishing a live digital twin, AI perception, and real-time interfaces with existing factory systems to enable it to work with staff and infrastructure.
Nvidia’s physical AI stack, including its Jetson Thor platform for edge computing, Isaac Sim for simulation and Isaac Lab for reinforcement learning training were all used to train and test the robot. The project builds on the Siemens and Nvidia strategic partnership, revealed at the CES conference in January, to develop what the companies are calling the world’s first fully AI-driven adaptive manufacturing sites.
In an April 16 release, Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s VP of robotics and edge AI, said the project comes amid ongoing labor shortages and operational complexity, with corporations increasingly turning to robotic solutions to bridge these gaps.
“Factories of the future demand robots that can perceive, reason, and adapt autonomously alongside human workers,” Talla said in a statement. “This deployment paves the way for humanoid robots meeting real production targets on a live factory floor.”
Humanoid CEO Artem Sokolov said the trial demonstrates humanoid robots’ viability beyond the pilot phase.
“Our mission is to create humanoid robots that perform not only in controlled lab settings, but also in real-world factory environments,” he said. “[In] our collaboration … we’ve proven that humanoid robots are ready for real-world industrial deployment.”
