Humanoid robots—inspired by Tesla Optimus, Figure 01, or Agility Digit—are generating enormous expectations. Their advantage over classic industrial robots lies less in their pure performance and more in their adaptability: they are designed to use tools, workstations, and infrastructures developed by humans. This enables them to automate processes or make changes to established procedures and products without having to rebuild the entire production environment. Nevertheless, they are not a panacea: It is often more efficient to adapt a product or process for better automation than to directly replace human workers with robots. In traditional areas of automation such as automotive or electronics manufacturing, specialized industrial robots with higher accuracy, speed, load capacity, and reliability remain superior for the time being. Humanoid robots will initially establish themselves in niche areas where flexibility and the ability to handle a variety of tasks are more important than cycle time – for example, in mixed warehouse environments or for small batch production.

On the hardware side, autonomous mobile manipulators are also among the most important areas of innovation. They combine handling and transport and, similar to humanoid robots, offer the decisive advantage of greater flexibility, which is increasingly in demand in a dynamic market environment.

A lot of progress is also expected on the software side. In addition to improved digital twins through data-driven methods, simulation and virtual commissioning are coming to the fore in order to program or train robots more quickly – without interrupting production.

In short, the use of humanoid robots and AI in industrial production will continue to increase, but in the medium term, the focus will be more on new areas of application than on replacing proven automation processes.