The Munich-based AI and robotics company Agile Robots is driving the shift toward physical artificial intelligence (“Physical AI”) with massive investments. As the company announced at its “Physical AI Media Day” in early September, substantial funds are being channeled into data, AI algorithms, and hardware. A key milestone in this effort is the expansion of its in-house production at the Upper Bavarian site in Fürstenfeldbruck—the hometown of co-founder Peter Meusel.

Ramp-up of Series Production in Fürstenfeldbruck

At the new production facility, Agile Robots is currently manufacturing around ten humanoid systems per day. The goal is to ramp up production volume to around 2,000 units by the end of the year. The production lines use modular robot stations where single- and dual-arm systems automatically assemble joints and arms. Due to the high variety of models and ongoing development adjustments, final assembly of the complete body is currently still performed manually. Inside the factory itself, “humanoids on four wheels”—consisting of a humanoid upper body mounted on a mobile robotic platform (AMR)—supply the production lines with materials.

Real-World Data for Physical AI

CEO Zhaopeng Chen emphasizes the enormous market potential: “The market for Physical AI will be 10 times larger than the automotive market.” To tap into this market, he says, in addition to AI (“Brain”) and robot bodies (“Body”), concrete applications and real-world data are essential. To this end, Agile Robots operates its own “Robot Academy” in Munich. There, employees train the robots for real-world industrial tasks.

Using body-mounted cameras and sensors, the teams capture motion data while closing containers or removing protective films from smartphones—Agile Robots is a long-standing supplier to Apple’s contract manufacturer Foxconn. In addition, employees control the systems via 3D mice and data suits using teleoperation. This enables single- and dual-armed robots, as well as humanoid upper bodies, to learn precise movement sequences, such as plugging in cables, installing fans and memory modules for data centers, or performing handling tasks for the automotive industry.

Dynamic Growth and High Patent Density

The company’s development since its founding in 2018 as a spin-off of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been marked by rapid growth. Agile Robots now employs 3,500 people worldwide, 2,500 of whom work in research and development alone. According to the company’s own figures, it has already installed over 20,000 robotic solutions at industrial customers, including several thousand humanoid robots. “The proportion of humanoid robots among the robots we install at our customers’ sites has been increasing dramatically in recent times,” explains Chen, who conducted extensive research on humanoid robotic hands at the DLR and continues to see himself primarily as a “scientist.”

This focus is also reflected in innovation rankings: With more than 650 patents, Agile Robots ranks seventh among the world’s most innovative startups in the field of humanoid robotics, according to LexisNexis—behind six Chinese companies (including Fourier, Agibot, LimX Dynamics, Pudu Robotics, Unitree Robotics, and Leju Robotics) as well as Figure AI from the U.S. Financially, the specialist aims to double its revenue to around 600 million euros in the current year and is targeting the one-billion-euro mark “very soon.”

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