On September 21, Boston Dynamics opened the Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC). Located on the campus of Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) near Savannah, Georgia, it serves as a testing and training center to integrate Atlas directly into the parent company’s automotive production. The first phase of the facility is now operational. There, Atlas practices preparing vehicle parts and arranging them in the order required for assembly—a process known in technical jargon as sequencing.

Boston Dynamics describes the RMAC as a permanent facility for data collection and application testing, closely coordinated with the plant. The robot learns through teleoperation, reinforcement learning in simulation, and hand-guided data capture devices. “Together with the Hyundai Motor Group, we are pioneering Physical AI on an industrial scale,” says Zack Jackowski, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Boston Dynamics.

The Roadmap: From Sequencing to Assembly

The goals are ambitious. In the coming years, Hyundai plans to initially deploy 25,000 Atlas units at Hyundai and Kia plants worldwide. At the plant in Georgia, the robots are set to begin sequencing parts in 2028, followed by component assembly by 2030. Back in January, the group had already announced a U.S. manufacturing facility that is expected to build 30,000 robots annually by 2028.

In 2027, RMAC will move into a building about ten times larger. In the same year, Boston Dynamics plans to explore applications beyond the automotive industry, such as in aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, logistics, the food industry, and life sciences. The starting point is discussions with existing customers of the Spot and Stretch robots.

What Atlas Brings to the Table

Hyundai unveiled the production version of Atlas at CES in January. According to the company, the robot has 56 degrees of freedom, can lift up to 50 kilograms, and automatically swaps its battery to continue working without interruption. It is designed to learn most tasks in less than a day. For the AI foundation, Boston Dynamics is collaborating with Google DeepMind, whose Gemini Robotics models are to be integrated.

Humanoids and Industry Meet at HANNOVER MESSE

HANNOVER MESSE 2026 already demonstrated that humanoids have arrived in the industrial sector. Agile Robots from Munich had two of its Agile ONE humanoids working together at its booth to assemble and package miniature robotic arms. Hexagon presented its industrial humanoid AEON in the Application Park; the robot can grasp and scan components and swap out its battery in 25 seconds. XPENG, another automaker developing its own humanoids, was also represented: Its robot, IRON, has been rolling off its own production line in Guangzhou since September; mass production is scheduled to begin by the end of 2026.

Suppliers were also prominently represented. Schaeffler received the HERMES AWARD 2026 for an actuator platform for humanoid robots whose installation space is about 20 percent smaller than current market solutions. And the RMAC’s training approach has a German counterpart: Since August, Hexagon’s AEON has been learning industrial tasks in Schaeffler’s “Humanoid Gym” before at least 1,000 units are set to be deployed in the group’s factories.

The Factory as a Learning Environment

The RMAC represents a shift in humanoid robotics. What matters most is no longer spectacular demonstrations, but rather data from real production processes and reliability in shift operations. Corporations with their own factories can deliver both. If the transition from training to mass production is successful, humanoids could be working in just a few years in areas where traditional automation has so far reached its limits.