Siemens uses humanoid robots in its plant

At the Siemens electronics plant in Erlangen, the wheel-driven humanoid HMND 01 Alpha performed autonomous logistics tasks for several hours: Grasping, transporting and depositing containers. Sounds simple, but it's not - at least not for a machine that is supposed to do this alongside human colleagues in a running production environment. The results are impressive: More than 60 container movements per hour, an operating time of over eight hours and a success rate for autonomous pick-and-place of over 90 percent.

What makes the test technically interesting is less the robot alone than the ecosystem behind it. Humanoid has fully integrated Nvidia's Physical AI stack into the HMND-01 platform - from Jetson Thor for edge computing to Isaac Sim for simulation and Isaac Lab for reinforcement learning. Remarkably, the simulation-based development approach allowed the prototype phase to be shortened from the typical 18 to 24 months to around seven months.

Building the industrial backbone

The true value of a humanoid robot lies in becoming a fully integrated component in manufacturing. This requires data exchange with production systems and other automated guided vehicles, synchronized workflows with other machines and human operators, and adaptive behavior that responds dynamically to changing conditions. Without this deep integration, even the most sophisticated robot remains an isolated building block.

Siemens provides the industrial backbone. The Xcelerator portfolio provides the digital twin, fleet management, communication networks and control interfaces as well as drives - everything that is necessary for humanoid robots to work efficiently in the entire factory environment. The result is a factory-ready model for the use of humanoids in any industrial environment.

"The factories of the future will require robots that can autonomously sense, understand and adapt to their environment alongside human workers to address the labor shortages and operational complexity that traditional automation has struggled with," said Deepu Talla, Vice President of Robotics and Edge AI at Nvidia.

Humanoid: Development of factory-ready humanoids

Behind the HMND 01 Alpha is the British AI and robotics company Humanoid, which designed its robot from the ground up for industrial use - not a retrofitted laboratory prototype, but a system that was designed from the outset to meet the requirements of real production environments. The omnidirectional wheel platform ensures flexible mobility in everyday factory operations, while the in-house AI framework KinetIQ provides the necessary intelligence for changing tasks and complex handling operations.

Company founder and CEO Artem Sokolov sees the Erlangen test as proof that the step from the lab to the factory has been successful - and that the combination of Nvidia's AI infrastructure and Siemens' industrial integration expertise was crucial.