Humanoid robots are increasingly making their presence felt on car production lines, with two major automakers making significant achievements.
German giant BMW has confirmed it is launching a pilot to introduce humanoid bots at its plant in Leipzig, marking the first time it has used this form of physical AI in Europe.
At the same time, China’s Xiaomi has also successfully debuted a humanoid bot on the production line at its factory in Beijing.
In Leipzig, BMW is using a humanoid bot called Kalpa Manufactured by Stockholm-based Hexagon, developed at the company’s facility in Zurich, Switzerland. It has already successfully negotiated a test deployment in December, and will face another test in April before a full pilot begins in June.
“The deployment in Leipzig is focusing on testing the multifunctional application of the robot,” BMW said in a statement. Press release. “It is based on the design of Aeon, whose human-like body allows the flexible attachment of a wide range of hand and gripper elements or scanning devices and enables dynamic use on wheels.” The intention is to use bots in the assembly and component manufacturing of high-voltage batteries.
In the long term, BMW hopes to increase the use of human bots for mundane, demanding or safety-critical tasks that are challenging for its employees.
The leipzig deployment is as follows a previous test of human bots at its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Within 10 months of their introduction, Figure 02 bot from the American company Figure AI Workers were working 10 hours a day, Monday through Friday, to remove and organize sheet metal for welding. It is estimated that he helped produce 30,000 X3 models.
A key takeaway was how quickly the bots were able to transition from lab to production, acknowledged BMW board member Milan Nedeljkovic. Press release: “The symbiosis of engineering expertise and artificial intelligence opens up completely new possibilities in production.”
Meanwhile, in China, Xiaomi – which produces the world’s fastest mass-produced electric sedan SU7 Ultra – Chased a humanoid robot for three hours on its production line in Beijing.
As a Video Data released by Xiaomi shows that the bot, which was developed by Xiaomi, was used to pick up screw nuts and place them at specific locations on the car floor. Working together with another bot on the other side of the nut loading station, they achieved a success rate of almost 90% in the allotted time frame.
It is understood that more bots are being evaluated in other tasks, such as removing plastic films, installing badges and moving boxes.
according to South China Morning PostCompany founder Lei Jun said on social media: “This is the first step towards the stable application of Xiaomi’s humanoid robots in the field of intelligent manufacturing,” adding that he expects a large number of people to work in the company’s factories in the next five years.
How many there will be – and what their production will cost – has not yet been disclosed.
