2025 Is the Year of the Humanoid Robot Factory Worker | EUROtoday

Later this 12 months, Boston Dynamics plans to place its all-electric humanoid Atlas robotic to work in a Hyundai manufacturing unit. The new model of the bot, developed from the hydraulic Atlas mannequin that’s been performing viral video demos since 2013, made its public debut final spring. But whereas the corporate’s dog-like Spot and warehouse robotic Stretch are already deployed at industrial websites, the Hyundai pilot would be the first time Atlas is utilized in business manufacturing.

Boston Dynamics, which was acquired by Hyundai for $1.1 billion in 2021, is coy about how the robotic might be used, however the normal thought is that it’s designed to be stronger and extra dependable than a human employee. “The robot is going to be able to do things that are difficult for humans,” Boston Dynamics spokesperson Kerri Neelon says. “Like pick up very heavy objects and carry things that are awkward for humans to carry.”

Atlas can have associates: 2025 appears set to be the 12 months that multipurpose humanoid robots, till now largely confined to analysis labs, go business. Some have already taken their first tentative robotic steps into paid work, with Agility Robotics’ Digit transferring objects in a warehouse and Figure’s eponymous biped delivery out to business prospects final 12 months.

Tech giants are additionally getting in on the pattern: Both Apple and Meta are rumored to be engaged on some form of consumer-facing humanoid robotic. A 2024 Goldman Sachs report estimates that humanoid robots will symbolize a $38 billion market by 2035—greater than six instances what the agency projected a 12 months earlier.

The primary promise of humanoid robots is that they’ll have the ability to change between a number of duties, identical to their human friends. It’s a essentially totally different strategy from conventional meeting line automation, which builds a whole surroundings across the particular duties required for manufacturing. Jonathan Hurst, cofounder and chief robotic officer at Agility Robotics, expects its robots to sit down alongside that course of, not disrupt it.

“A purpose-built automation solution is always going to be higher performance and lower cost for that purpose,” Hurst says. “That’s great if you have 24/7 operations for that specific thing you want to do.” But for duties that don’t have to run across the clock, a versatile robotic could possibly be extra productive.

Boston Dynamics places it a distinct manner. With factories already designed to be a protected place for automation, the corporate says it constructed Atlas with a watch towards making a robotic that might go in every single place else. “We live in a human-first world,” Neelon says, “so we should build a robot that reflects that.”

But there are challenges to getting humanoid robots to market. Tesla’s Optimus has been closely anticipated for the reason that firm first introduced it in 2021, however a demo in October drew issues when the robots on show have been revealed to be human-controlled, elevating questions concerning the extent to which Optimus may perform autonomously. In January, Musk stated the corporate was set to construct “several thousand” robots over the course of 2025—however in April he instructed buyers manufacturing could possibly be impacted by the restrictions on rare-earth steel exports China applied in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.