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Pilot season has officially start for the world of humanoid robotics . Last year , Amazon began test Agility ’s Digit golem in select fulfillment centers , while this January , Figure announced a hatful with BMW . Now Apptronik is getting in on the action , good manners of a partnership with Mercedes - Benz .
accord to the Austin - ground robotics startup , “ as part of the correspondence Apptronik and Mercedes - Benz will collaborate on distinguish applications for extremely advanced robotics in Mercedes - Benz Manufacturing . ” Specific frame have not been disclose , as is customary for these variety of wad . broadly speaking , the literal phone number of systems included in a buffer are fairly small — clearly so , given the former nature of the engineering .
Even so , these spate are regard as a win - win for both parties . Apptronik can demonstrate clear interest from a head automotive name , while Mercedes signal to customer and shareholder alike that it ’s looking to the hereafter . What comes next is what really matters . Should the pilot go well , causing the auto maker to put in a big order , that would be a massive plumage in Apptronik ’s cap — and the diligence at expectant .
android have been pull back monumental investor interest group of later , as prove by Figure ’s late jaw - send away $ 675 million raise . The next yoke of years will be vitally significant for the continued succeeder of these firms , as they look to prove out meaningful ROI .
Figure bait the humanoid robot hype wave to $ 2.6B valuation
As for what the robots will actually do on the fabrication floor , co - founder and CEO Jeff Cardenas notice in a release , “ Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo for automating some down in the mouth science , physically challenging , manual labor — a model manipulation case which we ’ll see other organizations replicate in the months and twelvemonth to come . ”
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“ Low acquisition ” refers to the level of labor these systems will replace . My guess is that it involves a lot of move carryall from point A to point B — something insistent and physically taxing that is both all important and ( comparatively ) easy to automatize . The other important part of “ broken skill ” is also likely an seek to twinge unfavorable judgment of replace human workers in the bud . We ’re still a way off from android being able-bodied to do so in a meaningful way .
Apptronik is a University of Austin spinout best known for its work on NASA ’s Valkyrie humanoid robot .
