Mercedes Deploys Humanoid Robots on the Assembly Line
Mercedes-Benz has been employing industrial robots since the 1970s to perform monotonous and physically demanding tasks. Now, the luxury automaker is testing humanoid robots in production with an initial focus on repetitive tasks in intralogistics.
Last year, Mercedes invested several million euros in Apptronik, inventor of the Apollo humanoid robot. Apptronik was founded in 2016 at the Human-Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.
Apollo has a form factor that roughly matches the size of a person. It’s 5 foot 8 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, and can lift 55 pounds. It is designed to operate in industrial spaces alongside people. Like cobots, Apollo has a unique force-control architecture that enables it to operate safely around people.
Apptronik wants the robot to be like the iPhone: User-friendly hardware that comes with some pre-built applications, but that also accommodates applications developed by third parties. Apollo’s computing power makes it possible for AI companies to solve use-cases outside the ones for which the robot was originally designed. For example, in December, Apptronik announced that it had partnered with Google DeepMind to develop artificial intelligence software for Apollo.
Mercedes is testing the Apollo robots at its assembly plants in Berlin, Germany, and Ketch-kem-it, Hungary, and the automaker plans to bring them to other factories in the near future. Mercedes employees with production know-how have transferred their knowledge to Apollo through teleoperation and augmented reality. The goal is to have the robot repeat their tasks autonomously.
For now, Apollo is being used to transport components or modules to the assembly line. It can also carry out initial quality checks of components. Mercedes would like humanoid robots to take on monotonous tasks so that people can concentrate on highly skilled jobs.
This is an excerpt from our April episode of Assembly News Now. Watch the full episode here!
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.webp?height=200&t=1743848480&width=200 "Assembly News Now, episode 16: Mercedes Deploys Humanoid Robots on the Assembly Line")
