Renowned German automaker Mercedes-Benz and general purpose humanoid robot developer Apptronik have announced an agreement under which the parties will collaborate to explore high-tech robotics applications in Mercedes-Benz manufacturing.
As part of the agreement, Mercedes-Benz is launching a pilot project to test the capabilities of Apptronik's Apollo humanoid robot to perform various tasks in vehicle manufacturing, such as delivering assembly kits to the production line while inspecting components. The plan is to test Apollo's ability to deliver kit parts later in the manufacturing process.
According to the press release, the use of humanoid robots will help companies like Mercedes-Benz deploy robotics optimized for work in spaces intended for people, eliminating the costly full-scale retrofit of facilities to use mostly robots rather than people. . “This approach aims to automate some of the physically complex, repetitive and boring tasks for which it is becoming increasingly difficult to find reliable workers,” the press release states.
“Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo to automate some low-skill, physically demanding manual labor,” said Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO of Apptronik, adding that this model of using robots will find its way into other organizations in the coming years. .
The Apollo humanoid robot is 173 cm tall, weighs 73 kg and is endowed with the ability to lift loads weighing up to 25 kg. It is designed to work in industrial environments with people. At the same time, Apollo's computing capabilities will allow AI to expand the use cases for which it was originally created.
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