Siemens and Humanoid have marked a landmark milestone in the journey to bring physical AI from vision to industrial reality. Humanoid’s HMND 01, a wheeled Alpha humanoid robot built using the NVIDIA physical AI stack, has been successfully tested in operations at Siemens’ electronics factory in Erlangen, Germany, performing autonomous logistics tasks. This builds on the Siemens/NVIDIA strategic partnership, announced at CES, to build the world’s first fully AI-driven, adaptive manufacturing sites.
The dawn of physical AI in manufacturing
Physical AI, or the discipline of training intelligent machines to perceive, reason and act in the physical world, is poised to transform how goods are made. Bridging the gap between AI research and the demands of a real factory requires a high-performing ecosystem. This requires world-class AI compute and simulation, a proven robotics platform, and the deep industrial automation infrastructure to tie it all together.
The HMND 01 Alpha robot was deployed in Siemens’ logistics operations where it autonomously executed tote-handling tasks like picking, transporting and placing containers for human operators. All target performance metrics were met, including a throughput of 60 tote moves per hour, uptime exceeding eight hours, and autonomous pick-and-place success rates above 90%.
Building the industrial backbone with Siemens Xcelerator
A humanoid robot’s true value is in becoming a fully integrated, collaborative asset on the shop floor. That means real-time data exchange with production systems and other autonomous guided vehicles, synchronised workflows with other machinery and human operators, and adaptive behaviour that responds dynamically to changing conditions. Without this deep integration, even the most sophisticated robot remains an isolated feature.
Siemens provides this critical layer through its Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, from a comprehensive digital twin to AI-enabled perception, to integrated control and PLC-robot interfaces, along with fleet management, industrial communication networks, and high-performance drives. Together, these technologies form the digital backbone and automation infrastructure that help to ensure humanoid robots operate efficiently and in concert with the broader factory environment. The outcome is a factory-grade model for deploying humanoids in any industrial setting.
Accelerating intelligence with NVIDIA libraries, frameworks and AI infrastructure
Humanoid has integrated NVIDIA’s full physical AI stack into the HMND 01 platform, including NVIDIA Jetson Thor for edge compute, NVIDIA Isaac Sim for simulation, and NVIDIA Isaac Lab for reinforcement learning and policy training. The result is a dramatic compression of development timelines. Simulation-first hardware design has also enabled the team to optimise actuator selection, joint strength and mass distribution virtually, cutting prototype development from a typical 18 to 24 months to just seven months.
“Factories of the future demand robots that can perceive, reason and adapt autonomously alongside human workers, tackling the labour shortages and operational complexity that traditional automation struggled to handle,” said Deepu Talla, vice president of Robotics and Edge AI at NVIDIA. “With Siemens providing the industrial integration backbone and Humanoid deploying NVIDIA’s full physical AI stack, from simulation-first training to real-time edge inference, this deployment paves the way for humanoid robots meeting real production targets on a live factory floor.”
Building factory-grade humanoids
Humanoid, a United Kingdom based AI and robotics company, developed the HMND 01 Alpha, a humanoid robot purpose-built for industrial environments. Combining an omnidirectional wheeled mobility platform with advanced manipulation capabilities, powered by KinetIQ, a proprietary AI framework, the HMND 01 is engineered to work in human-centric spaces, adapting to diverse tasks and handling complex actions.
“Our mission is to create humanoid robots that perform not only in controlled lab settings, but also in real-world factory environments, handling meaningful industrial tasks. Our collaboration with Siemens and NVIDIA gives us a powerful advantage by combining NVIDIA’s leading AI infrastructure, simulation tools and frameworks with Siemens’ deep industrial expertise and integration capabilities,” said Artem Sokolov, chief executive officer and founder of Humanoid. “Together, we’ve proven that humanoid robots are ready for real-world industrial deployment.”
For more information contact Siemens South Africa, [email protected], www.siemens.co.za
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