Humanoid robot aces real-world bin-picking test in German factory

Humanoid, a UK-based robotics and AI company, successfully completed a proof of concept (POC) with German engineering firm Schaeffler, demonstrating its pre-alpha humanoid robot's ability to perform real-world industrial bin-picking tasks. Conducted at Schaeffler’s Erlangen facility, the robot efficiently picked metallic bearing rings from bins, transferred them to a buffer table, and moved between workstations using parallel grippers in a production-like environment. This test highlighted the robot’s mobility, adaptability, and AI-driven precision, outperforming traditional automation systems like robotic arms and cobots, which often face efficiency and ROI challenges in similar tasks. The POC exceeded expectations by showing rapid skill training, on-site performance adjustments, and successful application of lab-developed models with minimal modifications. Humanoid prepared for the trial by creating a physical twin setup for teleoperation-based training, fine-tuning a Vision-Language-Action model, and integrating built-in sensors and cameras to reduce installation time. Both