Later this 12 months, Boston Dynamics plans to place its all-electric humanoid Atlas robotic to work in a Hyundai manufacturing facility. The brand new model of the bot, developed from the hydraulic Atlas mannequin that’s been performing viral video demos since 2013, made its public debut final spring. However whereas the corporate’s dog-like Spot and warehouse robotic Stretch are already deployed at industrial websites, the Hyundai pilot would be the first time Atlas is utilized in business manufacturing.
Boston Dynamics, which was acquired by Hyundai for $1.1 billion in 2021, is coy about how the robotic can be used, however the basic thought is that it’s designed to be stronger and extra dependable than a human employee. “The robotic goes to have the ability to do issues which might be tough for people,” Boston Dynamics spokesperson Kerri Neelon says. “Like decide up very heavy objects and carry issues which might be awkward for people to hold.”
Atlas can have associates: 2025 appears set to be the 12 months that multipurpose humanoid robots, till now largely confined to analysis labs, go business. Some have already taken their first tentative robotic steps into paid work, with Agility Robotics’ Digit moving items in a warehouse and Determine’s eponymous biped shipping out to commercial customers final 12 months.
Tech giants are additionally getting in on the pattern: Each Apple and Meta are rumored to be engaged on some sort of consumer-facing humanoid robotic. A 2024 Goldman Sachs report estimates that humanoid robots will signify a $38 billion market by 2035—greater than six occasions what the agency projected a 12 months earlier.
The essential promise of humanoid robots is that they are going to be capable to change between a number of duties, identical to their human friends. It’s a essentially totally different strategy from conventional meeting line automation, which builds a complete atmosphere across the particular duties required for manufacturing. Jonathan Hurst, cofounder and chief robotic officer at Agility Robotics, expects its robots to sit down alongside that course of, not disrupt it.
“A purpose-built automation resolution is at all times going to be increased efficiency and decrease value for that goal,” Hurst says. “That’s nice when you have 24/7 operations for that particular factor you need to do.” However for duties that don’t must run across the clock, a versatile robotic might be extra productive.
Boston Dynamics places it a special manner. With factories already designed to be a secure place for automation, the corporate says it constructed Atlas with a watch towards making a robotic that would go in every single place else. “We dwell in a human-first world,” Neelon says, “so we should always construct a robotic that displays that.”
However there are challenges to getting humanoid robots to market. Tesla’s Optimus has been closely anticipated because the firm first introduced it in 2021, however a demo in October drew issues when the robots on show have been revealed to be human-controlled, elevating questions concerning the extent to which Optimus might perform autonomously. In January, Musk stated the corporate was set to construct “a number of thousand” robots over the course of 2025—however in April he told investors manufacturing might be impacted by the restrictions on rare-earth steel exports China applied in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.