Once again, reality imitating fiction: currently, a series of companies are working on the development of humanoid robots for use in various scenarios. China wants to start mass-producing them by 2025 to become the “economic engine” of the country. At Tesla, the idea is to start marketing them, for prices below $20,000, for all kinds of services, such as rescue in salvage operations, in difficult or dangerous situations for people, such as natural disasters, hurricanes, or earthquakes, and in heavy work.
Now, BMW has also announced that it will incorporate humanoid robots from the start-up Figure into its Spartanburg factory in South Carolina, United States.
The German brand is still studying the areas of action for these machines, but points out that they should start taking care of repetitive and more difficult tasks on assembly lines, with the aim of increasing productivity.
Currently, there are 11,000 flesh-and-blood employees at the Spartanburg plant.
Robert Engelhorn, director of the BMW Group’s Munich factory, commented: “The automotive industry, and with it vehicle production, is evolving rapidly. BMW Manufacturing is committed to integrating innovative technologies into our production systems to drive our future as a leader and innovator in the industry. The use of general-purpose robotic solutions has the potential to make productivity more efficient, meet the growing demands of our consumers, and enable our team to focus on the transformation that is to come.”
In the current stage of development, the ‘bots’ from the start-up Figure can already serve coffee on their own:
Source: Reuters
