Are humanoid robots really happening in manufacturing and the warehouse? And does it even make sense to design them that way? Melonee Wise, chief product officer with Agility Robotics, describes the practical applications.

Humanoid robots in warehouses are here. “Today, there actually are real-world deployments,” Wise says. “There are a lot of players in the space working toward that goal…. They’re working, solving problems, hitting ROIs.”

The question has to be asked: Does it make any sense to design a robot based on the human form? Does it deliver optimal stability, reliability and efficiency? Wise replies by pointing out that “humanoid” robots don’t necessarily share the same attributes as humans. Most “are somewhat superhuman. They can lift payloads, have much longer reaches, and more degrees of freedom in their legs. Some have reverse knees or birdlike architectures.”

The decision to equip a robot with wheels or legs comes down to “what you’re trying to solve,” Wise says. In addition, the unit must be dynamically stable, but not so large that it takes up extra space in the aisles. “No one wants to give you more square footage.”

Even the concept of a “humanoid” arm carries some nuance. “I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to try and copy the human hand,” Wise says. In fact, she notes, no robotic hand developed in recent years has had five fingers. The best approach in many instances, she says, is to equip the unit with interchangeable hands, giving it the flexibility to handle a variety of objects with varying degrees of sensitivity.

Safety remains a major concern with humanoid robots. Work remains to be done on human detection in a warehouse setting. Even today’s heavily deployed autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), while equipped with collision-avoidance systems, can’t detect the specific presence of a person, Wise says. “They just know an object is there, [and] not to hit anything.”