CES 2025 has been a combined bag for humanoid robots. The shape issue had a watershed second, as photos of the highest gamers flanked NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang throughout his Monday keynote.
Of those, Agility’s Digit additionally confirmed up alongside a miniature conveyer belt at a closed entry NVIDIA sales space. It was a pleasant return for the bipedal robotic, an older type of which appeared at CES 2020 as a part of Ford’s showcase.
Past this, humanoid illustration has largely been restricted to smaller firms, except Apptronik. The Austin agency’s Apollo robotic made an look as a part of Texas Devices’ presence on the present. The humanoid makes use of a number of the Dallas-based semi-conductor large’s modules internally.
After a couple of close to misses, this was the primary time I’ve seen Apollo in-person. When Apptronik confirmed TechCrunch the first footage of the robotic in 2023, I needed to double verify that it wasn’t an animated render. There’s one thing different worldly in regards to the robotic. It’s actually refreshing, as a lot of the competitors has provided comparable aesthetic visions for humanoids: darkish, sterile, even apocalyptic.
Apollo is brilliant and nearly cartoony, with a pair of huge eyes and a head form that brings again heat recollections of early iMacs. Like different first-gen humanoids, Apollo will largely concentrate on manufacturing unit work, however simply because it’s destined for an industrial setting doesn’t imply it needs to be unwelcoming and chilly.
Apollo’s actions have been easy, and the robotic even hammed it up for the digital camera as I snapped some images. It must be famous, nevertheless, that this was an especially restricted pick-and-place demo that exists for demonstration functions solely. This was not the clever, autonomous model of the robotic set to be deployed in factories.
Notably, Apptronik started manufacturing unit pilots with Mercedes in March, following the announcement of comparable offers between Determine and BMW and Agility and Amazon.
