Are Humanoid Robots the Processing and Packaging Labor Force of The Future?

A closer look at Digit, Agility Robotic's humanoid robot created for manufacturing tasks.Agility Robotics.“Digit is really good at moving box-like or tote-like containers; that’s Digit’s superpower. It gets trickier when we talk about stacks of things or individual objects that we have to potentially pinch. A lot of Digit’s manipulation is more like tongs, less like bi-manual hands,” says Wise.

Sanctuary AI says that Phoenix is in the pilot stage, yet is ready for real-life application and can learn from demonstration by users wearing a VR headset to “show” the robot a new task. This remote control allows workers to operate the robot from home, decreasing their need to be on site, or from handling the task themselves. Sanctuary demonstrated the potential of robot remote work with a pilot test at a retail store in January where a human guided the robot through 100 tasks.

If a humanoid robot can stand security, make a cocktail, and move totes around, can it package products too? Can it operate an HMI on a packaging machine?

“Not only could Phoenix fill one of those roles, it could be used to perform any and all of them, which is unique,” says Sanctuary AI’s Rose. “Historically, many of the popular and successful robots that we’ve seen over the last several years have been on the special-purpose end of the spectrum. For example, an automated case labeling machine could perform the singular task of labeling boxes repeatedly, but by design these use cases are exclusive. At Sanctuary AI, we’re doing something entirely different — we’re building general-purpose robots that can do any work a person might be reasonably expected to do.”

Check out Phoenix filling boxes and sorting items.

Humanoid robots like Phoenix offer users the flexibility of deploying the robot to automate any pressing task at any pressing time.Sanctuary AIIt turns out many humanoid robots can handle both changeover and operating an HMI. These general-purpose robots, like Apollo, have the capability to manage the HMI interface (depending on what’s on the screen) and handle changeover, but due to its sophisticated technology, may not need to interface with the HMI like us humans.

“The robot can directly connect to the back end… it doesn’t necessarily need a touchscreen interface like we do because it can just connect to the computer,” says Cardenas.

When I reached out to Melonee Wise of Agility Robotics, she expressed the same idea.

“Most likely Digit would just do it telepathically… Digit would most likely look at a system without even having to look at the touchscreen, and just ask the system and the network it’s connected to. That’s how we do it today,” says Wise.

So, while some humanoids like Phoenix can operate an HMI just like we can, others can simply “talk” to the machine directly and skip the screen altogether.

Future Functionality Is Promising

Today, most of the humanoid robotic companies I spoke with are still in the pilot phase of deployment or are testing use cases with select customers (whom they won’t disclose the names of). Apptronik is currently looking for more companies to partner with to pilot the robots and come up with initial use cases that the company says can then prove out the ROI. Once proved out, the company says its working to scale quickly and in doing so, more robots that can perform more tasks will be available in the near term. Cardenas has been quoted saying that full production is slated for the end of 2024.

“We’re at the entry point now, but these robots will get better and better over time. As one is learning on a specific task, the whole fleet is improving over time. The industry will improve dramatically over the next 3-5 years,” says Cardenas.

Wise says that Agility is partnering with customers, doing “pilots that are transitioning to POs.” She says that while she can’t talk about specific customers right now, there are “POs in play.”

Apollo is a human-like robot that is designed for use in manufacturing.ApptronikNow, the company is working with customers to get Digit out into more manufacturing facilities, in addition to Amazon, to fill automation gaps and manufacturing challenges. The company has shown that Digit can unload and load totes and put them on a conveyor to help bridge automation gaps between what Wise describes as “islands of automation.” These humanoids can take over where manual labor is required, for example, in between the islands of automation spread out throughout a plant. 

“The mixture of mobility and manipulation is very powerful,” says Wise.

The company is exploring palletizing/depalletizing tasks for Digit in the future, but for now Digit’s superpower remains loading and unloading totes.

“Our focus is in machine-assisted tote unload and load… that tends to be cross-cutting across verticals from e-commerce, logistics, and manufacturing,” says Wise.

Robots as a Labor Solution

So, what’s driving adoption of humanoids in the workplace? Experts agree that the number one motivator is labor shortages, followed by the desire to remove ergonomically challenging tasks off human workers.

“It comes down to the labor gap. You’ve got about a million jobs unfilled in logistics, material handling, manufacturing. And when we talk to customers, their big pain point is that 1 in 3 people don’t show up for a shift, and they have 20 open jobs… they just need to get the work done,” says Wise.

“We see a massive opportunity here given there’s such a clear need for labor in manufacturing,” says Sanctuary AI’s Rose. “At the onset of the pandemic, the manufacturing industry lost roughly 1.4 million jobs and currently has around 700,000 job openings, representing 7% of the overall 9.9 million job vacancies in the U.S. Our robots are designed to help address labor shortages across industries, including manufacturing and packaging, as well as take on roles that are boring or unsafe for people.”

Removing dangerous tasks and filling the labor gap is one thing, but then there’s increasing throughput. Since robots can perform strenuous or repetitive tasks longer than humans, without the need for a break, Wise says that general throughput of humanoid robots is higher than that of human workers. But there is the issue of battery life and charge time. While some companies I researched reports four hours of battery life, Digit lasts about two hours depending on what Digit is doing, and it takes about one hour to charge. Agility says that it is working on improving the battery life, but also pointed out that typically, companies deploy a fleet of Digits so while one is charging, others are working. 

Are Humanoid Robots the Future of Packaging? 

The functionality and capabilities are clearly there for humanoids to be deployed successfully in various places along the packaging line and the evidence supports that they can help solve today’s workforce issues and provide automated labor where needed.

So, the final question is this. Is there a future where humanoid robots are used more and more in packaging facilities? While not too surprisingly, the robot manufacturers are more optimistic about this future than the CPGs I spoke with.

“The idea of using humanoid robots in the packaging facilities has not crossed my mind but humanoid robots do present good opportunity,” says Daniela Garcia, a packaging engineer in the dairy industry. “They have potential for implementation in areas where repetitive motions that cause fatigue over time are common. My mind goes to the loading of case packer magazines or the general replenishing of materials for equipment that is manually loaded today. Although this is the initial thought, such implementation requires thorough understanding of the limits and capabilities of humanoid robots.”

Camron Franklin, senior parcel account manager, Conveyor Solutions, agrees that there is value in taking repetitive motions off human workers, but the question on everybody’s mind is cost.

Digit uses its claw-like hands to grab and move empty tote boxes, removing this mundane and repetitive task off human workers.Agility RoboticsMany robot manufacturers like Sanctuary AI and Apptronik will be deploying their robots through a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model where customers can lease the robots for an ongoing fee. Pricing varies based on the size of the operation and complexity of the tasks being performed and companies I spoke with are not eager to give out exact numbers. Even a Google search won’t net you exact numbers on humanoid robot pricing.

Cardenas from Apptronik says that deploying them as RaaS is meant to offer the robots at a price comparable with the “rates of existing workers” by offering them at a “salaried” rate.

“The target is, long-term, to produce a system that costs less than $50,000 per year—and what that does is open up the range of different opportunities, but we’re not there yet today. That’s the goal, and that’s part of the design of Apollo to enable that,” says Cardenas.

Robots-as-service is helpful for companies and allows them to try the robots out and learn their capabilities, without a large up-front investment.

Right now, Agility is selling Digit CapX plus Saas, but will go to a RaaS model in the future. According to Wise, as expected, the robots are “pretty expensive,” and she cannot publicly talk about price at this time.  

What about repair and maintenance? Apptronik says that right now it is doing all its own service and maintenance but is looking to partner with third party providers that are already doing a lot of maintenance for other automation systems at scale. But general-purpose robots like Apollo and Digit are created to be easy to maintain.

“One of the keys for a robot like Apollo is for it to be easy to maintain, easy to swap out parts, and modularity is a big focus for us as we move ahead to enable that,” says Cardenas.

Wise also says Digit was created to easily change out parts on the robots, simplifying maintenance and service. But what about TCO (total cost of ownership) or ROI?

“Based on a 10-hr, two-shift operation that runs 5-6 days a week, we can achieve a payback, or ROI, of less than two years,” says Wise.

If labor shortages continue, and robot prices decrease, a robotic humanoid future becomes a little more plausible. While exactly what humanoid robot adoption will look like remains to be seen, the interviews I conducted helped me to realize a not-so-far-off future where these robots can fill in gaps along the packaging line. “I think higher robotic use in inevitable, but the use case for something like this would need to be for a very large organization,” says Matthew Lebo, Director of Operations at Kroma Wellness, a superfoods and wellness brand. “That said, further robotic adoption is likely going to happen. Will it look exactly like that, it's hard to say.

We’re clearly in the early days for general purpose robots as most are not yet available for purchase, or hire, in large quantities, or with the exact skillset CPGs may be looking for. But these robotics companies are working hard on the technology to get them ready for scale and improve functionality in manufacturing, logistics, and even packaging.

As with all trends and new technology, time will have to tell us how broadly this will be adopted and in what capacity.

What do you think? Would you be interested in deploying humanoids on your line? Let us know what you think and stay tuned for part two of the humanoid workforce article series where we look at the powerful AI technology behind the robot.