China’s CATL marks trailblazing deployment of humanoid robots at scale on the factory floor

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has started deploying humanoid robots at scale within its Zhongzhou production base in Luoyang, a city in central Henan province.\nThe company on Wednesday described its deployment at scale as a “world’s first”, as humanoid robots built by start-up Spirit AI performed complex tasks with speeds that matched those of skilled human workers.\nSpirit AI’s Xiaomo robots have been assigned to plug in high-voltage battery connectors on the assembly line, according to CATL. This traditionally manual part of EV battery production had long been considered a security risk for human workers.\nPowered by CATL batteries, the Xiaomo robots are equipped with a Vision-Language-Action artificial intelligence model that enables them to recognise changes in their environment, such as a different plug-in position, and adjust their grip in real time.\nApart from achieving a 99 per cent success rate at its plug-in task on CATL’s factory floor, Xiaomo’s daily workload was also triple that of a human worker because these machines work without any breaks, according to the company.\nCATL said it would further improve the level of automation and intelligence at its factories, while pushing for broader adoption of embodied AI – AI systems that are integrated into physical bodies, such as robots or autonomous machines.\n\nCATL’s latest factory initiative underscored the growing use of intelligent Chinese-made robots in the country’s manufacturing industry, accelerating automation and boosting efficiency in major enterprises.\nA number of Chinese carmakers have already made a foray into humanoid robot manufacturing to sharpen their edge in the global EV supply chain.\nState-owned Changan Automobile, for example, announced in late November its 225 million yuan (US$31.8 million) acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in Changan Tianshu Intelligent Robotics Technology. The carmaker said it would release its humanoid robot prototypes from 2026, as well as its first in-vehicle robot next quarter.\nGuangzhou-based EV maker Xpeng last month unveiled its next-generation humanoid robot called Iron, drawing praise from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Xpeng said it targeted sales of 1 million Iron units by 2030.\nChina’s car factories appear to be an ideal fit for humanoid robots.\nIn March, Shenzhen-based UBTech Robotics completed a test to deploy dozens of its Walker S1 robots in the Zeekr EV factory in Ningbo, a port city in eastern Zhejiang province.\nShanghai-based AgiBot in August agreed to deploy its A2-W wheeled dual-armed manufacturing robots at the facilities of Fulin Precision, where it would assign nearly 100 robots across the car parts maker’s factories.\n