China Leads the Way! Without Humanoid Robots, Economic Strength is at Stake

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For the vast majority of decision-makers in German industry, humanoid robots are drivers of innovation for the automation of the future. But it needs to move faster ...

Around 82 percent of the industrial respondents believe that Germany should intensify the development and promotion of humanoid robots (short Humanoids) following China's example. This is the finding of the Automatica Trend Index 2026, as reported. For this survey, a total of 100 specialists and executives in Germany, responsible for decisions on the use of robotics and automation in their companies, were interviewed on behalf of Automatica. “China has been consistently pursuing a national robotics strategy for years to systematically harness the opportunities of modern automation,” notes Patrick Schwarzkopf, Managing Director of the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association. And the five-year plan recently presented by Beijing now places "intelligent" robotics at the center of its development goals. With humanoids, a new chapter is thus being opened. The goal is to develop embodied intelligence where AI software is interconnected with physical robotics. This opens up entirely new practical applications of artificial intelligence for automation.

Without Robots, Germany's Competitiveness Suffers

Smart robotics is also considered a central innovation field in Germany, as it turns out. 78 percent of respondents believe that the use of AI in robotics and automation is indispensable for the competitiveness of German industry. According to the trend index, humanoid robots are already considered an important addition to industrial manufacturing by many (85 percent). And this is despite the fact that, for 68 percent of respondents, they are still mostly in pilot projects without a widely established field of application. "Humanoid robotics is certainly a particularly striking example when AI meets physical systems, as AI interacts with the real world in a human-like form," comments Anja Schneider, Exhibition Director of the Automatica trade fair. Even now, it can be confidently assumed that Physical AI and humanoid robotics will be the top topics at next year's fair.

Pilot Project Launched

Humanoid Robots in Series Production at BMW in Leipzig 

Germany Ranks 3rd in the World Rankings for Humanoids

Humanoid robot platforms thus exemplify the automation of the future, where competencies from different disciplines are combined. This refers to the expertise of traditional mechanical engineering, merged with modern control technology, sensor technology, and AI-based software development. For so-called physical AI, realistic manufacturing data that can be captured and processed via sensors is crucial. Germany, with its highly developed production sites, already possesses excellent conditions to take a leading position when it comes to humanoids. With 449 installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees, Germany has one of the highest robot densities worldwide. According to an analysis by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Germany ranks on the podium, albeit in third place, behind South Korea and Singapore.