By bringing robotics into a live sporting environment, Hyundai Motor is advancing its 'Progress for Humanity' vision while demonstrating how robotics innovation can create meaningful experiences for people around the world.

“As part of Hyundai's 'Next Starts Now' campaign, we wanted Atlas's performance on the world's biggest stage to demonstrate that the future isn't something we imagine – it starts now. At Hyundai, we are committed to developing human-centered innovation that integrates seamlessly into everyday life, and to presenting a new vision of future mobility expanded through robotics, showing that robotics can be a trusted partner in humanity's progress through diverse and creative brand experiences,"  commented Sungwon Jee, executive cice president and global chief marketing officer, Hyundai Motor Company

At halftime, Atlas emerged from the player tunnel, capturing the crowd’s attention with a sequence of iconic goal celebrations inspired by some of the world’s most celebrated footballers, including Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Matheus Cunha, and Son Heung-min. The performance heightened the stadium atmosphere while underscoring Atlas’ advanced mobility and expressive capabilities. 

Following the performance, Atlas delivered the ceremonial match ball to the referee with its signature precision and control, marking the start of the second half. The activation unfolded live before a global audience, showcasing Atlas’ ability to execute highly coordinated movements and operate reliably within the dynamic, real-world environment of a major international sporting event.

Atlas' halftime performance was powered by several core robotics capabilities that enable advanced movement and real-world interaction:

• Retargeting Technology – Allows Atlas to translate and adapt human movements, including football celebrations and gestures, to its own robotic form.
• Reinforcement Learning – Uses thousands of simulations to train and refine movements before deployment.
• Whole-Body Control – Coordinates movement across the robot's entire body, enabling fluid, balanced and dynamic motion.

Together, these capabilities allow Atlas to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks while adapting to changing conditions and environments.

“At Boston Dynamics we have always taken inspiration from human athletic feats like gymnastics, dancing, parkour and now football to push forward the frontier of what robots can do in a way that connects with people. Working with Hyundai Motor group and FIFA to create such a unique moment for fans was an exciting challenge for our team. The way we trained Atlas to perform these fun movements at the match is similar to how we teach the robot to take on real-world industrial applications. It’s a great way to introduce people everywhere to the incredible potential of today's AI-enabled robots," said Alberto Rodriguez, director of robotics behaviour at Boston Dynamics.

www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en

Questions about the updated robot safety standard ISO 10218 are becoming increasingly common in the robotics industry. Central to the discussion are CE certification requirements in Europe, as ISO 10218 is the key safety standard for industrial robots under the CE marking framework. In this insight, we discuss the regulatory direction of the new standard, differences in manufacturer readiness, and potential implications for the European and US robotics markets.
 
ISO 10218:2025 is the updated industrial robot safety standard and will become mandatory for CE-marked products under the new European Machinery Regulation. The legal transition is expected around 2027, although weakness in European manufacturing demand and potential cost pressures on SMEs may push full implementation beyond this timeline. Unlike Europe’s binding CE framework, the equivalent US standard update is voluntary, though effective compliance remains commercially necessary.

Established global vendors are largely prepared, while mid-sized and emerging suppliers show notable gaps in their readiness. Once adopted, the new standard is expected to strengthen established vendors’ competitive position and increase market access risks for those suppliers that are less well prepared.

Regulatory transition already underway

The regulatory picture is shifting in a clear direction. In Europe, the current legislative instrument, Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, will be superseded by Machinery Regulation EU 2023/1230 on 20 January 2027. However, the timing of one critical supporting step remains uncertain: the formal listing of ISO 10218:2025 in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This is a prerequisite for the standard to obtain full legal effect under the new regulation. Once this process is complete, ISO 10218:2025 will become a mandatory requirement for market access in Europe.

Historically, when the 2011 edition of ISO 10218 was introduced, the harmonisation process and OJEU listing took more than a year to complete. If a similar timeline is followed, the 2025 revision sits close to the 2027 regulatory transition deadline, with the process still ongoing as of mid-2026.

In the US, the A3 Association and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) jointly released the updated safety standard R15.06-2025 in September 2025, aligning it with the international ISO standards. However, unlike the European framework, ANSI standards are voluntary consensus standards and do not represent legally binding market access requirements.

Market under pressure

The European robotics market is currently operating in a relatively subdued demand environment. The market experienced contraction from 2023 to 2025, constrained by a slowdown in the overall manufacturing industry, particularly the automotive sector. Industrial end-users have adopted a cautious investment approach and face ongoing cost pressures, particularly among small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In the near-term, the safety standard update requires additional investment from robot vendors to achieve compliance. However, suppliers that absorb this transition effectively will be better positioned to serve an increasingly safety-conscious European customer base, particularly as demand recovers.

In the US market, the new safety standard is comparatively more flexible as a voluntary industry framework. However, major customers and system integrators often require ANSI/RIA compliance in procurement specifications, and regulatory bodies such as OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) may use it as a reference benchmark in enforcement. In practice, failure to follow these standards can still result in heavy penalties if an accident occurs, and, as a result, compliance is realistically necessary for vendors targeting the US market.

Although the US robotics market has shown signs of recovery since the second half of 2025, external pressures, particularly geopolitical tensions and high oil prices, continue to weigh on the pace of improvement. Within this environment, regulatory alignment and compliance efforts represent one of several operational considerations for market participants.

Preparedness varies sharply across suppliers

Our interviews with robot manufacturers reveal a clear divergence in readiness for the new safety standard:

• Established global vendors, including the major international players and leading collaborative robot brands, are well aware of the upcoming changes and broadly claim to be prepared for the new standard.
• Mid-sized and emerging suppliers show significant awareness gaps. Even some manufacturers based in Europe appear less prepared, with limited visibility into the specific requirements of ISO 10218:2025.
• Emerging Asian suppliers, particularly those from China entering or looking to expand in the European market, are notably less prepared. For many of these, compliance requirements and associated R&D costs represent a significant and underestimated barrier.

If ISO 10218:2025 is formally adopted in Europe ahead of the 2027 deadline, the compliance dynamic is likely to reinforce the market position of established global players, which have the resources and institutional knowledge to manage the transition. For newer Asian entrants, it creates a meaningful headwind at a time when many are investing heavily in European market expansion.

That said, broader weakness in European manufacturing demand and potential cost pressures on SMEs may push full legal transition beyond 2027.

In the US, the robotics market remains dominated by established suppliers such as Fanuc. The new safety standard is likely to add incremental pressure for emerging players, alongside existing challenges such as tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty, but it is not the sole determining factor. Overall, the standard update is expected to favour better-prepared, established vendors and further strengthen their market positions.

Our view

The direction of travel is clear. ISO 10218:2025 reflects improved safety requirements that are in the long-term interest of the industry and robot end-users. In Europe, it remains uncertain whether full legal transition will be completed by 2027, given subdued market conditions. However, once implementation occurs, suppliers that are well prepared will be positioned to benefit, while underprepared companies may face market access disruption. As a result, robot manufacturers and system integrators of all sizes should treat preparation as a strategic priority rather than a compliance afterthought.

interact-analysis.prezly.com

The agreement will see the two parties combine controls, automation and machine safety expertise with decades of robotic systems’ experience to deliver robotic cell solutions for applications, including automated destrapping and coil handling, blade coating, dross removal, and integrated marking and labelling systems. Available solutions also feature intelligent end-of-arm tooling, machine vision and sensing technologies – all fully engineered with safety systems firmly in mind.

“We recognised very quickly that there was a strong alignment between our two businesses,” explained Andy Bunce, technical sales director at iconsys. “Tebulo Robotics brings extensive expertise in advanced robotic applications for heavy industry, whilst we provide the systems integration and machine safety capabilities needed to successfully deploy those technologies into complex manufacturing environments.”

UK industry has historically been slower to adopt robotics than many European competitors, but manufacturers are now facing increasing pressure around productivity, labour availability, safety and operational resilience.

What makes this partnership particularly powerful is that every solution is engineered around the customer’s operational challenges. We are designing fully integrated robotic solutions that fit within existing production environments whilst improving safety, consistency and performance in the process.”

As a technology-independent systems integrator, iconsys will support the integration of Tebulo Robotics’ technologies into both existing and new manufacturing environments, covering software, electrical systems, functional safety, mechanical guarding, installation and commissioning.

The two companies believe there is significant potential for this partnership and have already started to collaborate on a major automation project for a leading UK steel manufacturer.

Jeroen Baas, account manager at Tebulo Robotics, concluded: “The UK represents a major growth market for advanced industrial robotics, particularly within heavy industry where manufacturers are increasingly looking to modernise operations and improve competitiveness.

“We have already seen how effectively our technologies and engineering capabilities complement the integration expertise of iconsys. This partnership gives UK manufacturers greater access to proven robotic technologies that are already delivering results across demanding industrial applications throughout Europe.”

Founded in 1974, Tebulo Robotics has been involved in industrial robotics since the 1990s and now has more than 500 robotic systems installed across Europe.

www.iconsys.co.uk/

Advanced manufacturing uses innovative techniques and technologies, including automation, artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing, to improve productivity, precision and sustainability in production. Additive manufacturing builds components layer by layer from a digital file. Unlike traditional manufacturing, which cuts or shapes material, additive processes can produce complex parts quickly, with less waste. In the submarine context, subject to appropriate legal, safety and quality considerations, this includes using handheld scanners to create precise digital replicas of existing components and printing those components using stainless steel, as well as other techniques and materials.

Sourcing replacement components for submarines can involve lengthy supply chains and extended lead times. This can increase the time required alongside for a vessel waiting for parts that are obsolete, or no longer commercially available within operational timescales.

The AdM team was established as part of the SDG’s Platform Equipment Delivery Team (PEDT) in February 2024 to address this challenge directly. Championed by Sir Chris Gardner KBE, Director General SDG, the team’s role is to harness advanced and additive manufacturing to improve submarine availability, capability, and delivery across all programmes — predominantly in in-service submarines but also including the submarine build programmes.

The Market Access Cell

A central part of the team’s work is the Market Access Cell, which manages demand signals from ship’s staff and joint planning teams when components are unavailable, or lead times are too long. When a demand signal is received, the team works with QinetiQ, the SDG Design Authority, and other in-service teams to identify the best manufacturing solution and get the component to the submarine as quickly as possible.

One method of creating the digital design files for components uses handheld scanners, operated by QinetiQ engineers, to capture precise measurements of components on board. They are converted into digital files that can be used to manufacture bespoke replacements. This is particularly valuable for one-off or legacy parts where no existing design file exists.

Shipping containers have now arrived at HM Naval Base Clyde, providing an on-site additive manufacturing capability that includes metal printing, scanning equipment, and dedicated engineering workspace. Two of the containers are custom-designed by QinetiQ, based on the requirements of the PEDT.

QinetiQ staff will operate the facility alongside ship’s staff and the Submarine Flotilla (SUBFLOT) Engineering Support Group for the first twelve months. Ship’s staff are also receiving training to use the capability directly.

Max, a Commander in the Royal Navy and SDG additive manufacturing lead said: “This capability enhances our capacity to return submarines to service faster, directly supporting operational readiness.

“These deployable additive manufacturing workshops represent a significant advancement in how the Royal Navy supports submarine maintenance. By enabling engineers to produce components on-site, we are reducing dependence on complex supply chains and accelerating repair timelines, ultimately improving the submarine’s material state and availability.”

Supporting the Submarine Maintenance Recovery Plan

The deployable workshops and the broader additive manufacturing programme will support the Submarine Maintenance Recovery Plan (SMRP), which was launched by the First Sea Lord in January 2026. By bringing manufacturing capability to the front line, the programme supports a more agile and responsive maintenance model.

First Sea Lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, said: “The arrival of these deployable workshops marks a step forward in delivering the Submarine Maintenance Recovery Plan. This new technology has the potential to change how we maintain our submarines – cutting time alongside and increasing availability.  It represents the real, tangible, progress the Royal Navy is making to strengthen the underwater fleet.”

AUKUS and international collaboration

Additive manufacturing is also a key enabler of the AUKUS submarine partnership. The SDG is working with US and Australian submarine industrial bases to develop common material standards and requirements, enabling allied nations to share advanced manufacturing equipment and recognise each other’s qualified components.

This was demonstrated successfully at the UK Submarine Maintenance Period at HMAS Stirling in Australia in early 2026, where QinetiQ UK and QinetiQ Australia, working with Australian supply chain partners, produced additively manufactured parts that were approved for use on HMS Anson.

A trilateral advanced manufacturing landscape review is under way to map existing capabilities across the UK, US, and Australia to identify gaps, and determine how they can be exploited across all three nations’ submarine programmes. The review will inform the development of shared Defence Standards covering material requirements, which will eventually enable the qualification of higher-risk components such as valves.

The long-term ambition is for additive and advanced manufacturing to become business as usual across the submarine build, in-service, and disposal programmes. Future developments include:

• Qualifying higher-risk components, such as hull valves, through trilateral Defence Standards
• Optimising component designs digitally – not simply reproducing legacy parts, but improving performance, fatigue life, and other characteristics such as reducing weight
• Recycling additive materials recovered from decommissioned submarines
• Embedding additive manufacturing skills into training at the newly opened Royal Navy Submarine Training Centre at HMNB Clyde.

Max said: “Additive manufacturing is not a silver bullet, and it does not replace traditional supply chain methods. But it is absolutely about supplementing and augmenting current manufacturing to support submarine maintenance. It’s just another option that Chief Engineers and Duty Holders have when considering solutions – and one that will only become more capable over time.”

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence

For years, passwords have been treated as the first line of defence in cybersecurity. Yet despite increasingly complex password policies and multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements, password-related breaches continue to dominate the threat landscape, with phishing and stolen credentials remaining common attack methods. For manufacturing and engineering businesses operating across complex digital environments that span production systems and distributed supply chains, the authentication challenge is particularly acute.

According to IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, manufacturing accounted for 27.7 per cent of all cybersecurity incidents globally in 2025, retaining its position as the world’s most targeted industry for the fifth consecutive year. The figures highlight how cybercriminals continue to exploit weak, stolen and reused credentials as one of the easiest ways to gain access to corporate systems.

As organisations look for more phishing-resistant alternatives to traditional passwords, passkeys are increasingly emerging as a practical solution. As the NCSC explains, passkeys “only require user approval rather than needing to input a password”, making them “quicker and easier to use and harder for cyber attackers to compromise”. As a result, passkeys are increasingly being viewed as an important step towards strengthening identity protection and reducing password-related risk.

No password, no problem

A passkey is a cryptographic credential tied to a specific device and verified through something the user already does naturally: a fingerprint scan, a face recognition check or a device PIN. When a user authenticates with a passkey, a private key stored securely on their device signs a challenge from the server, without that key ever leaving the device. There is no shared secret to steal or phish.

The NCSC's new technical report confirms that passkeys are “at least as secure as, and generally more secure than, pairing the strongest password with two-step verification (2SV)”. Critically, the NCSC found that passkeys are highly resistant to phishing attacks and cannot be intercepted, reused or guessed in the way that passwords can. 

They also dramatically improve the user experience. Passkey logins can be completed significantly faster than the traditional username, password and verification code workflow. This removes the traditional trade-off between security and convenience.

Raising the Cyber Essentials baseline

The growing adoption of passkeys also aligns closely with frameworks like Cyber Essentials, which place increasing emphasis on access control, authentication integrity and protection against common attack techniques. While passkeys are not currently mandated within the certification itself, they directly support many of its underlying security principles by reducing organisational exposure to credential theft, and account compromise.

Manufacturing and engineering businesses contend with particularly wide authentication landscapes, where digital access spans everything from ERP and supply chain platforms to increasingly connected operational technology networks, creating multiple entry points for credential-based attacks.

For organisations pursuing Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus, identity security is becoming increasingly crucial as threat actors continue to target authentication layers rather than attempting to breach infrastructure directly. Traditional password policies and MFA remain important controls, but they still rely heavily on user behaviour and can be undermined through phishing or credential reuse. 

Many organisations still treat MFA as the end goal for identity security, when in reality attackers have already adapted their tactics around it. Security teams are therefore placing greater emphasis on limiting exposure to authentication methods vulnerable to credential compromise and social engineering.

This becomes particularly significant within hybrid and cloud-centric environments, where identities increasingly act as the gateway to critical systems and applications. In these environments, passkeys offer a more phishing-resistant authentication model that strengthens cyber resilience while supporting a more mature and forward-looking approach to governance and identity assurance.

The end of the password era

Passwords are unlikely to disappear entirely overnight, particularly as many manufacturing and engineering organisations continue to operate legacy systems and mixed authentication environments. However, the direction of travel is becoming increasingly clear. As identity-based attacks continue to rise and phishing techniques become more sophisticated, organisations are being forced to reconsider whether traditional passwords remain fit for purpose as a primary security control.

Passkeys reflect a wider shift towards phishing-resistant authentication and a more resilient security posture built around today's threat landscape. For manufacturing and engineering organisations serious about cyber resilience, moving beyond passwords is rapidly becoming a strategic priority, one that compliance pressures and the growing frequency of credential-based attacks are only accelerating.

Martin Wegrostek is cyber security portfolio manager at OryxAlign

www.oryxalign.com

Agility, a leading humanoid robotics and physical AI company, is the first to use NVIDIA Halos for Robotics to build safety into its humanoids working in factories, warehouses and logistics operations for customers including Amazon, GXO, Schaeffler and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.

The next generation of autonomous robots will operate in dynamic environments alongside humans, using AI foundation models, accelerated compute and distributed sensors. Scaling these systems requires a full-stack safety architecture.

NVIDIA Halos enables companies to rely on a standardized, unified safety architecture that connects AI compute, system software, sensor data, safety applications and inspection for robotic systems.

“Physical AI is transforming how factories, warehouses and logistics operations work, and robotics teams need a unified safety architecture to scale autonomous systems into these environments,” said Deepu Talla, vice president of robotics and edge AI at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA Halos for Robotics, developers and system builders can harness NVIDIA’s proven autonomous vehicle safety foundation to develop safer robots faster and bring them into industrial operations alongside workers with greater confidence.”

Drawing on 18,600+ engineering years of autonomous vehicle safety development, NVIDIA Halos for Robotics provides developers with a common safety architecture for building, validating and deploying physical AI systems.

The system spans the key layers needed for robot safety:

• NVIDIA IGX Thor and NVIDIA Holoscan Sensor Bridge provide industrial-grade AI compute, built-in safety and sensor connectivity for real-time robotics and safety workloads.
• NVIDIA Halos OS provides the software stack for robotics safety, including Halos Core to support safety-related operating functions and safety applications built with the NVIDIA Halos Outside-In Safety Blueprint, which extends robot perception using external cameras and AI agents to dynamically control robot behavior in industrial settings.
• The NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab is the world’s first ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB)-accredited program for functional and AI safety for physical AI, helping partners prepare Halos integrations for third-party certification by leading certification bodies including TÜV Rheinland, UL Solutions, TÜV SÜD, exida, SGS and CertX.

“As AI-enabled robotics moves into industrial environments, the industry needs standardized, internationally recognized frameworks to assess safety across increasingly complex systems,” said Laurie E. Locascio, president and CEO of ANSI. “ANAB’s accreditation of the NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab confirms the program has the competence and impartiality to evaluate robotic AI systems against recognized safety requirements, giving companies a rigorous and internationally recognized foundation for their path to certification.”

Agility incorporates Halos for industrial humanoids

Humanoid robots are designed to operate in dynamic environments alongside workers, equipment and other robots that are constantly in motion. That requires safety engineered for every layer of the stack.

Agility is extending its leadership in humanoid safety by teaming with NVIDIA to integrate NVIDIA IGX Thor and Halos Core into its proprietary safe human detection system for its humanoid robot Digit, which is designed for industrial work in logistics, manufacturing and warehouse operations. For Digit, NVIDIA IGX Thor delivers industrial-grade AI compute with built-in safety capabilities, while Halos Core supports the software layer for safety-related operating functions.

Agility will also participate in the NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab. Together, Agility and NVIDIA will use the lab to ensure Digit’s safety-related software, AI components and cybersecurity protections meet rigorous standards such as IEC 61508, ISO 13849 and ISO/IEC TR 5469 before final third-party certification.

“For humanoids to deliver value at scale, safety has to be built into the robot and validated across the entire system,” said Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility. “Partnering with NVIDIA to implement and optimize the Halos for Robotics system extends our leadership in responsible automation, which is a nonnegotiable requirement for bringing humanoids safely into industrial workflows. This collaboration unlocks true human-robot teamwork, driving the long-term returns that will power next-generation manufacturing and logistics operations.”

A robotics safety ecosystem built for scale

The NVIDIA Halos for Robotics ecosystem brings together partners across software, systems, sensors and silicon, industrial applications and certification bodies to support safety from development through deployment:

• Software: Acontis, FreeRTOS and QNX support the real-time operating environment, safety communications and embedded software layers needed for functional safety development.
• Embedded systems: Advantech and NexCobot deliver safety-designed NVIDIA IGX-based systems for robotics deployments.
• Sensors and silicon: Infineon, NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments contribute sensor, safety microcontroller and other semiconductor technologies.
• Industrial applications: FORT Robotics, Inventec, KION Group, Lyte AI and Neurealm are developing functional safety agents using the NVIDIA Halos Outside-In Safety Blueprint.
• Assessment Agencies: TÜV Rheinland is inspecting NVIDIA IGX Thor, Halos OS and Holoscan Sensor Bridge for functional safety certification readiness, building on TÜV SÜD’s inspection of Thor SoC and Halos Core for ISO 26262.

The NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab includes more than 40 companies across manufacturers, certification bodies and safety vendors working to move safe physical AI systems from design to real-world deployment. TÜV Rheinland, TÜV SÜD, UL Solutions, exida, SGS and CertX all recognize the NVIDIA Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab as part of their certification process.

NVIDIA Halos Core for NVIDIA IGX is available in early access for registered developers in Linux and Linux plus QNX OS for Safety 8.0 configurations. The open source NVIDIA Halos Outside-In Safety Blueprint, part of the Halos Applications layer of Halos OS, is now available in early access on GitHub.

www.nvidia.com/en-gb/

ENERGY PERFORMANCE does not come from individual initiatives. It comes from operations that were designed with energy in mind at every level. The manufacturers who come through this strongest will be the ones who used digital tools not just to cut costs, but to redesign how they operate—treating the virtual twin not as a project deliverable, but as operational infrastructure.

As we all know, in the fast-paced world of High-Tech, change is the only constant. Whether it’s a sudden shift in market demand, a new regulatory requirement or an engineering change order (ECO), manufacturing engineers are under immense pressure to quickly adapt. But for many, change is synonymous with risk, delays and skyrocketing costs.

What if complexity was no longer a barrier? What if every change you made was, in fact, a “non-event?”

The high-tech paradox: Innovation vs. Execution

High-tech companies face a unique set of challenges. Products are becoming increasingly complex, blending mechanical, electrical, and software components. At the same time, the industry is grappling with skilled labour shortages, supply chain disruptions, and the constant need to protect intellectual property (IP).

Traditional manufacturing planning—relying on spreadsheets and physical prototypes—is struggling to keep up. Research by Tech Clarity shows that:

- 25% of manufacturing engineering time is wasted on non-value-added activities like rekeying or searching for data.

- The cost of physical prototypes and late-stage engineering changes can cripple product profitability.

- Discovering a manufacturability issue during the production phase is exponentially more expensive than finding it in a virtual environment.

Enter the virtual twin: The “non-event” enabler

A Virtual Twin is not just a 3D model; it is a dynamic, science-based representation of the product, processes, resources and operating context across the manufacturing lifecycle, integrating the knowledge and know-how needed to create and run it in the real world. By connecting the virtual and real worlds, DELMIA allows engineers to validate manufacturability before a single piece of equipment is commissioned.

Here is how the Virtual Twin transforms change into a non-event:

1. Shifting Left: Finding Issues Sooner

Top performers in the industry are 65% more likely to identify physical issues during the design phase. By “shifting left,” they use 3D simulation to validate assembly processes, line balancing, and ergonomics early in the cycle. When a change is needed, it is tested virtually, ensuring that it works “first time right” when it hits the shop floor.

2. Eliminating the Prototype Bottleneck

Companies leveraging virtual simulation technologies can eliminate approximately one-third of their physical prototypes. This not only saves significant costs but also reduces time-to-market by 37%. Changes that once required weeks of physical testing can now be validated in a virtual afternoon.

3. Strengthening the Digital Thread

One of the biggest risks in high-tech is the loss of know-how and intellectual property, especially when working with contract manufacturers. A Virtual Twin creates a secure digital thread that connects all stakeholders from design through production on a shared platform. Top performers are 29% more likely to collaborate with contract manufacturers in this way, enabling a single source of truth with controlled access, full traceability and stronger protection of critical IP across the value chain.

The results: Efficiency, quality, and sustainability

The business value of this transformation is measurable. By adopting Virtual Twin solutions, manufacturers are seeing:

- 36% reduction in Engineering Change Orders (ECOs)

- 50% less spend on physical prototypes compared to their peers

- Improved sustainability and regulatory compliance through predictive analytics and simulation of production scenarios.

Is your organisation ready?

In the High-Tech industry, top performers are already using Virtual Twins to tame complexity and turn market volatility into a competitive advantage.

Don’t let your next change be a crisis. Solutions such as DELMIA’s Virtual Twin, can help to validate every move, upskill your workforce with immersive environments, and ensure that your next engineering change is exactly what it should be: a non-event.

So, is your manufacturing process agile enough to make your next big change a non-event?

Adrian Wood is director of strategic business development at DELMIA

www.3ds.com/products/delmia

Global humanoid robot production exceeded 20,000 units in 2025, a tenfold increase from fewer than 2,000 units in 2024. However, the vast majority were used for research, data collection, and entertainment. Only around 10% of units produced were deployed in real-world applications. While this represents a substantial increase from dozens of units in 2024, growth was driven more by an expanding customer base and increasingly diversified pilots than by scaled commercial deployments.

By the end of 2025, most real-world application projects remained small-scale proof-of-concept (POC) deployments, predominantly driven by government subsidies, strategic investments, and supply chain partnerships. The market still lacks large-scale, long-term deployments based purely on commercial rationale. Although cost reduction and efficiency improvements through automation may have been the original intent of many pilot projects, most had not progressed beyond short-term demonstrations and small-scale controlled operations.

Autonomous operation, return on investment realisation (requiring sufficient efficiency and task success rates), and multi-task-level generalisation capabilities still appear to form the “impossible triangle” that humanoid robots struggle to break through.

Chinese vendors lead humanoid robots production

China was the engine of both supply and the early adoption of humanoid robots during 2025. In terms of overall unit production, Chinese vendors’ share exceeds 90%, with the remainder largely from US manufacturers. In terms of adoptions, about 75% of humanoid robots were delivered in China. The disparity between domestic production and demand in China during 2025 is primarily due to significant overseas sales achieved by several Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers, with demand driven mainly by academic research and entertainment use.

The vendor landscape is also highly concentrated in China. The top 5 producers in 2025 were all Chinese manufacturers, collectively accounting for approximately 70% of global humanoid robot production. Unitree and Agibot each produced and shipped over 5,000 units, together surpassing 11,000 units and representing more than 50% of the global market.

However, today’s market concentration and leadership are driven by early research demand (including data collection for physical AI training), attempts to gain media attention, and curiosity-driven trials, rather than by proven commercial deployments. The robust material support provided by the Chinese government for humanoid robotics is the primary reason behind the aggressive expansion of Chinese vendors and the domestic market in 2025. We believe the competitive landscape is far from settled, given that both the market and the underlying technology remain in a very nascent, immature phase. It could still experience substantial dynamical change, with more established cross-industry players joining the field, such as leading automotive and consumer electronics vendors.

Commercial inflection point

Looking ahead, we believe the market is likely to continue growing, with annual volumes reaching thousands of units. The share of units deployed for real-world applications will increase gradually over time. However, in the short run, growth won’t be entirely driven by rational commercial considerations. It is primarily driven by numerous small-scale pilots at present, rather than large-scale commercial projects. Customers will be concentrated among well-capitalised companies and enterprises with capital and supply chain ties to humanoid robot companies, and government involvement will play a key role.

We believe that near-term deployments will remain predominantly semi-autonomous, with certain specific tasks still requiring rule-based control or human teleoperation. The latter is expected to achieve the first actual commercial deployment of humanoid robots in hazardous work scenarios and regions with significant regional labour cost disparities. In contrast, highly autonomous, AI-driven humanoid robots will initially be adopted in scenarios with greater tolerance for task speed and error rates.

Our field observations indicate deploying humanoid robots at scale for tangible workforce value remains constrained by critical usability gaps (including task reliability and efficiency insufficient to achieve ROI, and limited multi-tasking capabilities). Technical bottlenecks span immature embodied AI, severe physical data scarcity, and inadequate hardware endurance. Meanwhile, the absence of established safety standards and regulatory frameworks constitutes a key barrier to expanding humanoid robots into human-machine interactive settings.

Consequently, we expect the market will struggle to achieve a large-scale commercial inflection point across multiple domains within the next five years. A commercial inflection point is forecast post-2032, contingent on breakthroughs in autonomous and reliable task execution, acceptable ROI, and clearer regulatory environments. By 2035, global shipments for real-world applications are projected to exceed 700,000 units, with market revenue reaching approximately $15 billion.

Marco Wang is market analyst at Interact Analysis

interactanalysis.com
 

RECENT RESEARCH from Make UK found that approximately 36 %of manufacturing vacancies are difficult to fill due to candidates lacking the necessary skills, qualifications or experience. Collaborative robots are becoming an increasingly important tool for manufacturers in addressing this gap. By taking on repetitive, physically intensive and potentially hazardous tasks, cobots enable businesses to sustain production levels despite ongoing workforce challenges.

In addition to helping bridge labour gaps, cobots deliver consistent performance that supports improved productivity and product quality. What’s more, they allow human employees to concentrate on more complex value-adding activities that require problem-solving, judgement and expertise. Reduced physical strain can also contribute to improved workplace wellbeing, while intuitive programming lowers barriers to adoption by reducing training requirements and implementation times. For many manufacturers, these advantages help accelerate return on investment.

Navigating new regulations

Across manufacturing operations, cobots are increasingly utilised to streamline assembly processes and improve operational workflows. A 2024 study published in Frontiers in Robotics & AI showed that collaborative robots can boost productivity by automating repetitive activities while leaving more complex, cognitively demanding work to human operators. 

Adoption continues to grow, with the International Federation of Robotics estimating that 10.5% of all industrial robots installed in 2023 were cobots. Regulatory requirements are now evolving in parallel with technological progress. The EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, adopted in 2023 and scheduled to apply fully from January 2027, replaces the previous Machinery Directive. It introduces more robust expectations around safety, responsibility and cybersecurity for advanced machinery and collaborative systems. These changes encourage greater transparency and more rigorous conformity procedures, signalling that compliance and safe integration will become increasingly important considerations for automation projects.

For engineers, the implications extend directly to how collaborative robotic systems are designed, deployed and validated. Within logistics environments, cobots are increasingly used for palletising, order picking and intralogistics material handling. Technologies such as machine vision, force sensing and safety-rated scanners allow close human–robot interaction without the need for conventional safety cages. 

In automotive production, collaborative robots support tasks including precision assembly, screwdriving, machine tending and quality inspection, helping improve cycle-time consistency while reducing operator fatigue and ergonomic strain.

Successful integration depends on following established best practices. This includes carrying out task-specific risk assessments in accordance with ISO 12100 and ISO/TS 15066, implementing safety-rated monitored stop functions and speed-and-separation monitoring, and maintaining strong cybersecurity controls for connected robotic systems. Engineers should also consider modular architectures, standardised industrial communication protocols such as PROFINET and EtherCAT, and digital simulation platforms that enable layouts and workflows to be validated before installation.

Challenges in legacy manufacturing environments

Many manufacturing facilities continue to rely on ageing infrastructure and legacy equipment that was never designed with robotics in mind. Restricted floor plans, outdated systems and inconsistent connectivity can complicate introducing automation. If new technologies are not compatible with older assets, implementation can quickly become complex, time-consuming and expensive.

The success of collaborative automation depends on more than the robot itself. Programming, setup and configuration, software integration and ongoing maintenance may exceed the expertise of a team. Initial investment costs, from the initial equipment itself to any necessary facility upgrades and workforce training can also appear significant, particularly in today’s often turbulent economic landscape.

Traditional industrial robots, typically engineered for fixed and repetitive applications, often require extensive reprogramming in response to any changes in production requirements. The resulting downtime can rapidly undermine their benefit and limit long-term value. To overcome these limitations, manufacturers are increasingly turning to flexible automation strategies that emphasise rapid deployment, simple reconfigurability and scalable investment models, particularly within small and medium-sized operations.

For example, CubeBOX EcoLEAN-V1 and V2 are designed to be repositioned and reconfigured as production needs evolve. This adaptability enables manufacturers to expand automation gradually across their operation without committing to fixed production layouts. The approach reflects a wider industry move towards agile automation — solutions capable of evolving alongside changing operational demands. EcoLEAN is available in a range of configurations to accommodate different payloads, component sizes and space limitations, making it suitable for a variety of manufacturing settings.

The right investment

According to a 2025 Deloitte survey of 600 manufacturing executives, 80 per cent expect to allocate at least 20 per cent of their improvement budgets to smart manufacturing initiatives this year, with investment focused on foundational technologies and digital capabilities.

This level of commitment signals a clear industry shift: manufacturers are no longer viewing digitalisation and automation as optional upgrades, but as essential capabilities that will define competitiveness in the years ahead. This level of commitment is indicative of a broader shift in thinking across the sector. Manufacturers increasingly regard automation and digital transformation not as optional enhancements, but as critical capabilities that will shape competitiveness in years to come.

While collaborative technologies remain a major driver of this transition, factors such as flexibility, mobility and affordability will ultimately determine how manufacturing operates, how widely automation is adopted and who can benefit from its advantages.

Hakan Aydoğdu is CEO of Tezmaksan Robot Technologies

tezmaksanrobotics.com

NVIDIA AND LG Group are building an AI factory to accelerate LG Group’s next wave of AI-driven businesses, spanning robotics, autonomous driving, data center technologies and GPU cloud services. The AI factory will provide LG Group with accelerated computing infrastructure to train, simulate, validate and deploy AI-based applications across its key businesses. 

The collaboration brings together NVIDIA’s full-stack, end-to-end AI factory platform with LG Group’s global leadership in consumer electronics, robotics, mobility components, smart spaces and data center technologies. Together, the companies are connecting AI model development, physical AI data generation, robot simulation and training, edge deployment and factory-scale digital twins into a unified workflow for building physical AI systems. 

The combination of LG’s production technology data and know-how from global manufacturing sites with NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure and digital twin technologies will help enhance AI-driven manufacturing AI competitiveness. The two companies will collaborate to build an autonomous manufacturing ecosystem in which the entire process – from raw material procurement to production, logistics and customer delivery – is connected in real time through data and AI, and establish it as a new global smart factory standard.

LG Electronics is developing home-based robots like CLoiD to help with a wide range of indoor household tasks, enhancing everyday convenience and improving quality of life. By integrating the NVIDIA Isaac Sim and NVIDIA Isaac Lab open robotics frameworks into their development workflows, LG can simulate, train and validate these home cobots in physically accurate virtual environments before deployment. 

The company is exploring using the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T open, reasoning vision action language model for both its home robots and modular robotics platforms. The GR00T model will provide LG robots humanlike reasoning and the ability to execute complex tasks. NVIDIA and LG Electronics also plan to jointly develop reference robots, positioning LG’s robots as part of the NVIDIA Isaac GR00T ecosystem.

To help overcome the training data challenge for robotics, LG Electronics is developing a physical AI data factory poised to help Korean and global companies accelerate physical AI projects. By turning compute into data, LG will be providing high-quality training data for robotics and industrial AI projects, using NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models for synthetic data generation and augmentation.

LG Innotek, harnessing its world-class optical expertise, plans to provide state-of-the-art robotics components, including sensing solutions, specifically optimized for NVIDIA’s development environments and GPU architecture.

LG CNS is building an ecosystem that enables anyone to easily adopt AI robots in manufacturing and logistics sites. By integrating NVIDIA’s robotics technologies including Isaac open robotics frameworks, NVIDIA Cosmos open world models and Isaac GR00T robotic foundation models into its PhysicalWorks industrial robot platform, the company is accelerating the AI transformation of logistics and manufacturing floors.

Building the AI Factory Infrastructure

The two companies will also expand cooperation in the field of next-generation AI factories, which will support the AI era.

Beyond its certification cooperation with NVIDIA on cooling solutions for AI factory thermal management — including cooling distribution units (CDUs) and cold plates — LG Electronics is further elevating its AI factory capabilities through technical collaboration on prefabricated modular design technologies. This initiative aligns with the NVIDIA DSX AI factory platform, enabling the rapid deployment of scalable, high-performance supercomputing infrastructure.

These technologies include CDUs, cold plates and prefab modular design capabilities to help address the power, thermal and deployment requirements of next-generation liquid-cooled AI factories.

In collaboration with LG Electronics and LG Energy Solution, LG Uplus — a telecommunications provider under LG Corp. — plans to build scalable, power-efficient AI factories based on NVIDIA DSX. The effort is expected to combine NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI factory reference architectures with LG’s infrastructure, energy and telecommunications capabilities to support future AI cloud and GPU service opportunities. 

LG CNS plans to build scalable, power-efficient, high-performance AI factories powered by NVIDIA GPUs based on NVIDIA DSX.

LG Uplus plans to build a large-scale AI data center capable of accommodating the latest NVIDIA GPUs.

LG Energy Solution plans to collaborate with NVIDIA on emerging 800 volt-direct-current data center energy solutions, in alignment with NVIDIA’s BESS Self-Qualification guidelines, to keep pace with next-generation GPUs. 

Accelerating mobility AI

In mobility, LG Electronics works with NVIDIA to align its advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle AI systems with the NVIDIA DRIVE platform. 

The collaboration will focus on aligning sensor, compute and software architectures with the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion architecture, supporting LG Electronics’ roadmap for autonomous driving, ADAS and software-defined vehicles. 

LG Electronics also plans to use NVIDIA DRIVE AGX accelerated compute for its future mobility applications, including AI-powered cockpits and edge AI processing. Through this work, LG Electronics aims to strengthen its automotive electronics portfolio and accelerate the development of AI-driven mobility solutions for global manufacturers.

LG Innotek is rapidly cementing its leadership in the autonomous driving market, using its core portfolio of world-class sensing, connectivity and lighting solutions. LG Innotek plans to collaborate with NVIDIA on next-generation components engineered specifically for NVIDIA architecture. 

Advancing sovereign AI with EXAONE

NVIDIA and LG AI Research are collaborating to advance EXAONE, one of Korea’s leading sovereign AI models and an open model family available to developers, enterprises and researchers. 

LG AI Research used NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, NVIDIA NeMo framework and NVIDIA Nemotron open datasets to support EXAONE model development, as well as NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM software to build high-performance inference engines for optimized deployment.

LG Group is exploring broader adoption of EXAONE and agentic AI technologies across its businesses through platforms such as ChatEXAONE — LG Group’s EXAONE-based enterprise chatbot service. NVIDIA will help power LG AI Research’s sovereign AI models, so LG Group can accelerate enterprise AI transformation, software-defined operations and productivity across its business portfolio. 

www.nvidia.com/en-gb/