Manufacturing
Deployment record
In the tracker →- Organisation
- Mercedes-Benz
- System
- Apollo 2
- Stage
- Pilot
- Function
- parts sorting
- Built on
- Apptronik
- 01Mercedes-Benz tested Apptronik's Apollo 2 humanoid robots for sorting parts on active production lines in Germany and Hungary.
- 02The robots achieved a reported 96% success rate in picking brackets and organizing them into trays, although details on trial duration and attempts were not disclosed.
- 03Mercedes-Benz aims to fill labor gaps in low-skill, repetitive tasks through automation, having invested in Apptronik and utilized remote operation and augmented reality for training.
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- 04The latest pilot involved Gemini Robotics tracking workflow and controlling the robot's movements, with training based on simulated practice runs.
- 05BMW is also testing robotic solutions for logistics, having moved over 90,000 components in a previous trial and planning to deploy robots for sorting parts in assembly order.
Mercedes-Benz
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Before a Mercedes-Benz technician can install a metal bracket, someone has to pull it from a bulk bin and place it in a tray in the order the vehicles will need it. At plants in Sindelfingen, Germany, and Kecskemét, Hungary, Mercedes-Benz tested whether Apptronik’s Apollo 2 humanoid robots could do that work on active production lines.
Recently, Google DeepMind reported a 96% success rate. Its release gave no trial duration, fleet size, or count of attempts. It also left open whether a successful attempt meant placing a single part or finishing a tray.
Why Mercedes-Benz Started With Parts
When Mercedes-Benz signed its agreement with Apptronik in 2024, Jörg Burzer, then the Mercedes-Benz Group board member responsible for Production, Quality and Supply Chain Management, said the carmaker wanted to see whether robots could “fill labor gaps in areas such as low skill, repetitive and physically demanding work.” The agreement covered delivering parts kits and inspecting components.
By March 2025, Mercedes-Benz said factory employees had used remote operation and augmented reality to teach Apollo tasks. The carmaker also announced an investment in Apptronik in the low double-digit millions of euros as it worked toward autonomous operation at its Digital Factory Campus in Berlin.
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In the latest pilot, Gemini Robotics ER tracked the workflow while Gemini Robotics 2.5 controlled Apollo 2’s hands and arms. DeepMind said the robots picked brackets from bins and corrected gaps in the trays. To develop the model, the research team used Gemini 4 Argon to generate thousands of simulated practice runs from real camera scenes and investigate failures captured on video.
BMW Is Testing a Similar Handoff
At BMW’s Spartanburg plant in South Carolina, the earlier Figure 02 trial involved positioning sheet metal for welding. BMW said the robot moved more than 90,000 components in about 1,250 operating hours.
Ulrich Wieland, Vice President of Production Control and Logistics at BMW Manufacturing, said in June the company was “looking forward to deploying Figure 03 for a sequencing use case in logistics.” The robot is slated to sort parts into trolleys in assembly order. An automated tugger or transport robot would then carry the parts to workers.
For Mercedes-Benz, the operating measure would be how many complete trays are ready on time over a shift and how often workers have to intervene. A robot can miss a pick and recover before a tray is due. A wrong bracket that reaches assembly leaves a worker to find a replacement.
Jeff Cardenas, Co-Founder and CEO of Apptronik, said the models improved after a few weeks of additional training. He said those gains carried over “to Mercedes-Benz production with very little drop-off.”
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