Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid robot works at CES 2025.

Humanoid robots have something to offer to CES 2025, which is a mixed blessing of innovation and difficulty in the industry. Several companies were seen showcasing their homegrown designs and capabilities.

The most significant event was the unveiling of a bipedal robot by Agility named Digit at a private Nvidia booth by its CEO Jensen Huang. Indeed, growing interests around humanoid tech, yet representation of such in the field remained largely within smaller firms.

Undoubtedly, the biggest and brightest award went to Apptronik, a relatively small company, and one of the showstoppers at the Texas Instruments stand where the Apollo robot was. Appollo robot, as many used to say, was bright and cheerful, with large eyes and a head kind of reminiscent of some of those early, so familiar iMacs.

Designed mainly for factory-type tasks, this robot glides and coasts into its area in what most may feel is a rather welcoming manner-not at all like the typical stiff and awkward movements much of us might expect from a robot. Apollo gave a performance for the cameras during the show, demonstrating the fluidity of its propulsions.

Admittedly, the showcase during CES was quite elementary as it involved a pick-and-place task that could not demonstrate the kind of intelligent and autonomous duties Apollo shall eventually perform in a real-world factory. Apptronik is working on this already having launched factory pilot tests alongside Mercedes back in March. The same agreements also exist with other companies like Figure and BMW, Agility, and Amazon.

While Apollo’s distinctive looks and emphasis on factory work draw a diverging view from competitors, many of whom gravitate toward dark and sterile images of robotics, Apollo’s warm appearance, and friendly, approachable design make a paradigm shift in the perception and cognition of humanoid robots. It will be intriguing to see how these various designs affect future applications and public acceptance as the industry develops.

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