According to a press release from March 18, 2025, Mercedes-Benz is bringing one of “the most advanced commercial humanoid robots in the world” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation) to Berlin-Marienfelde. This site has established itself as a global competence center for production digitization since the launch of the Mercedes-Benz Digital Factory Campus (MBDFC) in 2022. The manufacturer, Apptronik, is based in Austin and was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas. According to its website, Apollo is “the first commercial humanoid robot that was designed for friendly interaction, mass manufacturability, high payloads and safety” (Apptronik website). The robot stands approximately 172 cm tall and weighs about 72 kg. Unlike comparable bipedal robots, it does not have a display in the facial area, but only two eyes. Its head resembles that of social robots such as ARI or P-Care. Apollo is a modular system that can be used either in a stationary or mobile setup. Regarding its implementation, Mercedes-Benz states in the press release: “The Apollo robots have collected data in a production environment in order to train for specific use cases” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation). Employees with hands-on production experience at Mercedes-Benz “transferred their knowledge to Apollo using teleoperation processes and augmented reality” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation). “Now, Mercedes-Benz is taking the next crucial development step at the MBDFC in Berlin: The Apollo robots are learning to operate autonomously – a technological milestone on the path to a flexible, intelligent assistance system for production” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation).
Apollo Comes to Berlin-Marienfelde
