Schaeffler adds Humanoid to its factory robot network

Schaeffler has agreed to deploy thousands of wheeled humanoid robots from Humanoid across its manufacturing network by 2032, adding a second large disclosed rollout target to its recent humanoid robotics push. The first systems are expected to go live at two German sites before the end of 2026, with box handling planned for a live production environment in Herzogenaurach and joint testing planned at Schweinfurt ahead of full validation. The agreement is structured as a robot-as-a-service deployment, with Humanoid providing fleet management, software, maintenance, support and performance management alongside the robots.

The Company

Schaeffler is a German motion technology and automotive supplier whose core business sits close to the mechanical layers humanoid robots need at scale: bearings, motors, drives, gear systems, sensors and industrial production know-how. That made its humanoid push an extension of existing motion, manufacturing and mechatronics capabilities.

At Hannover Messe in March 2025, Schaeffler presented key humanoid technologies across bearings, linear and rotary drive assemblies, rotary gearboxes, ball and planetary roller screw assemblies, sensors, electric motors and power electronics. The company framed the opportunity around joint-level reliability, noting that humanoid robots typically contain 25 to 30 joints and require precise, robust components for controlled movement.

That component push became the base for the partnerships that followed. Schaeffler now presents itself in three roles: system and component supplier, integrator and industrialization partner, and lifetime solution provider. It is also using humanoid robot systems in multiple plants, with production experience feeding back into product development.

The Network

The first visible customer-investor move came before the 2025 component push. In November 2024, Schaeffler made a minority investment in Agility Robotics and agreed to purchase Digit humanoids for use across its global plant network. By Schaeffler’s later humanoids presentation, the company had completed a proof of concept, invested $10 million through Schaeffler Invest USA, and had three Digit robots used for material handling and logistics in U.S. plants.

The first major public step came with NEURA Robotics in November 2025. Schaeffler and NEURA agreed to develop and supply key components, including actuators, while Schaeffler also committed to deploy NEURA humanoids across its global production network and integrate a mid-four-digit number of humanoids by 2035.

Later that month, Schaeffler and NTU Singapore opened a 900 square metre robotics and AI laboratory. The lab expanded an existing university partnership and was set up for robotics, AI, collaborative robotics and autonomous mobile robot platforms, with Schaeffler naming humanoid robotics as a key growth area where it could combine supplier and user experience.

The UK link arrived in January 2026, when Schaeffler and Humanoid announced a technology partnership covering the development and supply of strain wave gear actuators. Those actuators are used primarily in the upper body, shoulders and arms of humanoid robots, with Schaeffler emphasizing weight-to-torque ratio, hollow-shaft cabling, zero backlash, low friction and production-volume design.

China followed in March 2026 through Leju Robotics. Schaeffler described the agreement as its first cooperation with a Chinese humanoid company, aimed at industrial applications including factory inspection, equipment operation support, logistics and human-robot collaboration. Leju also gave Schaeffler a route into industrial-scale manufacturing transfer, data collection, model iteration and next-generation technology development in China.

April widened the component and deployment loop. Schaeffler and VinDynamics agreed to develop and supply planetary gearboxes for humanoid robots, with joint collection of robot and application data for actuator optimization, condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. The same month, Schaeffler and Hexagon Robotics announced a rotary-actuator partnership and a plan to deploy at least 1,000 AEON humanoids across Schaeffler’s global factory network over seven years following a successful pilot.

The Pattern

Schaeffler’s recent moves are unusually dense because they connect both sides of the humanoid market. The company is selling motion hardware into robot OEMs, giving those OEMs production and industrialization support, using their robots inside its own factories, and turning factory use into application data for better components and services.

The structure is most visible in the actuator layer. Schaeffler’s public humanoid material says actuators can represent about half of the bill of materials in many humanoid robots, and lists rotary and linear drives, BLDC motors, sensors and control electronics as parts of its integrated motion portfolio. Its VinDynamics agreement then narrows that to planetary gearboxes and data-driven actuator optimization, while the Humanoid agreement narrows it to strain wave gear actuators for upper-body joints.

Reuters reported in May that Schaeffler was working with about 45 robotics entities worldwide and had five customer contracts, with demand linked to China and the United States and recent contracts covering actuators and components such as strain wave gears. The public partnerships with NEURA, Humanoid, Leju, VinDynamics and Hexagon appear to be the visible portion of a larger network.

Maturity

Schaeffler has moved beyond isolated pilots, but the rollout numbers remain staged targets rather than completed deployments. The Hexagon agreement discloses at least 1,000 AEON humanoids over seven years, while the new Humanoid agreement targets thousands of robots by 2032 with the first German systems expected before the end of 2026. The stronger near-term evidence will come from whether Herzogenaurach and Schweinfurt move from initial use and validation into repeatable factory tasks, and whether Schaeffler’s component contracts translate into series production rather than prototype exchange.

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