Apollo, an all-electric bipedal humanoid robot made by Austin-based Apptronik, https://apptronik.com/, was unveiled August 23. Apollo is 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds and can lift 55 pounds. “Science fiction has promised us these for a long time,” said Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas. “Initially, it’s going to start working in the supply chain — doing basic material handling tasks, moving boxes and totes. Long term, really the sky’s the limit in terms of what these types of systems will be able to do. …Right now we have two Apollos that are built, and we’re building another four. These are the alpha units …our engineering validation prototypes. The next step will be producing beta units — fewer than 100 — which will work outside the lab. From there, we move into full production, by the end of 2024.” Apptronik, with 85 employees, came out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas, and also worked on NASA’s first bipedal robot, Valkyrie. Watch a video here, https://vimeo.com/856877166/856985538. Details at: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/04/humanoid-robot-labor-warehouse-jobs-apollo-apptronik. Our thanks to Gene Beley for his assistance sourcing this report. For breaking robotics and AI news, visit www.the-nref.org. Thomas Atwood, executive director, National Robotics Education Foundation (NREF)

For More Information Click Here