--- title: "A Chinese factory just put nearly 100 humanoid (人形机器人) workers on the payroll" date: 2026-09-29 category: Humanoids & Robotics site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-robot-agibot-a2-factory language: en --- # A Chinese factory just put nearly 100 humanoid (人形机器人) workers on the payroll > In August 2025, AgiBot (智元机器人) signed a contract with Fulin Precision (富临精工) to deploy nearly 100 of its Expedition A2-W robots across real production floors — described as China's first scaled commercial order for industrial embodied robots. Backed by Omdia data showing AgiBot as the 2025 global shipment leader, the deal is a test of whether humanoid (人形机器人) and wheeled siblings can actually earn their place on a line. A production line in central China now has a kind of shift worker that never clocks out, never complains about heavy boxes, and does not need lunch. In August 2025, AgiBot (智元机器人) signed a contract with Fulin Precision (富临精工) to put nearly one hundred of its Expedition A2-W robots onto real factory floors. Not a demo. Not a trade-show stunt. Paid, deployed, and moving parts. ## The robot that actually showed up The star of the Fulin deal is the Expedition A2-W, the wheeled, dual-arm sibling of AgiBot's bipedal humanoid (人形机器人), the Expedition A2. AgiBot, founded in February 2023 by Peng Zhihui (彭志辉, known online as "Zhiyuan Jun"), first showed the A2 family at an August 2024 launch event. The A2 itself is a full-size biped: about 169 cm tall, 69 kg, more than 40 degrees of freedom. The A2-W trades legs for a wheeled base built for factories. The A2-W carries a self-developed embodied-intelligence compute platform rated around 275 trillion operations per second, with 360-degree LiDAR, AI vision sensors, and force-feedback units. It is built for the dull, repetitive work that wears out human backs: depot handling, palletizing, feeding, and empty-box recovery. ## Inside the Fulin deal Fulin Precision, a supplier in the automotive powertrain chain, agreed in August 2025 to a project worth tens of millions of RMB — roughly US$4–12 million at about 7.1 RMB to the US dollar. The centerpiece is nearly 100 A2-W units moving into Fulin's workshops. The rollout was not a single pilot cell. The robots now span two core workshops — powertrain and reducer — across 15 material-feeding points, handling daily raw-material delivery for production capacity above 500 units a day and taking over empty-box recycling. On a single shift, the fleet performs close to 10,000 box-handling actions, linking the two workshops as the core transport force between stations. ## What the robots actually do The work sounds simple and is not. Turnover boxes arrive stacked irregularly; the robot must identify them, adjust its grasp posture on its own, and place them without toppling. Fulin's engineering lead said the system avoided obstacles in real time when people crossed its path and recorded zero failures across nearly 10,000 operations per shift. Three capabilities made that possible, per AgiBot: - **Multimodal perception** that spots moving obstacles — people, equipment, material — to keep human-robot shared floors safe. - **Dual-arm coordination and high-precision manipulation** that adapts to containers of different sizes and weights. - **Autonomous error correction**, so the robot recovers its workflow on its own when something goes off plan, with no human in the loop. A live demonstration in July 2025 — billed as the first normal-operation broadcast of a general embodied robot in an industrial setting — had a single A2-W moving about 1,000 turnover boxes per shift, matching one line's monthly production schedule. The near-100-unit order was the leap from "single-factory pilot" to "multi-factory, full-line coverage." ## The numbers that matter The Fulin contract is the headline, but the context is the shipment race. According to Omdia's January 2026 report, AgiBot shipped 5,168 humanoid (人形机器人) units in 2025 — about 39% of an estimated 13,000-unit global market, making it the world's number-one vendor by both volume and share. AgiBot says it passed 10,000 total units off the line by March 2026. That scale is not just China. AgiBot made its US market debut at CES 2026, and the Expedition line has appeared in logistics, hospitality, and research settings across several countries. In March 2026, an A2-W-based unit nicknamed "Nengzai-1" went to work on SAIC-GM Buick's battery line, placing cells at roughly two seconds per piece — a second real-factory reference beyond Fulin. ## Why this is a first Plenty of robots already work in Chinese factories — but most are fixed arms bolted to one task. The Fulin deal is pitched as China's first scaled commercial sign for embodied robots that perceive, grasp, and adapt across stations. AgiBot and Unitree together also won a separate 120-million-RMB order (about US$17 million) for guide and explainer scenarios, showing that 2025–2026 order momentum spans both industrial and service use. The honest read: humanoid (人形机器人) and wheeled embodied robots are moving from "impressive video" to "line item on a procurement sheet." Whether they stay there depends on cost per useful action, not demo polish. ## What readers can do now - **If you run manufacturing operations**, pilot an A2-W-class robot on a single dull, high-turnover task (box feeding, empty-bin recovery) before betting on full-line autonomy, and measure cost per move against current labor. - **If you follow robotics markets**, track Omdia-style shipment figures and "units off the line" claims separately — order announcements and delivered, paid deployments are different numbers. - **If you build automation**, study the "embodied robot + AMR" pairing at Fulin: the robot handles bins, the autonomous mobile robot handles long hauls, and a smart dispatch layer ties them together. ## Honest limitations Core facts (AgiBot founded February 2023 by Peng Zhihui; Expedition A2 released 18 August 2024, A2-W a wheeled manufacturing variant; Fulin Precision project cooperation reached August 2025, worth tens of millions of RMB / roughly US$4–12 million, with nearly 100 A2-W units across two workshops and 15 feeding points, ~10,000 box moves per shift, zero failures reported; July 2025 single-shift 1,000-box demo; Omdia January 2026 figure of 5,168 units and ~39% global share for 2025, ~13,000-unit global market; 10,000th unit by March 2026; CES 2026 US debut; "Nengzai-1" at SAIC-GM Buick battery line March 2026 at ~2 sec/piece; separate 120-million-RMB / ~US$17 million AgiBot-Unitree order) come from Xinhua/China Securities Journal, CNR (央广网), Baidu Baike, TMT Post, and Omdia-via-SCMP citations. Currency conversions use ~7.1 RMB per US dollar. The "first scaled commercial industrial embodied-robot order in China" claim is AgiBot's and state-media framing, not an independent audit; shipment and share figures are analyst (Omdia) estimates. Per-shift box counts and zero-failure claims are vendor/operator disclosures, not third-party verified. Analysis is current to 29 September 2026 and is not investment advice. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-robot-agibot-a2-factory Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.