A humanoid robot is now greeting passengers at one of the world's busiest aviation construction sites. In Singapore, AgiBot's (智元机器人) Expedition A2 is working inside the future Terminal 5 of Changi Airport — answering questions, giving directions, and quietly collecting the real-world data that no lab can simulate.
That deployment is not a one-off demo. It sits inside a wider push by the Shanghai embodied-AI (具身智能) company to plant its robots outside China through telecom partnerships, airport security contracts, and automotive supply-chain deals.
Key takeaways
- AgiBot (智元机器人) signed an overseas operator-level deal with Singtel Enterprise, and is trialing its Expedition A2 at Singapore's Changi Airport Terminal 5 alongside security firm Certis Group.
- In Europe, AgiBot launched in Munich on 24 February 2026 with Tier-1 auto supplier Minth Group, which will act as local partner and sales agent.
- At MWC 2026 the company showed a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model with rentals starting around €899, saying its network already covers some 17 countries and regions.
- The through-line is "localized landing": rather than ship boxes, AgiBot is embedding robots into local operators that can service, lease, and feed data back.
Singapore: robots as airport infrastructure
The Singapore move is the clearest sign of AgiBot's abroad strategy. On 5 March 2026 the company and Singtel Enterprise signed a strategic cooperation agreement — described as AgiBot's first operator-level partnership outside China. Singtel runs advanced 5G and 5G-Advanced networks in Southeast Asia; the plan is to combine AgiBot's embodied-AI (具身智能) stack with that connectivity to build verifiable robot applications for enterprise digital transformation.
Through the deal, Singtel expects to launch channel-based leasing for AgiBot robots in 2026 under a Robot-as-a-Service model, letting Singapore businesses and individuals rent rather than buy. Separately, AgiBot partnered with Certis Group, a major Asia-Pacific security and facilities provider, to deploy robots in aviation and infrastructure scenarios. The first joint deployment is already running at Changi's future Terminal 5, where the Expedition A2 handles guest reception, navigation help, and passenger information.
Munich: the automotive on-ramp
In Europe, the route was different. At a Munich launch event on 24 February 2026, AgiBot unveiled its full product matrix and announced a strategic partnership with Minth Group, a global Tier-1 automotive supplier with roughly 15 years of European localization and a sizable share of key aluminum-component supply. Minth will act as strategic partner and sales agent, and — importantly — will use its own factories as "training grounds" where AgiBot robots learn real industrial tasks.
That matters because humanoids need messy, repetitive, real factory work to improve. By running inside Minth's lines, AgiBot's fleet generates the scenario data that accelerates its algorithm iteration. The company's mixed-fleet approach — bipedal A2, wheeled A2-W, compact Lingxi X2, and the D1 quadruped — is meant to penetrate logistics, commercial, and manufacturing settings at once. AgiBot has said the A2 completed a 106 km autonomous trek, a durability claim meant to answer doubts about reliability.
MWC and the RaaS pitch
At MWC 2026 in Barcelona, AgiBot's Expedition A2 appeared as a smart guide in a "future airport" booth — and, according to Chinese and trade coverage, escorted Spain's King Felipe VI during his visit. Beyond the spectacle, the company used the stage to promote RaaS: short-term rentals reportedly starting at about €899, with the aim of lowering the barrier for marketing events and temporary industrial jobs. It also demonstrated a 5G-A "EasyOn Robot" solution, built with Chinese carriers and ZTE, that it says cut end-to-end latency below 10 milliseconds and halved deployment cost.
According to Li An, chief scientist at BrainNet (脑机网), the real test for Chinese humanoid makers abroad is not the keynote demo but whether they can sustain local service, safety compliance, and data loops in each market — a bar that leasing through established operators like Singtel helps clear.
Honest limitations
This article relies on trade and company-sourced reporting: Pandaily (citing AgiBot), Humanoids Daily, and Chinese tech outlet CWX, plus a show report from the MWC booth. The Singapore Singtel/Certis/Changi T5 deployment, the Munich Minth launch date (24 February 2026), the MWC RaaS starting price (≈€899) and the "17 countries and regions" coverage figure are each reported by a single outlet and should be read as company-claimed rather than independently audited. The 106 km autonomous trek and the sub-10 ms / 50%-cost 5G-A claims are presented by the company and not re-verified here. I have not visited Changi T5 or Minth's lines, and I have not benchmarked AgiBot's A2 against Unitree's or Figure's humanoids on standardized tasks. Specs such as the A2's 1.75 m height, 55 kg weight, and 200 TOPS onboard compute come from a retailer profile and are included for context only.
What readers can do now
- If you buy or lease robots abroad, ask who services them. AgiBot's Singtel and Minth deals matter precisely because a local operator handles maintenance, compliance, and uptime — that, not the hardware, is what determines whether a pilot survives.
- Treat RaaS as a risk-reducer. A €899 short-term rental lets you test a humanoid in a real workflow before committing capital; start there instead of a fleet purchase.
- Watch the data-loop clause. Any overseas deployment that generates scenario data feeds the vendor's models — negotiate what is collected and who owns it before signing.