Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. is partnering with Chinese robotics manufacturer UBTECH Robotics to develop and deploy humanoid robots across its manufacturing facilities, advancing the iPhone assembler’s automation strategy as it grapples with rising labor costs and worker shortages in China.
The collaboration involves testing UBTECH’s Walker S1 industrial robot at Hon Hai’s Shenzhen plant for logistics operations over a two-month period. The companies plan to expand trials to Hon Hai’s Zhengzhou facility, where it assembles iPhones. The partnership aims to automate tasks including materials handling, sorting, gluing, and quality inspection.
The Taiwanese manufacturing giant, also known as Foxconn, has been pursuing automation since 2014 when founder Terry Gou announced plans to deploy one million robots. The company previously worked with SoftBank Group Corp. on the Pepper humanoid robot project and has a joint venture developing autonomous mobile robots that are already operating in semiconductor plants in Malaysia.
UBTECH, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and iFlytek Co., will help Hon Hai develop a joint laboratory focused on smart manufacturing applications. The companies aim to create highly automated production lines as part of Hon Hai’s strategy to establish “lights-out” factories that can operate with minimal human intervention.
