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2,000 Humanoids Are Ready To Step Into Textile Factories

• By  Textile Excellence
• July 28, 2026

The textile industry is taking another big step into automation, with humanoid robots moving from futuristic demos to real industrial floors. China-based industrial sewing machine maker Jack Technology is teaming up with Siemens to bring AI, digital engineering and humanoid robotics into apparel manufacturing.

And the ambition is huge: 2,000 humanoid robots have been ordered for apparel production, in what is being described as one of the first major deployments of humanoid robots in the textile sector.

The goal? At least 30% higher manufacturing efficiency while helping factories tackle rising labour costs, shorter lead times and growing demand for customised products.

Robots that fit into the factory

The big attraction of humanoid robots is simple: they are designed to work in environments already built for people.

Instead of redesigning an entire production line, these robots can move around existing workstations, handle materials and perform repetitive tasks alongside human workers. That flexibility could be a major advantage for textile and garment factories looking for more automation without completely rebuilding their production floors.

A Siemens plant in Erlangen, Germany, recently offered a glimpse of what is possible.

British robotics company Neura Robotics deployed its wheeled humanoid robot HMND 01 for a two-week trial. Powered by NVIDIA’s physical AI technology, the robot autonomously picked up crates, placed them on a conveyor and moved them to a designated handoff point for human workers.

The numbers were impressive. HMND 01 moved 60 crates an hour, handled two different crate sizes and operated for more than eight hours a day. Its autonomous grasping and placement achieved a success rate of over 90%.

For textile factories, that points to a very practical opportunity: let robots take care of repetitive material movement while people focus on tasks requiring judgement, skill and flexibility.

More than humanoids

Humanoid robots are only one piece of the automation puzzle. Four-legged robots are also entering industrial environments, particularly for inspection and maintenance in difficult or hazardous areas.

Robotic systems such as ANYbotics’ ANYmal can collect inspection data from hundreds of points and help create detailed 3D models of industrial facilities. For textile manufacturers, the bigger lesson is that robots are becoming increasingly capable of moving, sensing, inspecting and making decisions within real factory environments.

But robots cannot work in isolation.

The real transformation comes when they are connected to machines, production systems, autonomous vehicles and human workers. Siemens is building this digital backbone with digital twins, AI-enabled sensing, robot and PLC interfaces, fleet management and industrial communication systems.

That could turn the factory of tomorrow into something very different: not a place where robots replace people, but a smarter, faster production ecosystem where humans and machines work side by side—and the robots take care of the repetitive stuff.

The real transformation comes when they are connected to machines, production systems, autonomous vehicles and human workers. Siemens is building this digital backbone with digital twins, AI-enabled sensing, robot and PLC interfaces, fleet management and industrial communication systems. That could turn the factory of tomorrow into something very different: not a place where robots replace people, but a smarter, faster production ecosystem where humans and machines work side by side—and the robots take care of the repetitive stuff.