Humanoid robot to be mass-produced in Norway
1X Technologies, a Norwegian developer of humanoid robotics has unveiled a prototype of its bipedal humanoid robot, designed for home use – the NEO Beta.
In April earlier this year, the company said that it was developing its own production facility, actuator manufacturing and robot assembly facility in Moss, Norway – right news to its campus and engineering team.
The company was founded back in 2014 as Halodi Robotics by CEO Bernt Øyvind Børnich who wanted to realise a new solution: general-purpose robots that can perform labour alongside humans.
Now the company has unveiled NEO Beta which the company describes as a major milestone in the transition from conceptual development to bringing humanoid robots into consumer households. NEO has been designed to be produced at scale in the company’s factory in Moss, Norway.
“Our priority is safety,” said Bernt Børnich, CEO at 1X, in a press release. “Safety is the cornerstone that allows us to confidently introduce NEO Beta into homes, where it will gather essential feedback and demonstrate its capabilities in real-world settings. This year, we are deploying a limited number of NEO units in selected homes for research and development purposes. Doing so means we are taking another step toward achieving our mission.”
1X says that its mission is to create an abundant supply of physical labour through safe, intelligent humanoids that work alongside people. To reach this, the company's robots must be exposed to diverse environments to become fully capable of performing a wide range of tasks.