Two full-size humanoid robots operated continuously for eight hours on a production line at the Xiaomi Auto Factory, sorting plastic center-console side-covers during a demonstration published on November 3, 2026, to coincide with the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Gizmodo reported.
Inside the Eight-Hour Factory Shift
The demonstration placed the humanoid units inside a parts-sorting station. Mobile robots delivered containers holding side-covers, and the humanoids picked the pieces out, carried them to vertical shelving units, and placed them into designated slots. Xiaomi stated that the robots fulfilled the full daily demand of the station, identified and corrected anomalies autonomously, and coordinated with the factory’s production line control system. A sped-up video released by the company showed one instance where a part fell to the floor and a third robot—a humanoid torso mounted on a wheeled base—assisted in resolving the issue.
Despite the sustained runtime, the published footage omitted key operational metrics. The company did not disclose the total number of parts processed, the precise success rate across the eight-hour shift, or the frequency of human interventions required to keep the line moving. Details regarding power management—such as whether the units operated on a single charge, underwent battery swaps, or utilized unfilmed charging pauses—were also left undisclosed.
8 hours on the production line. 🤖 Xiaomi’s full-size humanoid robot takes on an 8-hour task at the Center Console Side-Cover Sorting Workstation at Xiaomi Auto Factory. Beyond sustained operation, it can autonomously detect and correct anomalies while coordinating with the… pic.twitter.com/brpO3S5bCn
Xiaomi Tests Humanoid Robot on Factory Floor
The eight-hour test builds upon incremental deployments at Xiaomi’s vehicle manufacturing facility in Beijing. In March, the company introduced a humanoid unit working as a three-hour “intern” on the vehicle floor, where it installed self-tapping floor nuts with a 90.2 percent success rate and met a 76-second cycle time without human intervention. Engineers documented specific friction points during that trial, including aligning parts with positioning pins, managing internal thread variations, and handling magnetic forces that interfered with the robot’s grip.
By July, Xiaomi reported that the success rate for those assembly tasks had climbed to 98 percent, prompting the addition of two more complex stations, culminating in the parts-sorting workload demonstrated in November. Alongside hardware testing, the company released Xiaomi-Robotics-1 as an open-source AI model trained on 100,000 hours of real-world robotic data, which is currently undergoing household testing in employee apartments.
The Industrial Debate Over Legs Versus Wheels
The Wuzhen demonstration highlights a persistent design divergence in industrial robotics: whether bipedal locomotion is necessary for enclosed factory floors. Modern manufacturing plants feature flat surfaces designed explicitly for carts, automated guided vehicles, and heavy forklifts. Wheeled bases offer higher stability, lower energy consumption, and the capacity to carry larger batteries, extending operational endurance. Legs provide distinct advantages primarily in spaces built for humans, such as multi-level stairwells in residential architecture.
Other automotive manufacturers have experimented with similar form factors. Audi and BMW have tested humanoids for moving components within their assembly plants, while Tesla has repeatedly stated that its Optimus platform will work in its vehicle factories, though several public demonstrations relied on human teleoperation.
