Schaeffler Group's Strategic Roadmap: The Future of Humanoid Robotics and Physical AI
- Miki Sadinov
- Jun 11
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 25
Session: From Components to Colleagues: How Schaeffler is Shaping the Future of Humanoid Robotics
Speaker: David Kehr, President of Humanoid Robotics at the Schaeffler Group
Session Summary:
David Kehr outlines the Schaeffler Group's comprehensive roadmap for integrating physical AI and humanoid robotics into the industrial sector. The strategy positions Schaeffler as a key technology user, component supplier, system integrator, and aftermarket provider within the robotics ecosystem. This ambitious vision is driven by four strategic pillars: data-driven early adoption, deep system understanding, leveraging 80 years of motion technology heritage, and fostering global collaboration.
"Physical AI has arrived. Every industry company will become a robotics company".
This bold assertion, originally quoted from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, set the stage for a keynote presentation by David Kehr, President of Humanoid Robotics at the Schaeffler Group. Addressing a global audience, Kehr detailed the Schaeffler Group's comprehensive strategy to integrate physical AI into the industrial sector—an evolution driven by rapid technological advancements and a global demographic shift toward an aging workforce that is exacerbating industrial labor shortages.
The 4 Roles in the Physical AI Ecosystem
The Schaeffler Group is positioning itself not just as a participant, but as a central pillar in the humanoid robotics ecosystem. Moving forward, the company will operate across four distinct roles:
Technology User: Deploying physical AI across its 100 global manufacturing plants to address thousands of potential use cases.
Component Supplier: Supplying the essential components and subsystems that physically move humanoids.
Integrator and Scaler: Utilizing a dedicated division to build assembly lines and test benches to help partner companies scale their hardware.
Aftermarket Service Provider: Leveraging its deep and wide global distribution channels to provide necessary support and replacement parts as physical AI scales across the industry.
The 4 Strategic Pillars
To realize this ambitious vision, Kehr outlined that Schaeffler is building its future upon four core strategic pillars:
Pillar 1: Early Adoption and Data-Driven Deployment Schaeffler is focusing its automation efforts on six primary use cases that are ubiquitous across its global facilities: logistics, feeding, tending, assembly, inspection, and packaging. The company collects massive datasets via teleoperated robots, synthetic generation, and human worker tracking to power NVIDIA simulations. Schaeffler has already moved into active real-world deployments: in South Carolina, an Agility Digit humanoid robot has transitioned from pilot into active production, working eight-hour shifts, five days a week. Additionally, a UK-based AI bot recently completed a successful pilot in Schweinfurt, Germany, where it managed complex multi-machine tending.
Pillar 2: Deep System Understanding Recognizing that scaling hardware is currently one of the industry's greatest challenges—a sentiment echoed by a representative from NVIDIA—Schaeffler emphasizes the importance of designing for scalability from day one. In collaboration with NVIDIA and California-based Noble Machines, Schaeffler successfully created the industry's first physics-based digital twin of a humanoid actuator. This breakthrough utilizes robust data collection to drastically reduce the simulation-to-real-world gap and enables engineers to accurately predict specific performance metrics, such as the thermal impacts on a robot's elbow actuator at varying speeds and torques. This deep system understanding ensures parts are highly efficient and prevents the costly mistake of overengineering components.
Pillar 3: Motion Technology Heritage Drawing on 80 years of experience, Schaeffler categorizes its products into eight distinct types of motion and leverages 12 core manufacturing technologies (such as forming and winding), making its portfolio a natural, vertical fit for robotics. This expertise was recently recognized when Schaeffler's highly scalable planetary gear actuator won the 2026 Hermes Award for best innovation in Hannover. Schaeffler is also radically innovating its manufacturing processes to reduce costs. For instance, the company is applying scalable forming methods to humanoid strain wave gearboxes—of which it has already sold over 2 million systems in the automotive sector since 2015. Furthermore, it has introduced forming for the inner and outer rings of its XZU bearing to eliminate heavy, expensive machining, earning it a spot as a finalist for the 2025 Hermes Award.
Pillar 4: Global Collaboration Kehr emphasized that no single entity holds all the answers in the realm of physical AI, making accelerated learning impossible without teamwork. Schaeffler has allied with seven strategic OEM partners, alongside major tech integrators like Avanade and Accenture. On the academic front, the company established the SHARE (Schaeffler Hub for Advanced Research) lab at NTU in Singapore, combining Schaeffler engineers with university talent to bridge the gap between academic breakthroughs and industrial applications.
Insights on Global Deployment and the Future of Work
Following the presentation, a highly informative audience Q&A session illuminated Schaeffler’s day-to-day operational tactics and global outlook.
Disseminating AI Knowledge Across Global Plants: Addressing how cutting-edge knowledge is spread to smaller plants lacking specialized AI engineers, Kehr explained that a dedicated "advanced production technology" group runs regional humanoid training gyms to integrate the facilities. Rather than isolating component development within a small global humanoid team, Schaeffler leverages its thousands of existing global engineers—ensuring, for example, that humanoid bearings are engineered directly by the dedicated bearing division.
The Inevitability of Full Autonomy: When asked about the future of human labor, Kehr stated that the probability of never achieving fully autonomous robots capable of replacing humans in production is "extremely low". The industry remains highly bullish, and given that physical AI is already operating in factories, the transition to full autonomy is viewed merely as a matter of "when".
Geopolitical Ecosystems and the Lighthouse Factory: The global AI landscape presents distinct regional ecosystems. Kehr noted that the speed of AI development in the United States is heavily driven by venture capital, while China leverages strong government backing and a uniquely collaborative industrial culture. To capitalize on this, Schaeffler will open the world's first "lighthouse factory" in Shanghai in the third quarter of this year. Operating as a combined humanoid training gym and dedicated actuator production line, this facility is strategically located less than 1.5 kilometers from Schaeffler's advanced Taicang manufacturing plant. Crucially, it leverages a Chinese ecosystem where even rival OEMs are willing to train together and collaborate.
Europe's Competitiveness: While Europe currently has a slightly smaller AI ecosystem compared to the US and China, Kehr expressed strong confidence in its competitive future against low-cost precision part production from Asia. However, he warned that European manufacturing cannot simply "machine its way" to high-volume success; it must eagerly adopt alternative, highly scalable methods like forming to survive.
Conclusion: The Physical AI Moment is Here
To wrap up his strategic overview, Kehr made it clear that the era of physical AI is not a distant future—it is a present reality pushing the industry forward through both technological breakthroughs and demographic necessities. Schaeffler is fully convinced of this movement and intends to play a significant role in enabling and advancing the new global workforce.
For companies looking to survive and thrive in this new industrial era, Kehr offered one definitive, final piece of advice: "Just get started. Embrace early adoption."
