Mitsubishi Electric Pairs Humanoids With CNC Tools

Humanoid robots tend to be shown carrying boxes. Mitsubishi Electric wants them tending the machine tools themselves. The Japanese group says it has developed a machining system in which humanoid robots and computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools work together through what it calls physical AI, and it claims the system is the industry’s first.

That claim rests on Mitsubishi Electric’s own research as of 21 October, and the company limits it to an NC system built around collaboration with humanoids, according to its release.

How the system divides the work

There are three parts. An AI machining task planner takes an operator’s instructions in plain language, builds a task plan from a list of pre-registered jobs, then hands work to the machine and the robot. The CNC machine tool carries Mitsubishi’s physical AI and swaps operational information with the robot in natural language. The third part is a general-purpose humanoid. Both AI components were built with Maisart, the company’s in-house AI brand.

The humanoid is meant to take on the jobs machine operators do by hand: setting up workpieces, cleaning, removing and moving finished parts, inspection and troubleshooting. Mitsubishi says the machine and robot can co-operate “regardless of the robot model”, so factories would not need bespoke links and control sequences for each robot, which it calls a major obstacle to adoption today. Without that integration work, it says, deployment time would be cut significantly. It also argues that conventional industrial robots demand costly changes to production lines, whereas humanoids could fit into spaces designed for people.

The company frames this against a serious labour shortage in manufacturing. Its longer aim is smart factories that run unmanned.

Still a demonstration

This is not a product yet. Mitsubishi Electric will show a demonstration at JIMTOF 2026, the Japan International Machine Tool Fair, at Tokyo Big Sight from 26 to 31 October, where its stand is S2003 in South Hall 2. The humanoid system will sit alongside more conventional exhibits, including two high-precision electrical discharge machines and a newly developed scheduling tool meant to support automated machine operation, according to an earlier company release on its JIMTOF plans. The release does not name the humanoid’s maker or give any performance figures. Japanese trade site Seizo Trend notes that no price or release date was given.

The company does set a target. In the full release, Mitsubishi says it will keep improving the system and run demonstration trials, with the goal of commercialising a CNC-and-humanoid machining system by 2030. A trade-show demo is a long way from a working machine shop. The JIMTOF stand will show how far along the system is.