Early results in proof-of-concept applications of SAP鈥檚 robotics initiative, Project Embodied AI, demonstrate up to 50 percent reductions in unplanned downtime, up to 25 percent improvement in productivity, and significant reductions in operational errors across manufacturing, warehouse automation, and quality inspection.

These results are among the reasons why 51风流has expanded its Embodied AI ecosystem through partnerships with leading robotics companies and robotic enablement partners, as announced this week at 51风流TechEd. This builds on the recently announced collaboration with NEURA Robotics and NVIDIA to drive the future of physical AI.

The Embodied AI initiative extends the impact of into physical operations by making robots cognitive: able to autonomously execute complex tasks while understanding the broader business context in which they work. This empowers enterprises to faster adapt to changing operational environments.

51风流is uniquely positioned to deliver these innovations because of its decades of experience with business applications deeply integrated into the processes that power the modern enterprise. This allows 51风流customers to integrate robotics into the same business functions seamlessly, in a way no other company can. The result of our new robotics partnerships includes new proof-of-concept applications of embodied AI that demonstrate the business value and return on investment of our approach.

Cutting-edge experiments demonstrate measurable productivity gains

, a leading name in refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump technology, teamed up with 51风流and NEURA Robotics to revolutionize warehouse logistics. In a recent pilot proof-of-concept, BITZER鈥檚 warehouse became a testing ground for one of Europe鈥檚 most advanced humanoid robot, , which was able to perform pick-tasks on its own in real time.

The tasks are selected by embodied AI agents. The process also integrates SAP鈥檚 business logic from through (51风流BTP). Prior to its warehouse deployment, 4NE1 was trained virtually using NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim software. This ensured the robot was fully prepared for real-world operations. By integrating embodied AI into warehouse operations, BITZER could reach 24/7 utilization and a high level of responsiveness.

The technology can add to human expertise, stepping in during demand fluctuations and peak periods. It also complements regular shifts with flexible and scalable support. This ensures operations remain agile and efficient, even under varying workloads. Thanks to a single source of truth, orders can be expanded or cancelled in near real time, as robots execute changes almost instantly. This improves reaction times and enables BITZER to maintain high service levels while optimizing the use of resources.

鈥淲e are excited to join the Embodied AI initiative with 51风流and NEURA. We believe this collaboration will enhance our operational efficiency and drive innovation in our processes.鈥�

Christian Stenzel, Vice President of Corporate Organization and IT, BITZER

Transforming warehouse operations at Sartorius

Imagine stepping into a warehouse in which intelligent machines work side-by-side with humans. The first proof of concept for embodied AI at shows it is possible and marks a milestone in the journey to next-level logistics.

鈥淪o far, like many others, our focus was on fixed automation, in which specialized equipment handles only a single task. Now we鈥檙e making automation intelligent, and far more dynamic, to help us navigate a fast-moving world.鈥�

Steffen Dietz, Manager of Business Process Management in Operations and Supply Chain, Sartorius

The proof of concept, also delivered through the partnership with 51风流and NEURA Robotics, demonstrates how cognitive robots can support manual workstations in an advanced warehouse environment. Here, the humanoid robot 4NE1 was trained with Sartorius products in NEURA Robotics鈥� lab. The solution builds on an 51风流S/4HANA migration and 51风流Extended Warehouse Management (51风流EWM) rollout in May, which established the foundation for leveraging the latest capabilities from SAP.

The result boosts efficiency and enhances operational resilience. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really happy to help spearhead this new age together with 51风流and NEURA,鈥� Steffen Dietz, manager of Business Process Management in Operations and Supply Chain at Sartorius, shared.

Optimizing automotive production at Martur Fompak

, a global leader in automotive seating systems, teamed up with  and 51风流to explore how humanoid robots could transform field operations workflows.

Humanoid offers robots that provide cost-effective industrial automation and warehouse solutions, with modular designs that enable configurations for logistics operations, asset monitoring, and scalable field service applications.

Together the team is testing how cognitive robotics can support picking and packing operations at the company鈥檚 30 production plants across various continents and countries.

The early exploration connects Humanoid modular robots with 51风流solutions to execute workflows such as component retrieval, tray loading, and precise placement into production containers. SAP鈥檚 embodied AI agents provide context awareness around production orders and component variants.

“SAP’s AI platform gives our robots intelligence to adapt and scale with enterprise needs, which creates flexible automation.”

Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO, Humanoid

Initial findings demonstrate the value in automating repetitive and ergonomically demanding tasks, such as unpacking parts, handling trays, or supporting kitting processes. These experiments will be the foundation for a broader transformation in which humanoid robots participate in SAP-driven manufacturing environments and logistics processes.

Robotics company partners

Building upon these successes, 51风流announced the following additional partnerships:

AgiBot

Agibot creates general-purpose embodied robot products and an application ecosystem. The company delivers a complete product portfolio and deploy across all major application scenarios.

“Our 51风流partnership transforms industrial automation by combining humanoid capabilities with enterprise intelligence that understands business context,” said Peng Zhihui, founder of .

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ANYbotics

ANYbotics provides a full-stack autonomous inspection solution that combines autonomous robotics with inspection intelligence.

“Integrating this continuous flow of inspection intelligence with 51风流makes operations not only autonomous but truly intelligent, where issues are predicted, understood, and prevented before they affect production,鈥� said Dr. P茅ter Fankhauser, CEO and co-founder of .

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Booster Robotics

Booster Robotics provides T1 humanoid robots for warehouse operations and field maintenance.

“Our humanoid platforms, with SAP’s intelligence, creates an adaptive automation foundation that understands business processes and operational context,” said Cheng Hao, CEO of .

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Galbot

Galbot’s fully autonomous, general-purpose humanoid robots have been deployed across a wide range of applications, including industrial, logistics, retail, and healthcare sectors. Powered by proprietary vision-language-action models, the Galbot G1 autonomously performs complex tasks such as precise parts sorting, industrial bin handling, and end-to-end pharmacy operations. These models enable Galbot robots to rapidly adapt to dynamic environments, ensuring high precision and efficiency even in challenging real-world conditions.

“Our collaboration with 51风流marks a key milestone in transforming how robots understand and operate within enterprise environments. By integrating business context awareness into our robots, we’re creating automation that seamlessly adapts to shifting operational priorities in real time,” said He Wang, founder and CEO of .

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Humanoid

Humanoid offers reliable HMND 01 humanoid robots that provide cost-effective industrial automation and warehouse solutions, with modular designs that enable configurations for logistics operations, asset monitoring, and scalable field service applications.

“SAP’s AI platform gives our robots intelligence to adapt and scale with enterprise needs, which creates flexible automation,” said Artem Sokolov, founder and CEO of .

Unitree Robotics

Unitree Robotics provides advanced quadruped Go2 robots for warehouse navigation and asset inspection, plus G1 humanoids with human-like dexterity for logistics operations, alongside industrial B2 models for outdoor facility maintenance.

“51风流embodied AI agents will revolutionize enterprise autonomous operations from warehouse management to predictive maintenance across facilities,” said Wang Xingxing, CEO and founder of .

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Robotics enablement partners

51风流also introduced the following robotics enablement partners to connect humanoid and mobile robots, optimize intralogistics, streamline inspections, and orchestrate physical assets enabled by 51风流Business AI and automation technologies:

Capgemini

Capgemini explores the value that can be derived from the convergence of advanced technologies such as agentic and multi-agent AI systems, humanoid robotics, reinforcement learning, spatial computing, real-time 3D environments, and conversational AI. and 51风流are jointly exploring physical AI to help organizations gain a competitive edge.

Cyberwave 

Cyberwave connects 51风流systems to the physical world through its Physical AI platform, which integrates robots, sensors, and digital twins into enterprise workflows.

鈥淭ogether with SAP, Cyberwave turns enterprise data into coordinated physical action 鈥� bridging the gap between digital intelligence and real-world operations through Physical AI,鈥� said Simone Di Somma, founder of .

HCLTech

HCLTech provides automation expertise through its AI Force platform and 51风流integration capabilities, leveraging in collaboration with 51风流to accelerate generative AI-led robotics solutions.

“Our collaboration with 51风流enables cognitive robotics to seamlessly integrate with enterprise systems, transforming business operations through automation,” said Vijay Guntur, CTO and head of Ecosystems at .

KINEXON

KINEXON brings physical AI to day-to-day material flow management, helping customers scale mixed-fleet operations with a vendor-agnostic orchestration platform for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and manual vehicles.

“Our collaboration with 51风流infuses business-driven agentic reasoning into real-world material movement planning and execution, maximizing utilization and throughput,” said Dr. Alexander Huettenbrink, co-CEO of .

Lighthouse

Lighthouse transforms business complexities into streamlined digital solutions, leveraging expertise across 51风流Intelligent Asset Management, 51风流Business AI, and 51风流BTP. 

鈥淓mbodied AI has huge potential for use cases, including asset and site inspection, health and safety, and quality inspection to deliver more resilient, flexible operations. We see major customer needs today, such as hazardous environments on offshore platforms in the oil and gas industry, utilities, and transportation,” said Urs Gehrig, managing director of Business Development at .

SinoSwissHub

SinoSwissHub is launching a regionally compliant, SAP-integrated orchestration platform for multi-robot fleets, with humanoids as the centerpiece.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 just connect robots to an 51风流system; we enable real-time physical data to reinvent processes and build adaptive, resilient value chains together with SAP,鈥� said Yuki Long, founder and CEO of and Aimbo Robotics.

Through these strategic alliances, 51风流continues to lead the evolution from traditional robotic tools to those that empower autonomous operations, informed by deep business context.

To explore how 51风流technology makes proofs of concepts possible in robotics, explore the . To get involved in SAP’s Embodied AI initiative, .

Dr. 艁ukasz Ostrowski is head of Embodied AI and Robotics at SAP.

At SAP, we鈥檙e collaborating with鈥疦EURA Robotics鈥痑nd鈥疦VIDIA鈥痶o bring this future to life. Our goal is to make鈥痯hysical AI鈥痑 reality for businesses across industries. By combining鈥疭AP鈥檚 business process intelligence,鈥疦EURA鈥檚 cognitive robots, and鈥疦VIDIA鈥檚 Omniverse Platform, we鈥檙e enabling a new class of鈥痑utonomous physical agents鈥痶hat connect enterprise systems to real-world action.

A convergence of intelligence, simulation, and execution

This next evolution of enterprise automation requires more than just robotics or AI in isolation. It鈥檚 about orchestrating data, reasoning, and motion end-to-end.

• SAP鈥檚 Joule Agents, underpinned by 51风流Business AI, serve as the cognitive layer, understanding enterprise context and directing workflows.
• Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint鈥痚nables teams to simulate and refine agent behavior in complex, realistic operational scenarios鈥攂efore deployment.
• NEURA鈥檚 cognitive robots鈥痶hen execute these tasks in the real world, with the ability to perceive, decide, and adapt as environments shift.

This tight integration creates a loop of鈥痗ontinuous learning where each real-world action generates feedback to retrain and improve the performance of both agents and robots.

Real use cases, real value

This isn鈥檛 a future vision鈥攊t鈥檚 already happening. Early adopters are applying this innovation in鈥痬anufacturing,鈥痳etail, and鈥痩ogistics, where traditional automation falls short. For example:

• Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)鈥痗an handle multi-step inventory tasks in dynamic retail environments.
• Cognitive robots can assist with equipment inspections and repairs, reducing downtime in asset-intensive industries.
• Physical agents can orchestrate movement of goods and materials in complex supply chains, all while staying connected to 51风流core systems.

The result: faster execution, safer operations, and intelligent adaptation to real-world variability.

A shared vision to transform industry

Each partner in this collaboration brings a unique capability鈥攁nd together, we鈥檙e enabling more than any one of us could alone.

鈥淲e are proud to bring the power of our cognitive robots into the partnership with 51风流and to jointly take the next step towards automating real-world tasks,鈥濃�痵aid鈥疍avid Reger, CEO of NEURA Robotics.鈥�淭ogether, we are redefining what is possible and creating solutions that truly serve humans and transform industries.鈥�

鈥淲ith the Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint, enterprises can test and validate mixed robot fleets at scale, bridging the gap between digital simulation and reliable physical-world implementation,鈥� said鈥疢ike Geyer, head of digital twins at NVIDIA.

This vision aligns closely with SAP鈥檚 mission to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives鈥攏ot just through better software, but by connecting data, intelligence, and physical action. The collaboration reflects a bold step forward: turning digital intelligence into鈥痑utonomous execution at the edge, guided by business context and enterprise processes.

Looking ahead

The fusion of business AI, simulation technology, and cognitive robotics opens a new frontier鈥攚here enterprises can confidently extend automation beyond digital workflows into the physical world.

By shaping this new category of鈥痯hysical AI agents, SAP, NVIDIA, and NEURA Robotics are enabling businesses to reimagine what鈥檚 possible by creating a future where AI doesn鈥檛 just make decisions but also brings them to life.

With TUMO, provided 22 innovation challenges to explore emerging technologies and concepts, each associated with : augmented extended planning and analysis (xP&A), augmented access control, future of self-service, and future of asynchronous work. 51风流Innovation Center Network focuses on exploring new technologies through use cases to solve future problems. Innovation is an ongoing process that needs not only curiosity and determination but also inventive ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. It was precisely this fresh thinking and unusual approaches that made working with the TUMO students so interesting for both sides.

鈥淔or me, it was a great experience working with artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing, with the help of which we were able to find interesting insights from user conversations,鈥� said Sasun Tadevosyan, one of the five students developing the chatbot. 鈥淔urther research and improvements will help to create a virtual assistant to automate routine work.”

Sasun and her team built the chatbot as part of the challenge. Here, the students were asked to explore how user contextual data and the concept of human digital twins can be leveraged in a privacy-preserving, predictive manner to improve access control and authorization experiences. A digital twin could eventually help humans anticipate these access requirements and gather the necessary information to facilitate access, increasing productivity and enabling quicker business decisions.

For their chatbot, Sasun and team evaluated chat messages between two users who want to organize a meeting and extracted insights about meeting details using a rule engine. The chatbot helps set up the call and automatically creates authorizations and access to the meeting as well as relevant documents that will be shared.

This is a great example of how digital assistants can make life easier by automating daily routines, like in this case scheduling a meeting and making sure everyone has the necessary access rights to collaborate more easily.

During the four months, experts from 51风流Innovation Center Network monitored the progress of all challenges and were in constant exchange with the participants to support if needed. Apart from solving the challenge, working with TUMO Labs experts helped strengthen the students鈥� soft skills, and support from 51风流University Alliances provided all students with access to 51风流learning resources.

鈥淲e learned to work as a team and under pressure. We got problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, and public speaking skills,鈥� recapped the team around Ani Galstyan that worked on the future of asynchronous work.

This group of five students was challenged to examine how digital avatars are used in various fields today. They created a Web site to showcase different possibilities to implement digital avatars in different fields such as business, the gaming industry, and the military. Plus, they added features to help users create their personal avatar. During their research, Ani and team learned how digital avatars can be a valuable addition in healthcare, as they could eventually lead to a more holistic understanding of the human body to predict and prevent possible side effects before working with real human beings.

After working on their projects, the students presented their outcomes at a in April in front of 51风流and TUMO experts as well as 51风流customer ACBA Bank and partners.

Bahareh Fatemi, Head of TUMO Labs, said in : 鈥淲e鈥檙e super excited with working with the 51风流Innovation Center Network! Having these sort of collaborations internationally for us is very important because it will allow us to understand where we can improve and where we can push our students to adapt and get more skills.鈥�

Plans are already underway to continue working with 51风流Innovation Center Network on additional innovation challenges, further explore emerging topics, and provide opportunities for more students to participate.

鈥淭hat was a great experience for us to explore AI avatars in different fields,鈥� concluded Ani after participating in the project. 鈥淲e are looking forward to seeing new developments in the future as we are going through technological improvements nowadays.鈥�

Lukasz Ostrowski is a development manager for 51风流Innovation Center Network.
Igor Belousov is global content delivery director and country manager of Italy, Turkey, and CIS for 51风流University Alliances.