Hitachi and FANUC partner to commercialise Physical AI in factories
Hitachi factories in Ibaraki will validate AI-enabled FANUC robots before the partners target customer deployments from fiscal 2027.
Hitachi and FANUC have formed a strategic partnership to develop and commercialise Physical AI for industrial robots. Hitachi factories will be the first validation sites, with the partners aiming to begin customer deployments in fiscal 2027.
The companies will combine Hitachi's AI technologies, including HMAX Industry, with FANUC's industrial robots and robotics AI. Initial work at Hitachi manufacturing facilities in Japan's Ibaraki region will use the factories as a “Customer Zero” environment, allowing the systems to learn from production-site data under real operating conditions.
Validation will focus on picking parts of varying shapes and performing changeovers when production switches between products. The partners plan to measure recognition accuracy, robot motion, takt time and quality. They will also test Hitachi's edge-AI semiconductor with FANUC robots.
The work targets manufacturing tasks that still need human judgement when workpieces or conditions change, including parts handling, machine loading, assembly and material transfer. Hitachi and FANUC aim to establish the technology for real manufacturing environments by fiscal 2027, then jointly offer it to customers across sectors including automotive, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, logistics and food production.
The partnership extends FANUC's Physical AI work on perception and autonomous control for industrial robots, including support for open development platforms.