Swiss start-up Embodied AI unveils AIR, a wheeled humanoid for factories that it says learns a task from operator-guided runs within about a month
The EPFL spin-out says AIR is being tested with global manufacturers and plans CE marking for 2027. It names no customers and gives no price.
Embodied AI, a Lausanne robotics company with roots at EPFL, unveiled AIR at the Humanoid Europe 2026 summit in Munich on 6 November. AIR starts each job under the control of a human operator. Each run is recorded, and the company's AI learns from those recordings until AIR can do the task itself, “typically within a month,” the release says.
AIR runs on wheels rather than legs, with its motors, gearboxes and electronics in the torso and tendon-driven arms. The company says it is designed to the ISO/TS 15066 standard for robots working beside people, and that CE marking, needed to sell machinery in Europe, is planned for 2027. It says AIR is now being tested with global manufacturers, none named, and that it is starting plans for scaled production.
As evidence, the company cites a test by an unnamed consumer-electronics maker in which five funded start-ups tried a cable-handling task. It says it met every target, with 98% reliability against a 90% goal. The release calls this a customer proof of concept with data provided by Embodied AI, and does not say whether AIR itself was used.
“Safety and reliability are non-negotiable requirements of physical AI to enter the real world at scale,” said chief executive Francesco Stella. The release gives no price and no funding figure. The Switchboard noted AIR as a one-line item on 6 November; this is the full story.
- Claimed Embodied AI says AIR learns a task from recorded operator-guided runs, typically within a month, and runs on wheels. Embodied AI release, via Business Wire on Yahoo Finance
- Claimed The company says AIR is being tested with global manufacturers and that CE marking is planned for 2027. Embodied AI release, via Business Wire on Yahoo Finance
- Claimed It reports 98% reliability against a 90% goal in a proof of concept for an unnamed consumer-electronics maker, with data it supplied itself. Embodied AI release, via RoboticsTomorrow
Today in the November 7, 2026 edition · front page