Accenture, together with Vodafone Procure & Connect and SAP, is piloting humanoid robotics in warehouse environments. The companies hope to demonstrate how physical AI can enhance operational efficiency, improve safety, and enable new approaches to workforce and business model design.
“Trained in digital twins and powered by physical AI, humanoid robots can reduce worker injuries and other warehouse safety incidents, lower overtime costs, and reduce dependency on temporary labor. Equally important, Vodafone Procure & Connect will gather valuable data and insights on robot deployment and performance as a basis for a future humanoid workforce solutions business,” Christian Souche, the Advanced Robotics lead at Accenture, said.
The pilot program was conducted at Vodafone Procure & Connect’s warehouse in Duisburg, Germany, where humanoid robots were deployed to operate alongside existing warehouse systems. The robot received inspection tasks via the SAP Extended Warehouse Management system and autonomously performed visual inspections throughout the facility.
Accenture and SAP, along with Vodafone Procure & Connect, are presenting the work at Hannover Messe 2026.
The company said the initiative reflects its focus on applying advanced robotics and physical AI in real-world industrial environments, helping organizations move from experimentation to practical deployment at scale. It also explores how humanoid robots could support the evolution of future workforce models and create new revenue opportunities across industries.
Inside the pilot
During the pilot, the humanoid robot identified operational inefficiencies, safety risks, and opportunities for optimization across warehouse processes.
It detected misplaced or damaged products, assessed pallet stacking and weight distribution, highlighted unused storage space, and identified potential hazards such as obstacles in aisles or misaligned pallets. The robot reported its findings and recommendations directly into the SAP system, enabling real-time visibility and more informed operational decision-making.
SAP led the integration of the robots into the warehouse management system, while Accenture designed and deployed the robot intelligence and operational framework, drawing on its expertise in physical AI, advanced robotics, and digital twin environments.
“Through this pilot, we are exploring how humanoid robotics can improve efficiency, safety, and operational visibility in our warehouse operations,” Reinhard Stefan Plaza Bartsch, global Network Logistics director at Vodafone Procure & Connect, said. “It also gives us a clearer view of how these capabilities could scale across our supply chain and support future business models.”
The humanoid robots used in the pilot are powered by Accenture’s Robot Brain solution, enabling them to interact naturally with human operators through voice, gestures, and text.
They are trained in digital twins of warehouse environments, built on Accenture’s Physical AI Orchestrator, which uses NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, the Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint, and the NVIDIA Metropolis libraries and Blueprint for video search and summarization for the deployment of visual AI agents, to go beyond single repetitive functions and learn new skills through imitation and reinforcement learning.
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