International contract logistics service provider ID Logistics and technology company Terra Robotics entered into a strategic partnership on 1 November 2026. The aim of the cooperation is to establish the use of humanoid robotics on the shop floor of logistics properties and to transition promptly from the development phase to practical use cases. Over the next six months, an initial pilot operation under real-world working conditions is scheduled to launch at one of ID Logistics' operational sites.
With 450 contract logistics locations worldwide, 17 of which are in Germany, ID Logistics brings extensive experience to the collaboration. Logistics represents the third-largest economic sector in Germany and is characterised by standardised process steps repeated millions of times. In the assessment of Robin Otto, CEO of ID Logistics Germany, this structure holds considerable potential for automated systems, provided suitable areas of activity are precisely identified and tested. Murat Arpaci, CEO of Terra Robotics, emphasises that, alongside industrial manufacturing, logistics in particular is likely to be one of the core sectors for the commercial deployment of humanoid systems in the future.
Tandem development work
The foundation of the cooperation is a showcase initiated by both companies around twelve months ago. As part of this, the partners invested in two Unitree G1 EDU6 humanoid robots. The two units, named IDA at ID Logistics' site in Griesheim and Heinz at Terra Robotics' headquarters in Löhne, learned automated procedures simultaneously. This synchronous programming made it possible to bridge the physical distance between the development teams.
During this preparatory work, the systems were trained to distinguish cardboard boxes from shipping bags and to place the objects precisely into shipping boxes using five-fingered, tactile robotic hands. The tests to date also demonstrated that complex warehouse environments require differentiated robot types for specific requirement profiles. A universal hardware solution for all workflows does not exist, which is why Terra Robotics is pursuing a cross-manufacturer multi-brand strategy that includes platforms from UBTECH and Unitree, among others.
Roadmap for site operations
For the coming six months, the partners have defined a structured roadmap to prepare for practical testing on the logistics space. First, four to five potential areas of application such as order picking, sorting or packing will be analysed and evaluated with regard to their technical specifications. The companies will then select the most suitable scenario for the initial pilot run and provide the corresponding robot model. Following successful testing under real operational conditions, the range of tasks is to be gradually expanded to more complex value-added logistics services.
- —Identification and technical definition of four to five operational deployment scenarios in the warehouse environment
- —Manufacturer-independent model selection from Terra Robotics' portfolio for the defined task
- —Renewed tandem programming and test operation under real shop-floor conditions at ID Logistics
- —Step-by-step scaling and expansion of the scope of application to more demanding value-added services
