Yaskawa Electric Develops Autonomous Robot System with Google DeepMind AI

Yaskawa pairs its MOTOMAN NEXT industrial robot with Gemini Robotics ER 1.6, enabling machines to plan and execute tasks from high-level verbal instructions without detailed programming.

KITAKYUSHU — Yaskawa Electric announced July 15 it has paired its MOTOMAN NEXT industrial robot with Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics ER 1.6 model, producing a system that interprets verbal commands, plans task sequences, and executes physical work without manual programming.

An operator gives a high-level instruction, “sort these parts”, and the robot determines what to do, then carries out the work using onboard machine vision, path planning, and force sensing. If the robot drops an object mid-task, it recognizes the error and retries. The system can also send restocking orders to enterprise software when parts run low.

Yaskawa distinguished the AI’s reasoning (“brain”) from the robot’s precision control functions (“body”), stating that reliable physical execution makes autonomous operation practical. The Kitakyushu-based manufacturer announced neither pricing nor a commercialization timeline; those details will follow later.

Labor shortages across Japanese manufacturing have intensified demand for automation in tasks too variable for fixed programming. Yaskawa, one of the world’s largest industrial robot makers, is betting that pairing large language models with proven hardware control can unlock that segment without requiring robotics expertise from end users.