Mitsubishi to Build 1,000 Humanoid Robots Monthly in Kyoto
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- Mitsubishi Motors plans to produce up to 1,000 Highlanders humanoid robots per month at one of its ICE engine plants in Kyoto, with mass production potentially beginning as early as next year.
- Mitsubishi and Highlanders — a startup spun out of the University of Tokyo — signed an MOU last month to co-develop the humanoids and deploy them first inside Mitsubishi's own manufacturing facilities.
- Under the agreement, the humanoids could eventually build themselves at Mitsubishi's former Kyoto engine plant, which the company is repurposing for robot production.
- The flagship HL Human platform features a 19-degree-of-freedom body with high-output electric actuators designed to enable human-like movement.
- The robots are designed to autonomously perform complex industrial tasks using AI-powered perception, motion planning, and natural-language interaction with human co-workers, targeting manufacturing, logistics, construction, and disaster response.
- Takao Kato, chairman and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, framed the collaboration as "a challenge aimed at building a new industrial foundation in which humans and robots work together."
Why it matters: Mitsubishi is converting an ICE engine plant into a humanoid robot factory — converting a sunset asset into a growth bet. At 1,000 units per month, Mitsubishi could emerge as a significant supplier in an industrial humanoid market currently led by Hyundai and a handful of EV-adjacent firms, while using the robots in its own plants to offset the manufacturing labor shortages the company explicitly cites.
