Inovance Shows Its First Humanoid, a Wheeled Robot Built for Factory Heat and Dust

Chinese industrial automation supplier Inovance Technology has shown a humanoid robot for the first time. The InoBot W1 made its debut recently at an Industry Fair in Shanghai. It moves on wheels and is designed for factory conditions: heat, dust, tight aisles and work around the clock.

A liquid loop serves the robot’s onboard NVIDIA Thor computer, which Inovance rates at 2,070 TOPS. The company says the computer can run at full load for long periods in temperatures above 40°C. Because cooling is centralized, the robot needs fewer fans. That keeps operating noise under 60 decibels and gives the body IP54 protection against dust, splashes and oil mist.

Omnidirectional steering wheels let it work in narrow spaces and turn in place. A 3.6 kWh battery pack lasts for one day or night shift. Two battery modules can be swapped while the robot runs, so it can stay in production 24/7.

The W1 is built in separate modules: chest, arms, end effectors, folding mechanism and chassis. Inovance says this makes it easier to build and maintain. Each arm can be fitted with a gripper, a dexterous hand, a pneumatic gripper or a suction cup. The seven-axis arms are Inovance’s own, with a force sensor in every joint. The company puts force-control accuracy at the arm’s end within 3 newtons, which is enough for picking, plugging and fastening. The arms also detect collisions in real time. An EtherCAT bus synchronises the whole body to the millisecond, and the torso, arms and chassis are controlled as a single motion model.

For manufacturers, the design seems to solve for long shifts in hot, dirty settings: liquid cooling, sealing against dust and oil mist, a small footprint and swappable batteries. Offers off-the-shelf tool options and industrial fieldbus control aims to fit the robot into existing cells.

Inovance plans to release a software development kit covering everything from sensors to whole-body control. It will also offer a data collection and training platform, and work with AI partners on robot models.