Why Manufacturers Shouldn’t Care If Their Robots Look Like Humans

BusinessManufacturingWhy Manufacturers Shouldn’t Care If Their Robots Look Like HumansByLisa Caldwell,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Lisa covers trends transforming/disrupting the manufacturing sector.Follow AuthorMay 12, 2026, 01:37pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.An obsession with today's humanized robots that go viral online is unlikely to move the manufacturing industry forward.picture alliance via Getty ImagesHere’s a familiar picture for most manufacturers. An engineer stands beside a paint operator on an assembly line. Together, they carefully adjust the angle of a shoulder, test the bend of an elbow, and tweak the rotation of a wrist. With each iteration, the process refines and the outcome improves. It’s a scenario playing out right now in plants and factories all over the country. But in this case, the engineer was me, the operator was a Fuji Automatic Numerical Control (FANUC) paint robot – and the year was 1989.An evolving story, not a new oneThat experience has stayed with me – not because it was unusual, but because it wasn’t. Industrial robots first appeared in the 1950s. By the 1980s, they were already operating at scale and during the 1990s, their capabilities expanded to ever more challenging applications. Fast forward to today and there are now more than five million industrial robots in operation worldwide – a number that continues to grow year on year. And while there’s no denying the transformative impact this is having across the manufacturing industry, we’re far from starting with a blank slate. Despite the sensational headlines, this isn’t a new story. It’s an evolution built on decades of trial, error, and hard-earned insight. Most importantly, the lessons we learned all the way back in the 80s still ring true. In robotics, performance always outweighs appearance.A human problemThat fundamental...