A robot employee is no longer the stuff of fiction. While large-scale factories have long made use of robotics, the idea of a salaried humanoid robot that works alongside staff in smaller factories has long seemed like merely a fantasy.

Now, however, it is a reality, offering not only quick and efficient work, but significant cost savings for both SMEs and larger companies. And at the heart of this revolution is pi4_robotics, a company based in Berlin, Germany, that not only makes and retails humanoid robots, but through its sister company Robozän, also hires them as staff.


Workerbot is a fully functioning robot, with a friendly, changeable face and arms which it uses to sort and inspect parts, lift items and perform other precise tasks. And while each workerbot is tailored to its specific role, like humans, they come in two basic forms.

“We have two workers: a man and a woman,” says Krinke. “The women, they have an arm length of up to 850mm and a payload of 5kg per arm, and the men, they have up to 1.4m long arms and they can lift up to 12kg.”

While robots have traditionally been seen as pieces of equipment akin to computers, machines and other assets, pi4 is in the business of providing robotic employees, which work separate to but alongside their human colleagues.

Most workerbots can be found working in small factories and manufacturing facilities, but they can do other tasks as well, including giving presentations and lectures and even, in one case, moderating a televised debate.

It is no surprise, then, that pi4 is leading by example, with a workforce that is 91% human and 9% robot.

“We have 50 employees and five robots working here in the company,” explains Krinke.  “The robots do presentations, and they do work in the manufacturing process.”

humanoid Robots hired by the hour

Pi4_robotics isn’t the only company offering humanoid robots for such applications, but it is a major player in Germany and, more significantly, offers a service which may well be unique around the world.

“We have a sister company, Robozän, which is the first company where you can hire humanoid robots for work paid per hour,” says Krinke. 

Marketed as a temporary employment agency for humanoid robots, the offering is impressive, as it provides opportunities to businesses on two fronts.

For those looking to affordably add a humanoid robot to their workforce, it provides a fully tailored robot that can be hired like a member of staff, without the high upfront costs normally required. Rates vary depending on the nature of the work, but for most positions the robots will cost the company €16 an hour.

For that you get a robot that is in many cases able to do the work of multiple people, never gets sick and can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week at quick speeds that meet the required cycle times of a fast-paced production schedule.

“If you let the robot work 24/7, then you end up with around €7,000 per month.”

However, for companies looking to make a passive income, Robozän also offers a service where companies can buy a robot from pi4_robotics, and hire it out to other companies through Robozän. For this service, the owner receives €8.50 for each hour the robot works – the German minimum wage at the time the service was launched.

“If you let the robot work 24/7, then you end up with around €7,000 per month,” says Krinke.  “If you imagine, you have a second salary just from the robot.”

Through this system, Robozän nets the €7.50 difference, covering all the insurance, support and setup costs associated with the robot.

“We have to provide insurance for your robot; we have to bring the robot to the workplace; we have to teach the robot what to do; we have to look for new customers to hire the robot and things like that,” Krinke explains.

“You as an owner, you don't have to do anything else: just own the robot and then you make a five-year contract through the company, and through the five years they look for a job for the robot, they take care of it, and every month you get the salary for the robot.”

The cheapest workerbot pi4 currently offers on its website costs roughly €69,500, meaning that if a robot were to work 24/7, its owners could cover the cost of the investment in the first ten months of the five-year contract.

Meet Karl: The robotic co-worker

The offering is well tailored to Germany, a nation where SMEs make up 99.5% of enterprises, manufacturing is a key economic sector and there is a strong push for what is known as Industrie 4.0: a strategic initiative to establish the country as a leader in advanced manufacturing solutions.

As a result, many companies have already made use of the service, with workerbots now employed in a host of different roles.




One such example is Karl, a second-generation workerbot.



Karl’s job is quality control, ensuring that the plastic cover for the washing machine’s display is not scratched, damaged or dirty.

And while this may seem like a minor role, employing the robot has resulted in significant cost savings for the company.

“Karl has been working 24/7 since 2012,” adds Krinke. “Before the robot came here we had three people for each machine: three shifts of three people, so the robot has replaced six workers here.”

Together but apart: Collaborative Robots are not the answer

One of the big buzzwords in this field – coined in part to allay fears around such automation – is collaborative robots. However, Krinke is keen to stress that the vision of robots working alongside humans in the same space, akin to Fry and Bender in Futurama, is more of a PR concept than a feasible reality.


With humans constantly in the robots area of work, it would need to repeatedly stop to ensure safety standards were maintained, because a human-robot collision could be incredibly dangerous.



In the future, Krinke says, it could become possible, but right now it would have too much of a negative impact on the production process.




This doesn’t mean that the robots work hidden away from the humans: quite the opposite. They work in the same rooms as humans, but in their own fenced-off spaces, where they are part of the team but work separately on their own tasks.


As part of this, the robot is designed to be easy to understand, with a face that not only gives it a more human feel, but acts as an easy to understand indicator of the robot’s status, smiling when all is functioning correctly, and looking sad if it needs maintenance.


Furthermore, pi4 plans to add additional capabilities to its robots to aid this kind of easy interaction.


Employee acceptance: Making a robot a co-worker

For large companies, many of whom already have robots within their workforce, adding a workerbot can be a fairly run-of-the-mill practice. However, for small companies, it can be a big step, and Robozän’s service is designed to make this process as smooth as possible.



“My experience is that the employees of the companies get a better feeling towards the robot, and they say 'ok, this is Karl' and everybody waves to Karl.”

An understandable concern for many companies is how their human employees will react to a new robotic co-worker. However, pi4 has designed the robots in such a way to encourage greater acceptance of their workerbots.


While a minor effort, this has the powerful effect of humanising the robot, and giving its human colleagues a sense of ownership and companionship with it.


Images courtesy of Giovanni Giuseppetti / pi4_robotics​​​​​​​

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