Robots in the factory: from a cobot at a machine to an AMR with a pallet

From a single workstation, not from a vision of a factory without people

Robotization in mid-sized plants usually starts with a single workstation: machine tending, palletizing or internal transport. Grand visions of a “lights-out factory” are not reflected in what manufacturers offer and what can be bought in Poland.

On this page we collect what really works in factories today: cobots, mobile robots (AMRs) and, for now with great reservation, humanoids. No marketing, with prices where we know them.

The starting point in Poland: a lack of hands and rising labor costs

Poland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union (3.4% in July 2026 according to Eurostat, the second-lowest in the EU: Polskie Radio; the GUS registered rate for August 2026 was 5.8%, GUS data of 23 September 2026, via money.pl), and at the same time employers in production and logistics have for years been unable to find enough workers. According to a 2026 Capgemini Research Institute report, companies are driven to invest in physical AI above all by labor shortages (74% of respondents) and rising labor costs (69%) (Capgemini). According to Eurostat, the EU population aged 20–64 will fall from 263 million in 2025 to 198 million in 2100 (Eurostat). We write about this at greater length in “Humanoid Robots and the Polish Labor Market”.

In these figures a robot answers not the question “whom to lay off”, but “who will do this, if people to hire are scarce” — as the company responses in the Capgemini survey cited above show.

What robots in a factory can really do today

Cobots at the machine and on the pallet. A collaborative robot (cobot) is an arm with force sensors that can work close to a person if the risk assessment allows it. The tasks it handles best: tending CNC machines and presses, palletizing, packing, quality inspection, light assembly, screwdriving, glue dispensing. We break down the differences between a cobot and a classic industrial robot in “Cobot or Industrial Robot”.

The choice of models is huge. The UR5e (5 kg payload, 850 mm reach; Universal Robots) is the market benchmark, and the heavier UR10e (12.5 kg, 1300 mm reach; Universal Robots) reaches further; the manufacturer does not publish a price list, so prices have to be requested from distributors. The FANUC CRX family, for example the FANUC CRX-10iA (10 kg, 1249 mm reach; FANUC), has integrators in Poland, but the price is undisclosed. The Doosan M1013 (10 kg, 1300 mm reach) is available through Transition Technologies-CS, the official distributor of Doosan Robotics in Poland (Automatyka Online). The KUKA LBR iisy 6 R1300 (6 kg, 1300 mm reach) costs EUR 28,085 net at the German shop Unchained Robotics (Unchained Robotics), and the Neura LARA 8 (8 kg, 1300 mm reach; NEURA) EUR 21,900 net (Unchained Robotics), or about PLN 95,900 (≈ EUR 21,940 at NBP rate 4.3716 of 20 October 2026) at the NBP rate of 1 October 2026 (PLN 4.3770 per EUR). The price of the arm alone, however, should be treated as the start of the calculation, not the end.

Mobile robots (AMRs) for hauling. If your bottleneck is not the workstation but the transport of pallets and carts, you need an AMR. The MiR250 carries up to 250 kg (MiR) and needs no tracks or stickers on the floor. The AGILOX ONE copes with narrow aisles and loads up to 1,000 kg (AGILOX), and its Polish distributor ASTOR points to the option of borrowing a robot for a trial (ASTOR). The KUKA KMP 600P platforms, meanwhile, show the direction for larger plants: payloads up to 600 kg, inductive charging and 24/7 operation (Industrial Machinery Digest). AMR prices are almost always “on request”. You will find a general overview in “AMR Robots in the Warehouse” and in the category “Mobile robots (AMR)”.

Humanoids. Caution is needed here. According to our roundup in “Humanoid Robots in Factories 2026”, the best-documented Western deployment is Figure's pilot at BMW's Spartanburg plant: more than 1,250 hours of work and more than 90,000 sheet-metal parts loaded over 11 months, with the robot contributing to the production of more than 30,000 cars, as Figure itself reports (Figure). The other cases are mostly pilots and announcements. Prices for industrial customers are not public.

What robots will not do

A cobot will not replace an experienced operator in unpredictable tasks. It will not check by eye whether a part looks right, unless it gets a vision system and a program. Its speed is limited, so with a very short cycle time a classic caged robot is sometimes faster. A cobot also demands engineering work: a program, a gripper and a risk assessment. Manufacturers talk about “plug and play”, integrators about months of commissioning.

A humanoid, meanwhile, is still more a spectacle than a production tool. The deployment results we know come mainly from the manufacturers themselves, and prices for industrial customers are not public; details and limitations are covered in “Humanoid Robots in Factories 2026”. Do not plan a line on the basis of a demo video.

Examples from Poland and around the world

Several Polish plants are expanding production, but we do not know the details of their robotization. Volkswagen in Września is expanding capacity for the eCrafter (two new halls, PLN 1.5 billion (≈ EUR 0.34 billion); TVN24), Mercedes-Benz in Jawor is building a new warehouse and production hall (over EUR 25 million, over a thousand employees; City of Wrocław), and LG Energy Solution near Wrocław currently has a capacity of about 86 GWh (Invest in Wrocław). For none of them did we find a documented number or type of robots, so we do not give any. Amazon is opening its 12th center in Dobromierz in 2026, part of planned investments of PLN 23 billion (≈ EUR 5.26 billion) in 2026–2028; according to Amazon it is supported by more than 5,000 robots (Amazon), but their type has not been disclosed.

Worldwide: BMW with Figure in Spartanburg, and UBTech, which in November 2025 announced the start of mass deliveries of its Walker S2 humanoid (a first batch of several hundred units, with orders above 800 million yuan according to the company; UBTech release). Amazon uses its own robots, including the Proteus AMR and the Sparrow arm.

The buying path: an integrator, not just a seller

In Poland, you usually buy a robot together with its deployment. A distributor sells the arm, and an integrator designs the whole workstation. For Universal Robots, distribution is handled by Elmark Automatyka of Warsaw and CP Trade, among others, joined by 5sAUTOMATE, Adva, Bosky and easycobots (Automatyka Online). Dentec Robotics of Grodzisk Mazowiecki lists FANUC and KUKA among its partners and offers industrial robot integration (Dentec), Doosan sells through Transition Technologies-CS, and you will find Agilox at ASTOR. Among Polish companies, AIUT of Gliwice builds its own mobile robots and intralogistics systems (AIUT).

When choosing an integrator, check three things: references in a similar application, the scope of responsibility (risk assessment, documentation, training) and the availability of service. We describe this step by step in “How to Buy a Cobot Step by Step”. Accessories such as grippers, force sensors and safety scanners come from third-party suppliers, including OnRobot, Robotiq and SICK.

Costs and funding

The calculation starts with the arm, but does not end there. The price of the arm is the most comparable line item. Integration and engineering are often the most underestimated element. On top come the gripper, a vision system, fences or scanners, and training. We show how to calculate the whole using humanoids as the example in “Humanoid Robot TCO: How to Calculate Total Cost”; the logic of the calculation is the same.

Funding: Poland's robotization tax relief (ulga na robotyzację) lets you deduct an additional 50% of eligible costs from the tax base (CIT/PIT). Eligible items include factory-new industrial robots, related peripheral devices, safety and ergonomics systems, remote management and diagnostics systems, human–machine interaction devices, training and leasing that transfers ownership (podatki.gov.pl). The current rules cover the years 2022–2026; on 29 September 2026 the government adopted a bill extending the relief by 10 years (bill on gov.pl), which has not yet been enacted. Not every cobot qualifies automatically: the definition of an industrial robot is narrow, so check it with a tax adviser. Details: “Poland's Robotization Tax Relief”. We cover other programs (KPO, FENG, PARP, NCBR) in the funding section.

Bottom line

Start with one task that repeats many times during a shift and that nobody likes. Buy a cobot or an AMR from a manufacturer with Polish support, choose an integrator with references from your industry, and do a risk assessment according to “Robot Safety Standards”. Keep an eye on humanoids, but do not plan production around them in 2026. A robot that makes sense pays for itself at one workstation before you think about the next. Similar topics in the warehouse are covered on the page “Warehouse and logistics”, and you will find an overview of models in the category “Cobots”.