As humanoid robots move from prototype to pilot programs to real-world deployments, their long-term success and scalability will require a robust “service infrastructure” along with technical breakthroughs to keep them reliable and cost-effective in the field. That’s the argument Jeff Pittelkow, managing director of agnostic robot service provider Roboworx, will make during his two presentations at the Humanoids Summit Silicon Valley in Mountain View, California, December 11-12.

Pittelkow, who leads Roboworx’s nationwide team of robotics-focused service experts, will participate in an expert panel, “Commercial Scaling of Humanoids: Metrics of Success in Deployment,” on December 11, and present an individual session, “Beyond the Breakthrough: Building Service Infrastructure for the Humanoid Era,” on December 12.

“If you don’t build a service strategy now, you’ll build it in crisis later,” Pittelkow said. “With studies showing 64% of customers rely on their robot OEM for service, those OEMs without a proactive service strategy risk customer frustration and stalled deployments. With one, service becomes a competitive differentiator that drives loyalty, uptime and substantial aftermarket revenue."

Pittelkow’s arguments are supported in a recent study by McKinsey & Company, which concluded that humanoid robots will only reach widespread adoption when they can support four essential criteria: safety; sustained uptime; dexterity and mobility; and cost efficiency. By creating a strategic service infrastructure, robot manufacturers can meet two of those benchmarks — maximize uptime at the lowest possible operational cost — while their technical teams work on the other two.

In his presentations, Pittelkow will also outline essential components of a successful service infrastructure. Roboworx has developed and fine-turned these components as the company’s nationwide network of robot technicians has collaborated closely with robot manufacturers building and scaling autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and collaborative robots across industries such as logistics, food services and hospitality.

Components of a comprehensive service model include:

• End-to-end installation and deployment management
• Preventive maintenance and remote diagnostics to maximize uptime
• Rapid, on-demand service and technical support for demonstrations/pilots
• Routine customer success check-ins and ongoing training to help facilities integrate humanoids into daily operations.

By deploying such a model, Roboworx has enabled robot manufacturers to reduce break/fix calls by more than 90%, decrease operational costs by 50% and increase customer deployments by up to 10 times.

“Lessons from working with AMRs and collaborative robots show that as deployments become more complex, service quality — not engineering alone — determines long-term success,” Pittelkow concluded. “The future of humanoids will be defined not only by how well they perform, but by how well they are supported."