HANNOVER MESSE 2026: Accenture, Vodafone Procure & Connect and SAP pilot humanoid robotics in warehouse operations

Accenture, together with Vodafone Procure & Connect and SAP, announced at HANNOVER MESSE 2026 that it is piloting the use of humanoid robotics in warehouse environments, demonstrating how physical AI can enhance operational efficiency, improve safety and enable new approaches to workforce and business model design.

Accenture said that the initiative reflects its focus on applying advanced robotics and physical AI in real-world industrial environments, helping organizations move from experimentation to practical deployment at scale. The company said that it also explores how humanoid robots could support the evolution of future workforce models and create new revenue opportunities across industries.

Humanoid pilot program details

The pilot program was conducted at Vodafone Procure & Connect’s warehouse in Duisburg, Germany, where humanoid robots were deployed to operate alongside existing warehouse systems. The robot received inspection tasks through the SAP Extended Warehouse Management system and autonomously carried out visual inspections across the facility.

“Trained in digital twins and powered by physical AI, humanoid robots can reduce worker injuries and other warehouse safety incidents and lower overtime costs and the dependency on temporary labor,” said Christian Souche, advanced robotics lead at Accenture. “Equally important, Vodafone Procure & Connect will gather valuable data and insights on robot deployment and performance as a basis for a future humanoid workforce solutions business.”

During the pilot, the humanoid robot identified operational inefficiencies, safety risks and optimization opportunities across warehouse processes. It detected misplaced or damaged products, assessed pallet stacking and weight distribution, highlighted unused storage space, and identified potential hazards such as obstacles in aisles or misaligned pallets. Accenture said that the robot reported its findings and recommendations directly into the SAP system, enabling real-time visibility and more informed operational decision-making.

“Through this pilot, we are exploring how humanoid robotics can improve efficiency, safety and operational visibility in our warehouse operations,” said Reinhard Stefan Plaza Bartsch, global network logistics director at Vodafone Procure & Connect. “It also gives us a clearer view of how these capabilities could scale across our supply chain and support future business models.”

SAP led the integration of the robots into the warehouse management system, while Accenture designed and deployed the robot intelligence and operational framework, drawing on its background in physical AI, advanced robotics and digital twin environments.

“At Vodafone Procure & Connect, we're leveraging Joule, SAP’s AI execution fabric and interface for embodied AI, connecting robots to end-to-end processes and business logic and enabling them to know why, when and how to act,” said Dr. Lukasz Ostrowski, head of Embodied AI & Robotics, SAP. “By grounding actions in trusted SAP data, we can automate health and safety incident reporting and real-time inventory validation to protect workers and strengthen compliance through consistent auditable workflows.”

Accenture said that the humanoid robots used in the pilot are powered by its Robot Brain, enabling them to interact naturally with human operators through voice, gestures and text.

They are trained in digital twins of warehouse environments, built on Accenture’s Physical AI Orchestrator, which uses NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, the Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint and the NVIDIA Metropolis libraries and Blueprint for video search and summarization for the deployment of visual AI agents. Accenture said this allows the robots to go beyond single repetitive functions and learn new skills through imitation and reinforcement learning.