Midea Group, one of the world’s largest home appliance manufacturers, has put its six-armed humanoid robot to work.
The Chinese HVAC leader says it’s testing the robot, named Miro U, at its washing machine factory in Wuxi. It’s designed to perform several steps simultaneously. Because all six arms are controlled together, the humanoid can build, fasten, and inspect parts all at once instead of doing each step one after another. The company is aiming for a 30 percent boost in line-change efficiency.
Miro U is a modified version of Midea’s two-armed humanoid that’s already working in washing machine manufacturing facilities in Jingzhou.
The Foshan-based company has significant in-house robotics capabilities and an industrial customer base to sell into thanks to its 2016 acquisition of KUKA, a German industrial automation leader. Midea made its humanoid ambitions public in March 2025, when it showed its first prototype and announced a dedicated humanoid robot innovation center.
Midea says it’s developing a suite of wheeled, bipedal, and so-called super-humanoid robots. Its first super-humanoid robot is called MIRO-U, which has three arms on each side for maximum efficiency in factory jobs. MIRO-U is meant for industrial sites where efficiency matters more than humanlike aesthetics.
According to Midea, the six-armed robot unlocks simultaneous multi-task operations previously impossible for two-armed humanoids and industrial robots. Built on a heavy-duty wheeled AGV chassis, MIRO-U supports stable vertical lifting and 360-degree on-the-spot rotations. Its mechanical arms support quick switching between different end effectors like grippers and dexterous five-fingered hands.
Its two-armed wheeled humanoid, Miro, is reportedly performing material transport, tub handling, inspection, and other repetitive tasks at the manufacturer’s Jingzhou washing-machine factory. The company plans to validate their robots at its own facilities before attempting wider commercialization.
Founded in 1968, Midea has a massive global manufacturing footprint to test its next-generation tech. It runs 63 production bases with a workforce exceeding 150,000 people. Its major overseas production bases span Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, and India.