Humanoid & robot atlas
NEXTAGE
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CommercialJapan

Kawada Industries (robot business now Kawada Robotics Corporation) · industrial humanoid

NEXTAGE

A two-armed upper-body humanoid with stereo cameras in its head, designed to work next to factory staff without safety cages. Upper body only, on a movable base.

Price
—Not published
Height
—Not published
Weight
—Not published
Payload
—Not published
Speed
—Not published
Battery
—Not published
Maker's website Simulate in your job Compare

Official maker page, not an affiliate link. Checked 2026-10-10.

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Why it matters

One of the first humanoid-shaped (head plus two arms) robots sold for factory work alongside people.

Real-world use

Used on Japanese assembly lines; open version NEXTAGE OPEN followed in 2013 and NEXTAGE Fillie in 2022.

Timeline

First shown
2009-11
Released
Not yet
International Robot Exhibition 2009, Tokyo (ribbon-cutting ceremony)

Maker

Kawada Industries (robot business now Kawada Robotics Corporation)Company

Part of the KTI Kawada Group; no external funding rounds reported.

What it has been shown doing

3 of 14 skills we track, each from a public video or report. Demos can be staged or remote-controlled; we say so when the source does.

  • Pick & sortOn siteAutonomouspart picking and serving, inspection and testing on GLORY's robot line · May 2011 · corporate.glory-global.com
  • Assemble partsOn siteAutonomousNEXTAGE units run an automated product assembly line at GLORY's Saitama factory · May 2011 · corporate.glory-global.com
  • Works on siteOn siteAutonomousin production at GLORY's Saitama factory since 2011, fleet grew to 17+ units · May 2011 · corporate.glory-global.com

Not shown yet:FoldKitchenToolsFineStairsTerrainGet upRunJumpCarryAutonomous

Public attention

How much public attention NEXTAGE gets, from open data.

  • No Wikipedia article of its own yet
  • 6 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
  • 1 reported deployment

Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured

What’s inside

The parts the company has talked about publicly.

Movement
Stationary
Actuators & motors
All axes use low-power actuators under 80 W so it can work without a safety fence after risk assessment.
Hands
Interchangeable end effectors.5 kg per hand.
Sensors & vision
Stereo head camera for 3D distance measurement and hand cameras for close detail.
Compute
Controller built into the robot ('all-in-one' arms, vision and controller).
Battery & power
No battery; runs on 85-264 V AC mains.
AI & software
QNX real-time OS; NxProduction workflow tool with C# plug-ins; research version NEXTAGE OPEN supports ROS and OpenRTM-aist.
Other details
15 DoF (6 per arm, 2 neck, 1 waist); 28 kg. Electromagnetic brakes hold the arms on power loss; optional ISO 10218 safety-rated monitored stop with third-party certification.

Named suppliers:ROS (Open Robotics)QNX

Lineage

Every Kawada Industries humanoid in order.

  1. isamuisamu2001Retired
  2. HRP-2 PrometHRP-2 Promet2002Retired
  3. HRP-3 Promet Mk-IIHRP-3 Promet Mk-II2007Retired
  4. HIROHIRO2009Discontinued
  5. NEXTAGENEXTAGE2009Commercial
  6. HRP-4HRP-42010Discontinued

Made, sold and where

Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.

Price
Not published
How to get one
Maker's website
Where it is sold or used
Japan
Customers and pilots
GLORY LTD. (flexible assembly line using NEXTAGE, 5th Robot Award 2012)

Where it works

1 reported deployment.

Map
  • Deployed

    GLORY Ltd. · since 2012

    GLORY built a flexible automated assembly line around NEXTAGE robots, which won a Japanese Robot Award in 2012. Kawada Robotics

News

The latest 6, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

  1. NEXTAGE used for robot motion-data collection demos at iREX 2025

    Kawada showed NEXTAGE linked with Keio University's real-haptics technology and a University of Tokyo Matsuo Lab data-collection platform for robot foundation models.

    MONOist (ITmedia)
  2. NEXTAGE Fillie launched

    Kawada released NEXTAGE Fillie, shown at iREX2022 and winner of a Red Dot award.

    Kawada Robotics Corporation
  3. NEXTAGE NXA series released

    A new NEXTAGE generation (NXA) was released.

    Kawada Robotics Corporation
  4. NEXTAGE OPEN and Good Design Gold Award

    Kawada announced the research version NEXTAGE OPEN, and NEXTAGE won a Good Design Gold Award.

    Kawada Robotics Corporation
  5. Robot Award with GLORY

    Kawada and GLORY won a Robot Award prize for a NEXTAGE-based flexible assembly line.

    Kawada Robotics Corporation
  6. NEXTAGE debuts at iREX 2009

    NEXTAGE was announced at the International Robot Exhibition and took part in its ribbon-cutting.

    Kawada Robotics Corporation

Sources

Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.

Kawada Robotics History Kawada Robotics Corporation NEXTAGE

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