This Cute Robot Dog May Help Build Your Next Mercedes-Benz

Our robot overlords have been helping us make cars

If you’ve ever watched videos of a car factory, you likely know that robots play a significant role in producing the cars on the road today. Usually, these robots typically appear as large orange or yellow arms that weld components together, paint body panels, and/or handle heavy lifting or repetitive tasks that could be taxing for human workers.

However, at Mercedes-Benz’s Sprinter van plant in Düsseldorf, Germany, the newest robotic recruit doesn’t look like a traditional robot at all. Instead, it strolls on four legs, has surprisingly good hearing, and answers to the name Aris. It’s the automaker's new robo-dog, but its purpose is not to build vans directly; it's here to make the entire process better for Mercedes-Benz.

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Aris is tasked with an important job at Düsseldorf

Unlike the kind of robot dogs you might see on YouTube doing tricks and innocuous tasks for their owners, Aris is tasked with a much more pressing task at Mercedes. His job is detecting compressed air leaks. Although it might not sound like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, compressed air systems are notorious energy hogs, especially in a facility like the 5,500-person, 325,000 square meter Sprinter factory in Düsseldorf. Just one unnoticed leak can cost thousands per year in wasted energy. 

According to the company, the robo-dog’s keen electronic ears and acoustic imaging module can localize noise anomalies and turn them into visual maps. That means that if it hears something hissing, squeaking, or buzzing where it shouldn’t, Aris will find it before it turns into a big and expensive problem. Mercedes claims that Aris’s proactive approach to maintenance prevents about 60% of energy loss from leaks, leading to annual savings in the six-figure range. 

However, Aris isn’t just tasked with checking for compressed air leaks. He can also inspect analog gauges and collect and log their data to make it easy for humans to review later. In addition, Aris can adapt to all kinds of inspection and monitoring tasks, as it can traverse stairs, patrol different facility areas, and check safety escape routes. Mercedes is also looking at future uses for Aris, like creating a digital twin for the Düsseldorf plant and allowing it to produce a complete, continuously updated 3D model of the factory floor that engineers can use to optimize workflow without shutting down production.

Aris isn't the first robot Mercedes put on duty

Aris is just the latest robotic experiment Mercedes-Benz is exploring in its production facilities. In March 2024, the automaker invested heavily in Austin, Texas-based robotics firm Apptronik. As recently as March 2025, its Apollo robots have been trialed at the Berlin-Marienfelde factory with internal logistics and repetitive tasks such as moving components and modules to the assembly line for skilled human technicians to install on cars.

Aris won't be the only robot working at the Düsseldorf plant, either. The facility is also introducing drone technology to assist with the less glamorous task of counting empty containers. Currently, employees are responsible for this routine job, but the AI-backed drone can identify load carriers based on their shape, outline, and dimensions. 

While this may not seem as exciting as a robot dog, it allows employees to avoid monotonous work, giving them more time to focus on higher-level problem-solving tasks. Interestingly, both the robot dog and the drone can connect to cloud applications, enabling them to eventually interact with each other and with other robots across different Mercedes-Benz plants, creating an ecosystem of digital coworkers.

Final thoughts

Mercedes is far from the only automaker experimenting with robots on the factory floor. For example, Tesla has been experimenting with further integrating its own Optimus humanoid robots both in its factories and outside with customers. 

In August 2024, Mercedes’ Bavarian rival BMW experimented with humanoid robots to "save employees from having to perform ergonomically awkward and tiring tasks." For several weeks, the automaker conducted a trial run of the Figure 02 humanoid robot from California-based company Figure. It "successfully inserted sheet metal parts into specific fixtures, which were then assembled as part of the chassis," a job that requires workers to be "particularly dexterous."

Although a technological future with robots and artificial intelligence may seem like virtual insanity, these technologies have the potential to make things operate more efficiently, which may ultimately produce a more competitively priced item.