You won’t find a robot doing a coffee run just yet, but Mercedes-Benz is using humanoid robot assistants for some low-skill, repetitive manufacturing tasks.

The German automaker has been working with the Industrial Revolution-style robot called “Simplicity” ( developed by Universal Robots and two engineers who had previously worked on the Rezero project).

Simplicity has an interesting task: to fill an assembly cart with parts and tools needed for vehicle assembly. It’s a job that requires a great deal of accuracy but little decision-making.

While it might seem like a fairly simple task, it’s one that requires a high degree of precision, and it’s here that Simplicity and its cohort of five other similar robots shine. Together, the robots are able to accurately and consistently perform these repetitive tasks, and free up human workers to do more skilled work.

Using robots for manufacturing tasks is nothing new, but there are some interesting features of this project. The robots are mobile, and can be wheeled around on a cart to wherever they are needed on the assembly line. As such, they can be used in a variety of different tasks, and are not fixed to one specific role.

Additionally, the robots use a simple, accessible interface, so human workers can easily communicate job instructions to them.

It’s an interesting development, and one which shows how robotics and human workers can coexist and even complement one another in a manufacturing setting.

For now, these robots are a novelty, but as costs associated with them drop, and their abilities increase, they might become more common on assembly lines.

Humanoid robots like Simplicity could become an everyday tool and a reliable assistant to human workers in the near future. It will certainly be interesting to observe their integration and impact on the workforce.