Bigwave Robotics to deploy humanoids at Space Factory modular housing sites

Bigwave Robotics is partnering with Space Factory to roll out humanoid robots across modular housing production and construction sites starting in 2026. The companies are targeting insulation installation first, aiming to automate high-risk work and build construction-specific Physical AI for a market under pressure from a global housing shortage.

Why it matters: - Modular housing is gaining urgency as a response to the worsening global housing shortage. - Bigwave Robotics is moving humanoids beyond factories and logistics into construction and modular housing. - The first use case targets insulation installation, a high-risk job that is difficult for conventional robots to handle. - The rollout is designed to support a longer-term shift toward unmanned production, including a possible Dark Factory model.

What happened: - Bigwave Robotics announced a strategic partnership with Space Factory to deploy humanoid robots at Space Factory’s production and construction sites in phases starting in 2026. - Space Factory is a wooden modular housing company with a highly automated production line. - The companies said the first targeted process is insulation installation.

The details: - Fiberglass insulation can harm workers’ respiratory and skin health. - The material is flexible and irregular, which has made it hard to automate with legacy robots. - Bigwave Robotics said humanoids will replace processes that conventional robots have not been able to handle. - The company aims to collect and analyze unstructured task data from real industrial sites to refine a Physical AI solution optimized for construction. - Space Factory has already standardized much of housing production through factory prefabrication. - Space Factory recently unveiled the Samsung AI Modular Home, which integrates Samsung Electronics’ AI and IoT technologies. - Bigwave Robotics said humanoid-related business accounts for about 20% of its total revenue this year. - The company said it has delivered robot solutions to major heavy industry affiliates, cosmetics companies and automotive parts manufacturers.

Between the lines: - The partnership is as much about data as deployment. Real-world construction work gives Bigwave Robotics a chance to train Physical AI on tasks that are difficult to model in a lab. - Modular housing is a logical entry point because factory-based production already has more structure than traditional construction. - If the insulation pilot works, the collaboration could extend humanoids into more steps of the modular housing workflow.

What’s next: - Bigwave Robotics and Space Factory will begin with insulation installation in 2026. - The companies plan to identify additional tasks that humanoids can automate at Space Factory sites. - Bigwave Robotics says it intends to expand construction-specific Physical AI into the broader modular housing market. - The partnership could become a template for wider humanoid adoption across construction and industrial automation.

The bottom line: - Bigwave Robotics is betting that humanoids can solve some of modular housing’s hardest and most hazardous tasks, starting with insulation and potentially scaling into a broader construction automation platform.