Our robots work where people work: welding bays, heavy manufacturing floors, places with extreme heat and hazardous materials. Those environments are hard on people, which is why protective clothing for skilled trades is a mature industry with real standards behind it. There is no equivalent for robots. So we are working with Under Armour to find out what one should look like.

Why does a robot need clothes?

A humanoid working next to an arc takes the same punishment a welder does. Radiant heat, spatter, abrasion against steel, dust, and the wear that comes from repeating the same movement thousands of times. The difference is that a person changes their clothing and a robot does not, so anything covering it has to last considerably longer than a jacket would.
That matters commercially as much as technically. Reliability in the field is what decides if an industrial robot earns its keep, and a lot of the failures in harsh environments start at the surface.

Persona AI today announced a research and development collaboration with Under Armour (NYSE: UAA) to learn how advanced performance materials will support the next generation of humanoid robotics operating in demanding environments. Persona AI Industrial Design

The work is early stage research and testing. We are examining how different textiles behave under heat, friction, and repetitive motion, and what external material layers do for durability, thermal regulation, and overall performance in real conditions. Under Armour brings the materials expertise. Kyle Blakely, their senior vice president of innovation, design studio, development and testing, put it as applying performance thinking to a new kind of body, with thermal management, abrasion resistance and flexibility all translating beyond sport.

Setting the standard

Protective gear for people is governed by decades of testing and certification. Nothing comparable exists for humanoid robots, because until recently there were not enough of them doing hazardous work for the question to come up. We would like to help set that standard rather than wait for someone else to. As humanoids take on more of the physically demanding work, the equipment protecting them should be as well understood as the equipment protecting the people beside them.

Is this a product, or research?

This is research, not a product. There is nothing to buy and no date attached. It sits alongside the rest of the work on making a humanoid survive an industrial environment rather than merely operate in one.

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