What Will The Age Of Humanoid Robots Mean For Lighting?

In 2025, the humanoid robot industry transitioned from experimental prototypes to early-stage industrial deployment. The adoption timeline is expected to follow a three-stage trajectory: moving from structured industrial environments to business services and eventually to private households.

In industrial and logistics applications, there are currently less than 1,000 humanoid robots active in automotive factories and warehouses, globally. However, Tesla projects scaling to 100,000 of its Optimus bots by the end of 2026, and BYD projects 20,000 of its bots produced by the end of 2026. In 2027, unit economics are expected to reach a tipping point for industrial applications with deployment costs declining by 20–25% annually. When the bots begin commercial services adoption, it’s projected that by 2030 annual global shipments will reach between 1 million to 10 million units, and approximately 13 million humanoid bots will be in active circulation by 2035.

So what does this mean for lighting, when people and these bots work together in the same spaces?Humanoid robots will act as a major catalyst for the machine vision industry, driving demand for sophisticated 3D, multi-sensor, and AI-powered perception systems to navigate human environments. For the lighting industry, this will lead to innovations in adaptive, human-and machine-compatible lighting solutions that ensure safety and optimal performance for both humans and robots in shared spaces.

Impact on the Lighting Industry

Humanoid robots will transform the lighting industry, shifting the focus towards creating environments optimized for both human visual comfort and machine perceptual accuracy.

• Development of Robot-Inclusive Lighting Standards: Environments with human-robot collaboration will require lighting that minimizes challenges like shadows, glare, and reflections, which can hinder robot vision systems. New standards are expected to emerge that ensure consistent and even illumination, likely leveraging technologies such as diffused lighting sources and high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging techniques.
• Adaptive and Smart Lighting Systems: The need for robots to function in various lighting conditions (from low-light warehouses to bright outdoor environments) will drive demand for AI-driven adaptive lighting systems that can adjust brightness, color temperature, and intensity in real time.
• Specialized On-Robot Lighting: To counteract inconsistent ambient light, robots will increasingly incorporate their own specialized, controlled lighting sources (e.g., strobing LEDs or specific wavelength emitters) that overpower external interference and provide optimal illumination for their tasks.
• Human Emotional Lighting: In service applications (e.g., healthcare or hospitality), lighting integrated into the robots themselves will be used to communicate and enhance human-robot interaction. For example, using warm or cool lighting colors can influence human perceptions of the robot as “warm” or “competent,” a factor in user acceptance.

To function in diverse lighting (from tunnels to sunlight), humanoid vision systems rely on active illumination. This includes structured light, which projects patterns (grids or dots) for short-range, high-precision tasks like small object identification. Infrared (IR) lighting will utilize IR spectrum for reliable depth sensing without being affected by ambient light changes.

The robotic industry is developing “mimic-human” sensors that pre-process light information at the source, allowing robots to adapt instantly to extreme lighting transitions (e.g., exiting a dark warehouse into bright sunlight). Multispectral & hyperspectral illuminators are being utilized to help robots distinguish material compositions (e.g., identifying different plastics for recycling) and improve color accuracy for quality inspection. Miniaturization innovations are pushing toward ultra-compact lighting and vision modules, with some 4K-resolution units now measuring under 15mm³ to fit the mobile, agile form factors of humanoids (15mm³ is a cube measuring less than 2.5mm per side edge).

Ready or not, the age of humanoid bots has started. Robots have their own set of lighting needs, just as humans do. Lighting in the next 5-10 years will need to evolve to meet the needs of both people and these bots, when operating together in human spaces.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and President of Lighting Solution Development, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has co-chaired ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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