GXO CEO: Better robot hands, not Olympic-level humanoids, are what businesses really need

In today’s CEO Daily: Patrick Kelleher explains why robots that can do a Vulcan salute are more impressive than those that can run faster than Usain Bolt

The big leadership story: Offshore nuclear power: A question of ‘when, not if’

The markets: Stocks mixed after renewed Iran conflict and Warsh’s Jackson Hole comments

Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Last week’s World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing showcased more than 2,000 robots, one of which beat Usain Bolt’s world record in the 100-meter sprint. Another was able to surpass humans in a 2.88-meter standing high jump. But humanoids that can run and jump aren’t particularly useful to GXO Logistics CEO Patrick Kelleher. For his business, the ideal is one that has the strength to unload a truck, and the dexterity to sort lipstick—as some of the humanoids working in his operations can now do.

The $13.6 billion-a-year global logistics giant is running pilots with five humanoid-robotics providers, and another European pilot is expected later this year. A big focus is on what he calls “single-digit challenges”—getting robot hands to more closely mimic human hands. 

“One of the great innovations we participated in this year was working on the ability of humanoid hands to go like this,” Kelleher told me, moving his fingers apart and together in a gesture that reminded me of a Vulcan salute.  “This requires multiple flexible joints [and] will be game-changing in terms of what a humanoid can do.”

GXO is working with two kinds of humanoids: bipedals that walk around on two legs, and those that have a wheel and a base. What differentiates humanoids from industrial robots is their degrees of freedom, or ability to mimic the 200-plus movements that the human body is capable........

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