Overview

Industrial environments are difficult to automate. They’re dusty, cluttered, poorly lit, and constantly changing. For a humanoid robot to work reliably in a construction site, factory floor, or logistics warehouse, its perception system has to be just as rugged as the rest of it. Noble Machines built Moby to tackle the toughest industrial jobs, and selected the Orbbec Gemini 336L stereo 3D camera to give it the depth perception to do so reliably in demanding real-world environments.

Noble Machines Moby at Automate 2026

The Challenge: Perception That Works Where Humans Work

Most industrial automation is designed for structured, predictable environments. Humanoid robots face a harder problem: they need to operate where humans already work, in spaces that weren’t designed for automation, with irregular terrain, varying light, cluttered surroundings, and unpredictable objects.

For Noble Machines, building a robot capable of navigating stairs, scaffolding, and industrial floors while safely handling payloads and learning new tasks required a perception system that could deliver consistent, accurate depth data regardless of the environment it was deployed in.

The Solution: Noble Machines Moby with Orbbec Gemini 336L

Noble Machines, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and founded by engineers from Apple, SpaceX, NASA, and Caltech, emerged from stealth in 2026 with Moby, its first general-purpose humanoid robot built for hazardous and physically demanding industrial work.

Moby is designed to operate across manufacturing, logistics, construction, energy, and semiconductor environments. It can lift and transport up to 22 kg (50 lbs), navigate complex terrain including stairs, scaffolding, and unstable surfaces, and learn new skills in hours through physical demonstrations, language-based instructions, and gestures, without requiring months of custom programming.

At the core of Moby’s perception stack are Orbbec Gemini 336L stereo 3D cameras, providing the reliable depth perception Moby needs to understand and respond to its surroundings in dynamic and unstructured real-world conditions. The Gemini 336L’s active infrared stereo vision delivers stable depth data across indoor and outdoor environments, handling the variable lighting and complex scenes typical of industrial deployments.

Noble Machines Moby carrying payload

Orbbec Gemini 336L integrated in Noble Machines Moby

Results

Noble Machines delivered its first Moby robots to a Fortune Global 500 industrial customer within 18 months of the company’s founding, validating both the platform and the speed at which it can be deployed beyond demonstrations.

With Orbbec Gemini 336L providing reliable depth perception across the unpredictable environments where Moby operates, Noble Machines is making good on its mission to support people in the most hazardous and physically demanding industrial work, not in controlled labs, but on real job sites, alongside real crews.

About the Orbbec Gemini 336L

The Orbbec Gemini 336L is a long-range active and passive stereo 3D camera with a 95 mm baseline and IP65-rated dust and water protection, built for reliable depth perception in indoor and outdoor environments. Its IR-Pass filter enhances active infrared imaging by blocking visible light, delivering stable and precise depth data on reflective surfaces and under strong outdoor lighting — the exact conditions where standard stereo cameras struggle. With depth resolution up to 1280×800, spatial precision of ≤0.8% at 2 m, and full RGB output up to 1280×800 at 60 fps, the Gemini 336L gives humanoid robots like Moby the consistent, high-quality depth data needed for reliable navigation and manipulation in real-world industrial environments.

About Noble Machines

Noble Machines is the leader in general-purpose robots for hazardous and physically demanding tasks in industry. Noble Machines’ AI-driven whole-body control and end-to-end autonomy accelerate learning of new skills while providing the stability and intelligence required for industrial operations. Noble Machines enables customers to redefine the future of work, making work safer, more efficient, and more productive for people in manufacturing, construction, logistics, and energy. Noble Machines was founded in 2024. Learn more at noblemachines.ai