# What is the most used robot in the world?

**On DEPLOY's record, no single robot carries a verified count large enough to crown one as the world's most used.** The robots usually given that title are industrial arms, and DEPLOY tracks 90 arm and cobot models from all four makers the field calls the global leaders: FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa. But it holds no count of how many of each are in service. The largest robot fleet DEPLOY does hold a figure for is Locus Robotics, at 6,000 warehouse robots, a company claim from July 2026.

Last verified Jul 8, 2026. 26 sources.

## Short answer

The honest answer depends on what you count, and DEPLOY will not invent a number it does not hold. By the common understanding of the field, the most used robots in the world are the industrial arms that weld, paint, and move parts on factory floors, and DEPLOY tracks that class in depth: 90 industrial arm and cobot models, including every one of the four makers usually called the global leaders, FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa. What DEPLOY does not hold is a verified installed-base count for any single arm, so it cannot rank them by units from its own record and does not pretend to.

Where DEPLOY does hold fleet-size figures is a newer class of robot: warehouse movers, robotaxis, sidewalk delivery bots, autonomous trucks, and humanoids. Among those, the largest fleet on record is Locus Robotics, with a claimed 6,000 warehouse robots as of July 2026, ahead of Waymo's robotaxi fleet and the sidewalk delivery fleets of Serve and Starship.

Both views are below: the fleet figures DEPLOY can rank, and the industrial arms it tracks but cannot yet count.

## The largest robot fleets DEPLOY holds a figure for

| Robot | Maker | Type | Reported fleet | DEPLOY verified | As of |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| LocusBot | Locus Robotics | Warehouse robot | 6,000 (claimed) | not independently verified | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Waymo Driver (6th gen) | Waymo | Robotaxi | 3,500 (claimed) | 1,500 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Serve Gen 3 | Serve Robotics | Sidewalk delivery | 2,000 (claimed) | 812 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Starship Bot | Starship Technologies | Sidewalk delivery | 2,000 (claimed) | not independently verified | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Tesla Robotaxi (Model Y ADS) | Tesla | Robotaxi | 1,000 (claimed) | 1,000 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Tesla Optimus | Tesla | Humanoid | 1,000 (claimed) | not independently verified | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Aurora Driver on Peterbilt 579 (PACCAR) | Aurora Innovation | Autonomous truck | 200 (claimed) | 10 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Zoox Robotaxi | Zoox | Robotaxi | 100 (claimed) | 229 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Kodiak Driverless Truck | Kodiak Robotics | Autonomous truck | 100 (claimed) | 2 (verified) | Jul 8, 2026 |
| Digit | Agility Robotics | Humanoid | 75 (claimed) | not independently verified | Jul 8, 2026 |

## The industrial arms: tracked in depth, not counted by unit

DEPLOY catalogues 90 industrial arm and cobot models (47 at commercial or production maturity), including all four makers the field calls the global leaders. DEPLOY holds no verified installed-base count for any single arm, so it does not rank them by units.

| Maker | Headquarters | Arm models tracked | Installed base on DEPLOY |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FANUC | Oshino, Yamanashi, Japan | 2 | not on record |
| ABB | Zurich, Switzerland | 1 | not on record |
| KUKA | Augsburg, Germany | 2 | not on record |
| Yaskawa | Kitakyushu, Japan | 1 | not on record |

## How we know this

- [Locus Robotics, 5B+ units picked](https://valueaddvc.com/blog/warehouse-automation-robotics-how-amazon-walmart-and-startups-are-deploying-ai-robots)
- [6 Billion Picks. Fastest Yet.](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQHUY57jcXY/)
- [Locus Robotics](https://www.mhi.org/members/83208)
- [Locus Robotics Surpasses 5 Billion Pick Milestone](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/locus-robotics-surpasses-5-billion-pick-milestone)
- [1,500 vehicles across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin](https://waymo.com/blog/2025/05/scaling-our-fleet-through-us-manufacturing)
- [Waymo says it will add 2,000 more robotaxis into 2026](https://www.theverge.com/news/661025/waymo-fleet-size-factory-arizona-jaguar-robotaxi-zeekr)
- [Waymo has said it plans on adding only 2,000 more vehicles in 2026, for a total fleet size of 3,500](https://www.reddit.com/r/waymo/comments/1r2xc8p/)
- [Waymo runs 577 robotaxis in Texas](https://www.instagram.com/p/DZBbunKAnFX/)
- [Serve Robotics deploys 2,000 robots, creating the largest U.S. sidewalk fleet](https://www.stocktitan.net/news/SERV/serve-robotics-builds-2-000-autonomous-delivery-robots-creating-7im9rhb8dddx.html)
- [building 2,000 autonomous delivery robots](https://investors.serverobotics.com/)
- [passed 10 million deliveries](https://www.starship.xyz/press/autonomous-delivery-moves-into-the-mainstream-as-starship-technologies-passes-10-million-deliveries/)
- [expand its fleet](https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/25/starship-technologies-picks-up-e50m-from-the-eus-investment-arm-to-expand-its-fleet-of-autonomous-delivery-robots/)
- [Tesla 'Robotaxi' Fleet Jumps to Over 1,000 Registered Vehicles](https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-california-robotaxi-registered-vehicles-drivers-2025-12)
- [Tesla expanded its unsupervised robotaxi service to Miami](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-rolls-out-robotaxi-service-miami-2026-07-03/)
- [Tesla has not disclosed how many Optimus units exist but acknowledged only hundreds were built in 2025](https://newmarketpitch.com/blogs/news/humanoid-robotics-optimus-deployment-tracker)
- [Tesla Optimus has 1,000+ units deployed, but exclusively inside Tesla's own factories](https://blog.robozaps.com/b/tesla-model-s-optimus-robot-factory-conversion)
- [a much larger Gen 3 production line is already planned for 2026](https://www.instagram.com/p/DQzxI7rk00B/)
- [Aurora says its fleet is 30 trucks today (with 10 fully driverless)](https://www.facebook.com/verge/posts/aurora-will-have-hundreds-of-driverless-trucks-on-the-road-by-the-end-of-2026-ce/)
- [By the end of 2026, Aurora expects over 200 driverless trucks on public highways](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVEpusTAGUG/)
- [250,000+ driverless miles with zero Aurora Driver-attributed collisions](https://freightflowadvisor.substack.com/p/mar-24-auroras-250000-miles-autonomous)
- [Zoox has a fleet of around 100, a company spokesperson said](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-24/zoox-robotaxis-to-roam-in-more-san-francisco-areas-new-cities)
- [Atlas' initial contract covers 100 trucks, which Burnette said Kodiak plans to fulfill in 2026](https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/how-kodiak-and-bosch-plan-to-scale-autonomous-trucks)
- [Kodiak Expands Driverless Truck Fleet](https://www.stocktitan.net/news/AESI/kodiak-announces-delivery-of-two-additional-customer-owned-and-atvvt22rlua7.html)
- [~75 units deployed, one high-duty site, four commercial agreements](https://newmarketpitch.com/blogs/news/humanoid-robotics-digit-deployment-tracker)
- [$300M+ in booked multi-year revenue](https://www.geekwire.com/2026/digit-maker-agility-robotics-to-go-public-in-2-5b-deal-heres-what-the-filings-say-about-its-finances/)
- [Digit is commercially deployed with leading enterprises](https://www.agilityrobotics.com/content/agility-robotics-to-go-public-through-merger-with-churchill-capital-corp-xi)

## Common questions

### What is the most common type of robot in the world?

By the field's own reckoning it is the industrial robot arm, the machine that welds, paints, and moves parts on factory floors. DEPLOY tracks that class in depth, with 90 industrial arm and cobot models including all four makers usually called the global leaders, FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa. DEPLOY does not hold a verified installed-base count for any single arm, so it reports the class it tracks rather than inventing a ranking of units.

### Which robot has the largest fleet on DEPLOY's record?

Locus Robotics has the largest robot fleet DEPLOY holds a figure for, a claimed 6,000 warehouse robots as of July 2026. That is a company-reported figure, and DEPLOY has not independently verified the full count. It sits ahead of Waymo's robotaxi fleet and the sidewalk delivery fleets of Serve Robotics and Starship Technologies. The full leaderboard on this page shows every model DEPLOY holds a fleet figure for, each dated and sourced.

### Are FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa the biggest robot makers?

They are the four makers the robotics field most often calls the global leaders in industrial robotics, and DEPLOY tracks all four along with their arms. What DEPLOY holds is the models and the makers, not a verified count of how many units each has installed worldwide, so it does not rank them by installed base from its own record. Where a claim about a maker's fleet is on the record, DEPLOY attributes it and dates it rather than stating it as fact.

### How many robots are there in the world?

DEPLOY does not hold a world total, and does not estimate one. It maintains a verified registry of specific robot models, their makers, and, for a subset of newer robots, a dated and sourced fleet figure. For industrial arms, the class that dominates any global count, DEPLOY tracks the models and makers but not a unit total, so it reports what it verifies rather than a number it cannot source.

### Is the most used robot a humanoid like Optimus?

No. Humanoids are among the newest and least deployed robots, not the most used. On DEPLOY's record Tesla Optimus carries a claimed fleet of about 1,000 units as of July 2026, well behind warehouse and delivery fleets and far behind the industrial arms that make up the bulk of the world's working robots. The most used robots remain the factory arms, which DEPLOY tracks as a class.

## Keep reading

- [Which physical-AI companies are worth the most? Valuations ranked.](/valuations.md): Comparisons
- [What AI actually drives each robot? AI stacks compared](/ai-stacks.md): Comparisons
- [Which company is the leader in humanoid robotics?](/which-company-leads-humanoid-robotics.md): Comparisons
- [Which country is no. 1 in robotics?](/which-country-is-number-1-in-robotics.md): Comparisons
- [All verified answers](/answers.md): Every standing question DEPLOY tracks.
- [Who are the big 4 in robotics?](/who-are-the-big-4-in-robotics.md): The all-robotics leaders, from the record.

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