In the Netherlands, a warehouse of humanoid robots takes on China

Introduction: in a warehouse near Rotterdam, Europe tests its comeback

An unassuming building for a technological gamble

In a modest building sitting on a somewhat drab business park on the outskirts of Rotterdam, sleek white humanoid robots move around alongside a gray robotic dog performing various tricks. The scene, described by Reuters and picked up by The Star, could be straight out of a science fiction film. Yet it is very real, and it opened on July 2, 2026 in Schiedam, the Netherlands.

The place carries a modest name for an ambition that is anything but: the Humanoid Application Center (HAC). Its stated mission is simple to state but immense to achieve: close Europe's gaping gap with China and the United States in the humanoid robotics race.

An admission of lag that becomes an action plan

The center is housed at the Mechatronica Innovatie Campus Schiedam (MICS), an industrial site of about 1,000 square meters, according to the Dutch outlet Bright.nl. It is deliberately not a showroom: it is a working space where robots must test, demonstrate and implement their capabilities under near-real conditions.

The center's general director, Evert Jaap Lugt, 66, does not mince words about the scale of the challenge. It takes a certain courage to publicly admit, as this executive does, that your own continent is falling behind in a major technological race; that kind of honesty, paradoxically, offers a bit of hope.

The scale of Europe's lag behind China

Numbers that leave no room for doubt

According to data from Barclays cited by Reuters, China alone accounted for 85 percent of global installations of humanoid robots last year. That number alone sums up the scale of the technological and industrial gap that currently separates Europe from the two giants, China and the United States, in this rapidly exploding sector.

Evert Jaap Lugt describes the situation bluntly: "Europe is nowhere, as usual, with all these new technologies. And it's really terrifying, because it concerns the future economic models of our society." A sentence that rings out as an alarm bell aimed at industry leaders and European policymakers alike.

China visible everywhere, except in Europe

According to Reuters' reporting, robots of every shape and size are now visible almost everywhere in China: in hotels, shopping malls and factories. This omnipresence contrasts sharply with the scarcity of these technologies on European soil, where humanoid robotics remains largely confined to research labs and tech trade shows.

Watching a robot greet guests at a Chinese hotel while Europe is still debating whether the concept is even worthwhile is the clearest illustration of the pace gap between two visions of technological progress.

A catch-up strategy rather than head-on competition

Not running the same race, but picking your own ground

Faced with such a stark lag in the manufacturing and development of the robots themselves, Evert Jaap Lugt proposes a different approach for Europe: betting on use cases and adoption rather than raw production. "We are behind. The only opportunity we probably have is to focus on applications and the adoption of this technology. Maybe we can gain the advantage on that ground," he explains.

This strategy involves not trying to directly compete with Chinese and American giants on robot manufacturing, a field where the industrial gap is already considerable, but instead becoming experts in the smart integration of these machines into the concrete economic processes of European businesses.

An identified bottleneck: knowledge, not technology

According to Bright.nl, the center starts from a key observation: the main obstacle to the adoption of humanoid robots in Europe is not so much the technology itself, which is advancing at breakneck speed thanks to artificial intelligence, but rather the lack of practical knowledge, implementation experience and technical skills among European businesses.

This is an important nuance often overlooked in the technology debate: sometimes it's not the machine that's missing, but the people trained to know what to do with it, and that is precisely the gap this Dutch center is trying to close.

Robots chosen for their uses, not for their sponsors

A variety of brands on the center's floor

The center hosts robots from several manufacturers well known in the industry, including UBTech, Agibot, Unitree, Boston Dynamics and EngineAI, according to information reported by Bright.nl. This variety allows visiting businesses to compare each model's capabilities concretely before making an investment decision.

A notable point highlighted by the Dutch outlet: the selection of robots on site is not based on sponsorship agreements with manufacturers, but solely on each robot's relevance to solving a specific industrial problem. This approach is meant as a guarantee of technical neutrality in a sector where commercial interests run high.

A place to experiment, not to applaud

The center lets visitors literally walk among robots in motion, performing real tasks, rather than watching a static demonstration. Experiments, pilot projects and various tests can be conducted there directly by interested businesses.

Refusing to turn this center into a marketing showcase in favor of hands-on experimentation is a choice sorely missing in a tech sector often better at spectacle than at concrete proof of value.

The concrete case of a construction company

Prefab homes short on hands

Niels Langenhuizen, head of a company specializing in building prefabricated homes meant to ease the housing crisis in the Netherlands, plans to bring his first humanoid robot onto one of his job sites by year's end, according to Reuters. His company currently runs into a structural limit: it depends entirely on human labor.

"As long as we depend on manual labor, we will never reach continuous 24-hour production, and we will never get to 100,000 homes a year," explains Langenhuizen, referring to the Dutch government's annual housing construction target.

Housing, a real-world test for robotics

"We need humanoid robots to speed up this process, make housing more affordable, more flexible and faster," the executive adds. This concrete case perfectly illustrates the center's logic: not selling an abstract technological dream, but solving a very real economic and social problem, the housing crisis affecting the Netherlands and several other European countries alike.

Linking a humanoid robot to the housing crisis rather than to a science-fiction fantasy is exactly the kind of concrete grounding that could finally convince skeptical entrepreneurs to invest in this technology.

An ambition stated through 2033

Becoming Europe's benchmark for humanoid robotics

The center has set itself a precise long-term goal, according to Bright.nl: to become, by 2033, Europe's go-to address where businesses learn to understand, build and deploy humanoid robotics at scale. This ambition goes far beyond the status of a mere regional technology showcase.

The numerical targets announced for that deadline are ambitious: more than a hundred active businesses involved in the center's ecosystem, more than a thousand professionals trained in the uses of this technology, and millions of work hours performed jointly by humans and machines.

A bet on training as much as on the machine

Beyond the robots themselves, the center plans training programs for engineers, managers and other professionals who will need to learn how to integrate these machines into their daily work processes. This educational dimension is presented as just as central as the physical presence of the robots on site.

Betting on training as much as on the machine means recognizing a simple truth many tech initiatives forget: a robot without skilled staff to deploy it is just an expensive object gathering dust.

A vision that reaches beyond industry, into the home

Robot companions to fill an absence

In a more speculative statement reported by Reuters, Evert Jaap Lugt envisions a future where deceased loved ones could be replaced in the home by humanoid companion robots, designed to look and behave like the deceased person, equipped with powerful artificial brains powered by artificial intelligence.

"Within five years, you won't be able to tell the difference between a human being and a robot if you're, say, five meters away from it," the executive claims, a bold prediction that shows just how blurred the line between human and machine could become in the near future.

Between promise and ethical vertigo

This vision, however technically fascinating, raises considerable ethical questions about grief, identity and the place of technology in the most intimate moments of human life. The Dutch center does not claim to resolve these questions, but the mere fact that its own director raises them publicly shows how close humanoid robotics is to moving beyond the purely industrial sphere.

There is something dizzying, almost uncomfortable, about the idea of a robot imitating a deceased loved one; technology can solve plenty of concrete problems, but it should never claim to replace grief itself.

What this bet says about European technological independence

A dependency that worries beyond robots alone

Europe's lag in humanoid robotics fits into a broader pattern of the continent's technological dependence on China and the United States, already seen in semiconductors, generative artificial intelligence and electric vehicle batteries. Humanoid robotics risks becoming a new chapter in that same story if no concrete initiative is taken quickly.

The Netherlands' choice to invest in an application center rather than a robot manufacturing plant reflects a realistic reading of the current industrial balance of power. Rather than trying to build a direct competitor to giants already established for years, the country is choosing to build expertise in how to use these machines effectively.

A model that could inspire other European countries

If the Dutch approach proves itself, it could serve as a model for other European countries facing the same lag behind Asian and American robotics giants. A coordinated strategy at the European Union level, built around several similar application centers, could considerably strengthen the continent's negotiating position in this global technology race.

Without such coordination, each country risks duplicating limited efforts in isolation, never reaching the critical mass needed to genuinely compete with the already highly advanced Chinese and American industrial ecosystems.

Conclusion: Europe picks its battlefield

A lag owned rather than denied

The Humanoid Application Center in Schiedam makes no claim to catch up, in a few years, with the massive industrial head start China has built, a country that alone accounts for 85 percent of global installations of humanoid robots. Its bet is different: turning a structural weakness into a strategic opportunity, by betting on smart integration and practical adoption rather than the manufacturing race.

This choice reflects a rare clear-headedness in the European technology debate, often torn between denying the lag and fatalism in the face of Asian and American giants. Publicly acknowledging, as Evert Jaap Lugt does, that Europe is behind while proposing a concrete action plan is a stance that deserves recognition.

A decisive test for Europe's economic future

If the Schiedam experiment succeeds in demonstrating that businesses like Niels Langenhuizen's can genuinely transform their productivity thanks to these machines, it could become a model replicable elsewhere in Europe. If not, it will remain an isolated symbol of a commendable but insufficient ambition against the scale of the technological challenge posed by China and the United States.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency note

Who I am and my acknowledged biases

I sign this essay with the conviction that the West must stay at the forefront of major technological transitions, including in a field where it currently lags noticeably, such as humanoid robotics. This conviction leads me to value any concrete European initiative in the face of Chinese and American dominance in this sector, without downplaying the true scale of the challenge.

I also remain cautious about the more speculative statements, particularly those about companion robots meant to replace deceased loved ones, which reflect more of a personal projection by an executive than an established fact or an existing product.

What I don't know

I do not have verified information on the exact funding of the center or the complete list of its institutional partners, as these details are not specified in the sources available at the time of writing. I report the numerical targets for 2033 as announced by the center's leadership, without being able to guarantee they will be met.

Sources

Primary sources

The Star (Reuters) — Dutch launch humanoid robot centre to "kickstart" race with China, July 3, 2026

Bright.nl — The Netherlands doubles down on robots with an innovation center for humanoid robots, June 28, 2026

Schiedam24 — A robot testing center comes to Schiedam

Secondary sources

Myanmar ITV — Dutch launch humanoid robot centre to kickstart race with China, July 3, 2026

Reuters — Launch of the Dutch humanoid robotics center, July 2, 2026

Euractiv — The Dutch robotics hub in the Europe-China race