Sagawa Express, one of Japan’s largest logistics companies, today officially approved onsite operational validation of Dexterity’s Industrial superhumanoid, Mech in its X Frontier® relay center in Tokyo, Japan, after successful completion of rigorous testing. The approval, obtained with the partnership of Sumitomo Corporation, marks the beginning of Mech’s onsite use at Sagawa starting May 2025.
In testing at Dexterity’s facilities, Mech met and exceeded loading quality, speed, and space utilization performance benchmarks defined by Sagawa Express. Sagawa Express, Sumitomo Corporation, and Dexterity plan to work together to pilot Mech in Japan with plans to scale the technology to additional relay centers following the operational validation at X Frontier®.
This marks the next milestone towards the anticipated use of Dexterity’s Mech industrial superhumanoid robot, originally announced in Dexterity and Sagawa’s press release from December 2023. With the ability to pack faster, reach higher, and lift heavier boxes using Physical AI, Mech is poised to redefine the landscape of truck loading. Its real-world impact is just beginning to be felt as logistics providers like Sagawa Express embrace the next generation of intelligent, high-performance robotics.
“This isn’t just a milestone for Physical AI and robotics—it’s a turning point for the logistics industry,” said Samir Menon, CEO of Dexterity. “With Mech, we’ve demonstrated progressively complicated, dynamic tasks that AI-powered robots can perform. AI enables robots to perform tasks like truck loading not just at scale and speed, but at enterprise-grade levels of reliability and safety. We’re excited to support Sagawa and Japan’s broader push to transform industrial applications.”
The approval comes at a critical time. Japan’s logistics industry faces a looming crisis: unless Physical AI is introduced, new regulations capping truck driver overtime could result in up to one-third of cargo going undelivered by 2030. Mech’s deployment helps address this challenge by automating the stressful and physically demanding truck loading tasks.
Seiichi Watanabe, General Manager of Transportation Network Department at Sagawa Express, commented, “Dexterity’s unique approach to robotics and enterprise Physical AI ability has shown us great promise that it can meet our strict operational criteria. Mech’s performance shows that it can transform how we manage loading, and we are confident in Dexterity and Sumitomo as partners to deploy and scale this technology in Japan.”
This initiative is spearheaded by Dexterity-SC, the joint venture between Dexterity and Sumitomo Corporation. Together, they plan to deliver over 1,000 Mech robots to Japanese customers within the next few years, with the Sagawa deployment marking the first commercial launch in this broader plan.