Robot-as-a-Service

Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) is a business model where a customer pays a recurring fee for robot capacity rather than purchasing the robot outright — the manufacturer retains ownership, handles maintenance, and bills per hour, per task, or per output. Common in warehouse robotics (6 River Systems, Locus Robotics) and increasingly the dominant proposed model for humanoid manufacturers.

The distinction matters because RaaS eliminates the customer's capex barrier — particularly meaningful when the robot is in pilot or commercial maturity and the unit economics are still uncertain. Agility Robotics, Apptronik, and Figure have all positioned RaaS as their humanoid pricing model. The strategic question: at what point does outright purchase become more attractive than per-hour billing? Below the operator's labor cost per hour, RaaS scales; above it, customers default to buying.