mimic robotics Introduces FLUX-mimic, Bringing Frontier Video-Action Models to the Factory Floor at Audi

FLUX-mimic – Built in Collaboration With Black Forest Labs – Learns High-Dexterity Tasks From Video, Using a Fraction of the Demonstration Data Existing Approaches Require

ZURICH, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--mimic robotics, the physical AI company pioneering Video-Action Models for general-purpose industrial automation, today introduced FLUX-mimic – a next-generation Video-Action Model developed in collaboration with Black Forest Labs – that enables robots to learn and perform complex manipulation tasks in real-world industrial environments.

FLUX-mimic combines mimic's expertise in robot learning, dexterous manipulation, and production deployment with the frontier visual intelligence architecture of Black Forest Labs’ new FLUX 3 video model. mimic’s pioneering earlier work, “mimic-video,” introduced Video-Action Models by taking a pre-trained video generation model and adding the capability to predict robot actions. FLUX-mimic builds on that foundation with an architecture purpose-built for physical AI.

Most modern robot learning pipelines today are built on Vision-Language-Action models, with the backbone pre-trained on static image-and-text pairs – so they must learn physical dynamics almost entirely from scarce, expensive robot demonstration data. FLUX-mimic instead builds on a generative video model that already understands dynamics and behavior from large-scale video pre-training, then trains an action decoder to predict robot actions directly from that visual prediction.

The result: depending on task difficulty, the model can be fine-tuned for a specific manipulation task with as little as 30 minutes of robot data, where prior approaches have required 30 or more hours. A massive improvement that cuts deployment cycles from months to weeks.

“Robotics is one of the clearest proofs of visual intelligence. To generate convincing video, a model must learn how the physical world behaves; that same understanding enables acting in it,” said Robin Rombach, Co-Founder and CEO of Black Forest Labs. “By combining FLUX 3’s learned model of the world with mimic’s expertise in robot learning and deployment, FLUX-mimic makes it easier for robots to adapt to new tasks and production environments instead of being engineered for one task at a time.”

mimic is already implementing FLUX-mimic with manufacturing leaders like Audi. Together, the companies are exploring how frontier Video-Action Models can reduce deployment time, engineering effort, and robot training requirements for real-world industrial automation.

Audi operates one of the most highly automated production networks in the automotive industry – giving it a precise view of where conventional automation still falls short. Despite decades of investment in industrial robotics, tasks involving flexible parts and fine manipulation have remained manual. The variant diversity of premium automotive production makes conventionally programmed robot cells too costly to re-engineer. Learning-based systems change that calculation, and open a path toward Audi’s longer-term vision: transforming plants into smart factories where AI and robots act as a partner for employees – providing tailored support and taking over repetitive and physically demanding tasks.

"In partnership with mimic, Audi has been testing and deploying FLUX-mimic. We have seen these robots solve complex soft-body manipulation work that would have been simply impossible with conventional robotics. This new technology can have a major impact in assisting our employees, increasing efficiency, and expanding flexible automation across production and logistics operations," said Christoph Schneider from the Audi Production Lab. "For us, partnering with pioneering companies such as mimic and Black Forest Labs is essential in pushing the frontier of physical AI and validating these innovations in real-world production environments."

"Audi represents the kind of manufacturing partner we built FLUX-mimic for," said Stephan-Daniel Gravert, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at mimic robotics. "Their production environments demand automation that is flexible enough to handle unstructured tasks, reliable enough for continuous operation, and can be integrated without months of engineering overhead. Through this partnership with Audi, we want to prove that FLUX-mimic can meet those demands on real production lines."

To learn more, visit https://www.mimicrobotics.com/blog/introducing-mimic-flux.

About mimic robotics

mimic robotics is a frontier physical AI company building the full stack of general-purpose dexterous manipulation. Founded in 2024 by ETH Zurich researchers, mimic pioneered Video-Action Models for robotics while also developing in-house dexterous hand hardware. The 50+ person team includes researchers from Google DeepMind and Tesla’s Optimus program, with offices in Zurich, Switzerland, and San Francisco, California. Learn more at https://www.mimicrobotics.com/

About Black Forest Labs

Black Forest Labs is a global frontier AI research lab building the foundation layer for visual intelligence. Founded by the researchers who pioneered latent diffusion, Stable Diffusion and the FLUX model family, the 100-person team advances research and ships open, production-ready models from Freiburg, Germany and San Francisco, USA. Valued at $3.25 billion, the company has raised more than $450 million from leading venture and strategic investors including a16z, AMP, Salesforce Ventures, NVIDIA, General Catalyst, Adobe Ventures, Figma Ventures, Canva and Deutsche Telekom’s T.Capital. Learn more at http://bfl.ai

About Audi

Audi drives transformation and shapes the mobility of tomorrow – with intelligent, electric products.

The premium automotive brand is available in more than 100 markets. Its global production network spans 21 sites in 12 countries. Vorsprung durch Technik unites more than 88,000 employees. With courage, passion, responsibility, and trust, they are reinterpreting more than 100 years of automaking tradition for the future. In 2026, Audi is entering Formula 1 with a factory team in a bold expression of its motorsports DNA. The Audi Group also includes the supercar manufacturer Lamborghini, the luxury brand Bentley Motors, and the motorcycle maker Ducati. Learn more about the Audi Group here.