Manufacturing
Hosting robot data collection on your factory floor: what to ask first
By SourceX Editorial · Reviewed by Noah Loul ·
Short answer
Hosting robot data collection on your factory floor means licensing your environment and your workers' activity, so get written answers first: who records, what sensors capture, how workers consent, whether customer parts appear in frame, who owns footage and models, who controls safety, and how you exit. If customer designs would show, scope that cell out.
Key takeaways
- A robot data collection program is a license of your site and your workers' activity, not a favor to a vendor.
- Customer parts, drawings and travelers in frame can breach supply agreements, so scope recording by job, not by station.
- Worker video may fall under employee privacy and biometric laws, which counsel should assess before capture starts.
- Settle ownership of raw footage, curated datasets and trained models, plus publication limits and deletion at exit, before signing.
- The vendor's rig must fit your existing robot guarding, lockout and stop authority rather than bring its own rules.
What does a robot data collection program on your floor involve?#
A robot data collection program on your factory floor records how physical work gets done so a robotics developer can train or test its models. Programs usually take one of three forms: your operators wearing head-mounted cameras during normal jobs, remote operators teleoperating a robot arm at a cell you provide, or fixed cameras and sensors watching a station.
Developer interest in real work environments is public. Figure announced a partnership with Brookfield in September 2025 to capture human video across Brookfield properties for its Helix model, and Build AI's dataset card describes about 10,000 hours of head-mounted video collected in real factories. Each program form puts different people, equipment and risks on your floor.
| Program form | Who is on your floor | What gets captured | Your first question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egocentric video | Your operators wearing cameras, plus vendor coordinators | Hands, tools, parts, screens and nearby coworkers | Who consents, and what enters the frame? |
| Teleoperation cell | Vendor technicians on site; operators often remote | Robot joint states, grip force, camera feeds and task outcomes | How does the cell fit our safety system and network? |
| Fixed sensor station | Vendor installers, then mostly unattended equipment | Continuous video, depth and sometimes audio | What stops scope creep, and how long is footage kept? |
Who records, and who can watch your floor remotely?#
The people recording come first because they decide what leaves your building. Ask for a named list of vendor staff who will be on site, their employer, their insurance certificates and the confidentiality agreement they sign, the same way you would vet any contractor who walks past customer work.
Teleoperation adds people you never meet. Remote operators may sit in another state or another country and watch live feeds of your line. Under the Export Administration Regulations, releasing controlled technology to a foreign person, even inside the United States, is treated as a deemed export, and release can include visual inspection, so any cell that touches export-controlled production needs counsel's review or should stay out of scope.
- Who employs each person on site, and who supervises them day to day?
- Where are remote operators located, and can the contract restrict that?
- Does the rig join your plant network, or run on its own isolated connection?
- Who can view live feeds, and are viewing sessions logged?
- What happens to footage on local drives at the end of each shift?
What will the sensors capture, including customer parts?#
Sensor capture is usually wider than the task the vendor describes. A camera aimed at a deburring bench also sees the traveler on the cart, the HMI screen showing the recipe, the whiteboard with the week's schedule and the coworker at the next station, and microphones pick up conversations about customers and pricing.
Customer parts in frame are the issue most likely to put you in breach of an existing contract. Supply agreements and NDAs usually restrict disclosure of drawings, specifications and sometimes the existence of a program, and video of an operator assembling a customer's product can reveal all three. Ask for a written capture specification covering sensor types, field of view, audio and logged telemetry, then walk the cell and mark what must never be recorded.
| In frame | Why it matters | Typical fix before recording |
|---|---|---|
| Travelers and labels with customer part numbers | Identify the customer and the program | Use internal job numbers or cover labels |
| HMI and MES screens | Show process settings and recipes | Angle cameras away or blank the display |
| Customer parts with distinctive geometry | Can reveal a customer's design | Run only your own products or consented jobs |
| Production boards and whiteboards | Carry schedules, customer names and quality issues | Clear, cover or move them |
| Coworkers who did not opt in | Raise consent and privacy questions | Re-route traffic and blur faces |
How do worker consent and privacy work?#
Worker consent for recording is rarely covered by a general employment agreement, so plan for a specific written notice and a real opt-out. Employees should know what is recorded, why, who receives it, how long it is kept and whether faces and voices are blurred. Where a union represents the workforce, raise the program with the union before launch.
Privacy laws may apply to worker video, and counsel assesses them deal by deal. The CCPA's exemption for employee personal information expired on January 1, 2023, so for covered businesses California employee data may be treated like other personal information. Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act may apply if recordings are processed in ways that capture biometric identifiers, and the Illinois Supreme Court held in Rosenbach v. Six Flags that a person need not show actual injury beyond a violation to be an aggrieved party.
Who owns the footage, the dataset and the model?#
Ownership needs three separate answers: the raw recordings, the curated dataset built from them, and any model trained on that dataset. Vendor drafts often claim all three. A common middle ground is that you license the recordings for a defined purpose, the vendor owns its models, and any wider release of footage showing your site needs your written approval.
Ask directly whether footage could be published. Build AI's factory video dataset was released under the Apache 2.0 open license, which shows that factory recordings can become publicly available. If you need footage kept private, write that in, along with deletion rights when the program ends.
| Clause | What to ask for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Permitted use | A named purpose, such as training and evaluating the vendor's robot models | Open-ended use, resale or sublicensing |
| Publication | No public release of footage or frames without written approval | Silence on research or open-source releases |
| Exclusivity | Clarity on whether either side is restricted | Exclusivity you grant with nothing in return |
| Compensation | A defined basis: site fee, captured hours or license fee | Payment tied only to vague milestones |
| Exit and deletion | Return or deletion of raw recordings, with written certification | Rights that survive termination indefinitely |
| Liability | Vendor responsibility for its staff, equipment and data incidents | Caps that leave you holding injury or privacy claims |
How do safety and production stay under your control?#
Safety control stays with the plant, and the vendor's equipment should fit your existing rules rather than arrive with its own. A teleoperated cell needs the same risk assessment, guarding and lockout and tagout coverage you apply to any robot cell under standards such as ISO 10218, and your EHS lead should sign off before the first session.
Agree in advance who can stop recording, who can stop the line and how a near miss involving vendor staff is reported. Production impact matters too: a teleoperated cell that runs slower than your operators can affect delivery dates, so decide which orders may run through it and which must not.
Illustrative: a bracket maker scopes a pilot#
Illustrative: a fictional family-owned maker of stamped and welded brackets for HVAC equipment is approached by a robotics developer that wants head-mounted video of kitting, deburring and packing. The COO walks the plant with the vendor and finds that two proposed stations run parts for an OEM whose supply agreement bars disclosure of its drawings.
The company limits the pilot to its own catalog brackets and the shipping dock, gives the operators involved a written notice with an opt-out, blanks the MES terminal in view and negotiates a license that names one purpose, bars publication of frames and requires deletion at exit. Several operators opt out, and their stations move out of frame. The pilot proceeds on a scope the customer contracts can support.
How SourceX approaches factory recording programs#
SourceX treats new recording of hands-on work as a separate path from licensing records a company already holds, and each recording opportunity has its own requirements. The same discipline applies to both: the SourceX five-step transaction of Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery covers what is captured, what you may share, what must be removed, who signs and how files leave the building.
For any package that proceeds, a SourceX Evidence Packet records provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization. Many plants also hold years of quality, maintenance and production records describing the same work, and those can be assessed on their own without any cameras.
Frequently asked questions
Should a factory be paid to host robot data collection?
Usually, because the developer gains access to your environment, your workers' time and your production context. Structures vary: a site fee, payment per captured hour, a license fee for the recordings, or a mix. There is no standard rate, so weigh any offer against the disruption, the rights granted and any exclusivity requested.
Can we license the same footage to another developer later?
Only if your agreement keeps that right. Many vendor drafts take ownership of all recordings or ask for an exclusive license. If you want the option, keep ownership of raw footage, grant a non-exclusive license for the stated purpose, and make sure worker notices cover future licensing.
Do we need to tell our customers about the program?
Check each supply agreement and NDA for parts, drawings, labels or programs that could appear in recordings, and ask for written consent where those terms restrict disclosure. If recording is limited to your own products and generic operations, customer notice may not be needed, but document the scoping decision.
What if an operator withdraws after recording has started?
Decide the process before launch. A clean approach lets an operator leave future sessions at any time and requires the vendor to delete or blur that person's past footage where feasible. Put the withdrawal process and the deletion obligation in the contract, and keep a log of requests.
Does hosting a program affect our insurance?
It can. Vendor staff, equipment and remote access add liability and cyber exposure. Ask the vendor for certificates naming your company as additional insured, review your general liability and cyber policies with your broker, and ask your workers' compensation carrier whether wearable cameras change anything.
Sources
- Figure announced in September 2025 a partnership with Brookfield under which Figure will capture human video across Brookfield environments to build training data for its Helix model. Source
- Build AI's Egocentric-10K dataset card describes about 10,000 hours of head-mounted video collected exclusively in real factories, released under Apache 2.0. Source
- Under 15 CFR 734.13, export includes the release or transfer of technology or source code to a foreign person in the United States, and any such release is a deemed export. Source
- The CCPA employee and business-to-business personal information exemptions expired on January 1, 2023. Source
- In Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (2019), the Illinois Supreme Court held that a person need not allege actual injury beyond a violation of BIPA rights to be an aggrieved party entitled to sue. Source
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