Even a robot needs a home.

That is what companies across the country are realizing as they shift more production to robotics. Many are expanding their commercial footprint with a new addition or in some cases, excavating for a lower floor to accommodate the recent influx of extremely heavy live-in machines.

And it is not just the storage space for down time that robots require. Some robots need 32-foot ceilings, roughly double the height in older factories, or the space between columns has to be widened so the equipment can move.

For example, at the SentrySafe factory in Rochester, N.Y., the welder does not wear heat-resistant gloves and a face shield. Instead, a one-ton robot that towers eight feet above the production line spot-welds the tops and bottoms of safes before they continue down the assembly line, where a (human) colleague works some 20 feet away.

This fall, Weber-Stephen Products completed a 50,000-square-foot expansion at its factory in Huntley, Ill., to accommodate its new robotic equipment. “That’s really the primary way we’re staying competitive with Asian manufacturers,” Mike Kempster, the company’s global chief marketing officer, said.