BMW Tests Humanoid Robot in German Plant
BMW has begun deploying Hexagon's AEON humanoid robot in its Leipzig, Germany plant for industrial testing. The 1.65m tall robot is being evaluated for tasks in assembly and battery production, aiming to handle repetitive or hazardous jobs with its autonomous battery-swapping and 2.5 m/s movement speed.
This isn't BMW's first venture into humanoid robotics; the company previously completed an 11-month trial with Figure AI's Figure 02 robot at its Spartanburg, USA plant. In that pilot, the robot assisted in producing over 30,000 BMW X3s by moving more than 90,000 parts in the body shop. The Leipzig trial elevates the complexity, moving from simple material handling to intricate tasks in high-voltage battery assembly—an area where human employees currently wear cumbersome protective gear. Leipzig was chosen as it's BMW's most technologically complete German plant, allowing the AEON robot to be tested across the full spectrum of automotive production environments. Hexagon's AEON robot is powered by an onboard NVIDIA Jetson Orin computer and utilizes a concept called "Physical AI," which allows it to learn through simulation and imitation. Programmers can train the robot on a new task with as few as 20 teleoperated demonstrations, after which AEON can generalize the movements to operate autonomously. A key differentiator for AEON is its wheeled base, designed for efficiency and speed over long factory distances, in contrast to the bipedal walking of robots like Figure 02. The robot's dexterity is enabled by key components from the global supply chain, including electric grippers from the Chinese company DH-Robotics. The broader automotive industry is rapidly becoming a key proving ground for humanoids. Mercedes-Benz is testing Apptronik's Apollo robot, Hyundai's Boston Dynamics is preparing its Atlas robot for factory deployment, and Tesla continues to develop its Optimus bot for its own production lines.
