Iván Hernández Dalas: BMW piloting Hexagon’s wheeled humanoid in Germany

BMW Group last week announced a pilot project to deploy wheeled humanoids from Hexagon Robotics at its Leipzig plant in Germany. With the project, BMW wants to integrate humanoids into existing car production and explore future applications for humanoids in battery and component production.

“Digitalisation improves the competitiveness of our production – here in Europe and worldwide. The symbiosis of engineering expertise and artificial intelligence opens up entirely new possibilities in production,” said Milan Nedeljković, a member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Production.

Hexagon Robotics released its semi-humanoid robot AEON in June 2025. Following an initial theoretical evaluation phase and successful laboratory tests, BMW launched an initial test deployment at its Group Plant Leipzig in December 2025. The company plans to do another test deployment from April 2026 to ensure full integration for the actual pilot phase starting in summer 2026.

While AEON does feature two legs, each leg has a wheel instead of a foot. Hexagon said this allows the robot roll across even surfaces, moving faster than walking, and step when needed. 

With the Leipzig deployment, BMW said it is focusing on testing a multifunctional application of the robot. This application is based on AEON’s design, which allows for a wide range of hand and gripper elements or scanning tools to be attached. During testing and later in the pilot phase, BMW will use the robot in the assembly of high‑voltage batteries and in component manufacturing.

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BMW gives updates about its deployment with Figure

In its announcement about piloting AEON, BMW also mentioned its previous use of Figure’s legged humanoids. In 2024, BMW deployed humanoids from Figure AI in its Spartanburg plant in the U.S. The company said the pilot showed that physical AI can deliver measurable added value under real-world conditions.

Within 10 months, the Figure 02 humanoid supported the production of more than 30,000 BMW X3s, working 10-hour shifts daily from Monday to Friday. Figure 02 removed and positioned sheet metal parts for the welding process, a task BMW said is particularly demanding in terms of speed and accuracy while also being physically exhausting. In total, the robot moved more than 90,000 components and covered approximately 1.2 million steps in around 1,250 operating hours.

BMW said it involved all areas of the production IT infrastructure, occupational safety, production process management, and shop floor logistics at an early stage of its test phases, with Figure 02. This, it said, led to a faster-than-expected transition from the laboratory to the actual production environment. Figure could quickly transfer the motion sequences Figure 02 learned in the lab to stable shift operations. Additionally, BMW integrated the robot with its BMW Smart Robotics ecosystem using standardized interfaces. 

BMW selected the body shop for humanoid deployment, as it already had a high degree of automation. Employees in this area already had extensive experience in integrating new technologies and processes. For example, material supply on the line is already carried out almost exclusively via automated smart transport robots (STR). Additionally, BMW claimed the robot became a natural part of employees’ workdays during the project. 

The BMW Group and Figure are currently evaluating additional use cases for deploying the Figure 03 robot.

Humanoids have exploded in popularity in recent years, with more and more robotics companies releasing their own versions. However, commercial deployments have been slow so far. Hyundai Motor Group has plans to purchase thousands of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots in the coming years.

In 2024, GXO officially deployed a small fleet of Digit humanoids from Agility Robotics at a Spanx facility in Georgia. Later, Schaeffler AG made a minority investment in Agility and planned to buy Digit robots for use across its global plant network. These marked the first paid deployments for humanoid robots. More recently, Agility signed an agreement with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada to deploy its Digit robot in its facilities after a successful year-long pilot.

The post BMW piloting Hexagon’s wheeled humanoid in Germany appeared first on The Robot Report.



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