Humanoid Robot Deployment in Manufacturing — AEON Wheeled Humanoid at Leipzig Plant

BMW Group has deployed humanoid robots in manufacturing in Germany for the first time, launching a pilot project at its Leipzig plant with AEON—a wheeled humanoid built by Hexagon Robotics. It is the first automotive deployment of AEON anywhere in the world. The announcement was made on March 9, 2026, backed by hard data from a prior US trial. In 2025, BMW ran a ten-month pilot at its Spartanburg, South Carolina plant using Figure AI's Figure 02 robot. The humanoid supported production of over 30,000 BMW X3s, working 10-hour shifts and moving a total of over 90,000 components. Leipzig is the direct heir to those lessons. AEON moves on wheels (standing 1.65m tall, 60kg, 2.5m/s, 22 integrated sensors, 360-degree spatial awareness) and can autonomously swap its own battery in 23 seconds for around-the-clock operation. Its human-like torso allows flexible docking of various grippers and scanning tools. A further test run is planned for April 2026, ahead of a full pilot phase launching in summer 2026, where two AEON units will work simultaneously across high-voltage battery assembly and component manufacturing for exterior parts. BMW has established a Centre of Competence for Physical AI in Production to institutionalise this work. AEON runs on NVIDIA Jetson Orin onboard computers, trained through NVIDIA Isaac simulation, and Microsoft Azure for scalable model development.