Humanoid robot has been designed to tackle industrial challenges
25 June 2025 
The Swedish-headquartered measurement technologies specialist, Hexagon, has announced a humanoid robot that has been designed to perform real-world industrial tasks and to tackle labour shortages. The Aeon robot, which moves on a pair of wheels, combines Hexagon’s sensors with advanced locomotion, AI-driven mission control and spatial intelligence.
The 165cm-tall robot weighs 60kg and can travel at speeds of up to 2.4m/s. It can carry loads of up to 15kg for short periods, or 8kg for longer periods. It has 12 onboard cameras and 22 other sensors, and operates with 32 degrees of freedom.
The robot has been designed to address a wide range of industrial applications – from manipulation and asset inspection, to reality capture and operator support. Hexagon is piloting Aeon in factories and warehouses, in applications ranging from scanning small parts, to large assembly lines and storage areas. The pilot users include Schaeffler and the Swiss aircraft manufacturer, Pilatus. They are using it for manipulation, machine-tending, part-inspection, and reality-capture applications.
The robot’s capabilities include:
- Agility Aeon can move around quickly (including climbing steps) while performing tasks that require high accuracy, thanks to its use of precision measurement technologies.
- Awareness Aeon merges data from multimodal sensors to understand the environment and optimise its performance.
- Versatility The robot can carry out a variety of tasks, from picking objects and inspecting components, to creating digital twins through digital reality capture and teleoperation.
- Power autonomy A battery-swapping mechanism means that the humanoid does not need to recharge its batteries (which last for up to four hours) to keep operating.
“With Aeon, we’re advancing physical AI to tackle real operational challenges – bridging cutting-edge technology with practical industry needs,” says Arnaud Robert, president of Hexagon’s robotics division. “Over the next six months, we’ll be deploying Aeon in production environments before expanding our commercial rollout.”
To bring Aeon to the market, Hexagon’s Robotics division established partnerships with Microsoft, maxon and Nvidia. Microsoft Azure’s platform has been used for scalable development and on-demand training of Aeon’s capabilities, while maxon actuators power the robot’s locomotion in a variety of environments.
Hexagon used three Nvidia computers to develop and deploy Aeon’s AI systems. The humanoid also learns skills through simulations powered by Nvidia’s Isaac platform. This allowed Hexagon to fast-track its development, with Aeon mastering its core locomotion skills in just 2-3 weeks – instead of the usual 5-6 months — before it was ready for real-world deployment.
Nvidia Jetson Orin computers on board the robot help it to move autonomously, navigate and perform tasks in real time, enhancing its speed and accuracy in complex and dynamic environments. A planned upgrade will add functional safety to allow collaborative operation.
“Our goal with Aeon was to design an intelligent, autonomous humanoid that addresses the real-world challenges industrial leaders have shared with us over the past months,” explains Hexagon’s Arnaud Robert. “By leveraging Nvidia’s full-stack robotics and simulation platforms, we were able to deliver a best-in-class humanoid that combines advanced mechatronics, multimodal sensor fusion and real-time AI.”
Potential uses for Aeon include:
- Reality capture, involving automatic planning and scanning of assets, industrial spaces and environments to generate 3D models. The captured data will be used for advanced visualisation and collaboration.
- Manipulation tasks, such as sorting and moving parts in industrial and manufacturing settings.
- Parts inspection, including checking for defects, and ensuring adherence to specifications.
- Dexterous technical tasks such as machinery operations, teleoperation and scanning parts using high-end scanners.
The Swiss aircraft-maker, Pilatus, believes that the humanoid could help it to tackle the challenges of manufacturing in Switzerland. “We believe that Aeon will become a contributing solution in sustaining our competitiveness in more than ever tougher global markets,” says the company’s vice-president of manufacturing, Roman Emmenegger. “Its unique locomotion, sensors, and on-board intelligence provides for agility and versatility and opens a multitude of opportunities to drive automation and digitisation in our daily operations.”
“Hexagon is one of the best-placed companies in the world to lead and shape the field of humanoid robotics,” says its chairman, Ola Rollén. “Aeon represents a state-of-the-art, industrially bespoke humanoid. It’s a leap forward in our goal to help customers drive sustainable growth in the face of structural demographic changes. I’m proud to see Aeon come to life.”
