BMW to trial humanoid robots at German factory, as China competition heats up

German carmaker BMW said on Friday that it planned to deploy two AI-powered humanoid robots in a factory in a pilot programme for the first time this year.

Dubbed Aeon and developed by the Swedish company Hexagon, the black-and-white robots stand 1.65 metres (5.4 feet) tall, weigh 60kg (132 pounds) and move on two wheels.

They can autonomously manipulate and move components within a factory where the space has been previously fully scanned and digitised.

A months-long pilot phase will start this summer in a plant in Leipzig, with employees working alongside the vaguely humanlike robots.

The robot “has a full awareness of its environment” thanks to 22 sensors and various types of cameras, said Arnaud Robert, president of Hexagon Robotics.

Robert declined to disclose the price of the robots but said it was in the hundreds of thousands of euros.