The Era of Autonomy: How Hexagon's Humanoids are Creating New Industrial Ecosystems
The Era of Autonomy: How Hexagon's Humanoids are Creating New Industrial Ecosystems
Industries are moving from automation solutions to autonomous operations, creating an incredible opportunity to improve resilience, sustainability, and global competitiveness. A key catalyst of this evolution is human-machine collaboration, and notably humanoids capable of performing industrial tasks of varying complexity, supporting operations, and augmenting workforce capacity.
This shift towards intelligent autonomy is transforming industries far beyond efficiency gains, and comes at a critical moment, as industries face skill shortages, safety pressures, and complexity.
Scalable autonomy that complements the workforce
Enabling autonomy at scale requires solutions that blend agility, awareness, and versatility. All three elements are essential to offer high-performance and to enable industries to be agile in how they respond to disruptions. And at the core of all three elements is precision measurement, a discipline that has shaped Hexagon for decades.
"In many industry sectors, including automotive, aerospace, logistics, and warehousing, we're seeing increasing labour shortages driven by fewer people entering industrial roles, and younger generations drawn to different career paths. This has created the need for innovative and versatile solutions," said Hexagon's President of Robotics, Arnaud Robert.
This is where Hexagon's humanoid, AEON, comes in: Built for existing industrial environments, it combines efficient locomotion, sensor fusion, and spatial intelligence – all driven by physical AI - to operate effectively, safely, and with precision alongside workers and enabling skilled employees to focus on higher-value tasks.
The development of an effective humanoid solution required overcoming critical technical challenges. First, with its wheel-based locomotion, AEON can travel across large spaces with high efficiency, unlocking key use cases for logistics. Second, to solve the need for "always on" operations, AEON has a battery self-swapping mechanism by which it monitors its energy consumption and can change its own batteries when in need. Third, AEON has a sophisticated set of sensors, and by combining sensor fusion and artificial intelligence, it creates a unique awareness of its environment in real-time, enabling it to work alongside humans safely and effectively.
"AEON can swap its battery in 25 seconds, meaning downtime is effectively non-existent. This is a significant milestone in overcoming a barrier that previously limited true autonomy and is a good example of how we have shifted our efforts from showcasing specific features towards practical, scalable solutions", said Arnaud Robert.
Hexagon's approach focuses on emphasising reliability over experimentation. A key enabler of this is to move intelligence from the cloud, which requires persistent connection, to the edge.
"AEON utilises two full AI computers onboard to enable untethered, real-time perception, spatial intelligence, object recognition, and improved dexterity. This represents a fundamental change in how autonomy is delivered," explained Arnaud Robert.
Going beyond autonomy in a defining decade
Progress will be shaped less by exciting video clips and more by systems that deliver performance and reliability at scale. Intelligent humanoids like AEON unlock a new standard of agility and versatility that can significantly improve operations across the value chain.
Beyond technical prowess, it's about creating smarter ecosystems that reduce waste, optimise energy use, and allow industries to quickly respond to the disruptions they are increasingly facing. It is fundamentally a commitment to building a future where technology is aligned with human values and environmental responsibility.
By focusing on humanoid robotics designed for real work and long-term deployment, Hexagon is helping move workforce-ready autonomy from promise to reality and is contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world.
Arnaud Robert, President of Robotics at Hexagon
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