Hexagon, a leader in measurement and reality capture technology, has introduced its new AEON humanoid robot, created in strategic partnership with NVIDIA, to address chronic labor shortages across manufacturing, logistics, and other industrial sectors. With approximately 50 million unfilled positions globally, AEON aims to fill critical workforce gaps by automating error-prone, skilled tasks such as high-precision scanning, manipulation, asset inspection, and operator support. The robot was officially unveiled during the Hexagon LIVE Global conference, with planned deployments spanning automotive, aerospace, transportation, warehousing, and logistics industries.
AEON’s capabilities are diverse, encompassing reality capture (scanning and modeling assets or environments), sorting and manipulation of components, part quality inspection, and intricate industrial operations, including teleoperation and machinery management. At the heart of AEON’s intelligence is NVIDIA’s triad of robotics computers: supercomputers for model training; NVIDIA Omniverse on OVX servers for advanced simulation using real and synthetic data; and NVIDIA IGX Thor for running models in deployment. The development process leveraged high-fidelity simulations with the NVIDIA Isaac platform, utilizing Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab for robot skill acquisition, allowing AEON to master locomotion and manipulation in weeks rather than months. Hexagon also integrates NVIDIA Jetson Orin onboard for real-time autonomous navigation and plans to upgrade the robot for advanced functional safety.
AEON will be piloted in a range of industrial settings, performing complex scanning operations on everything from small parts to entire assembly lines. The data captured by AEON is brought to life within Hexagon Reality Cloud Studio by connecting HxDR with NVIDIA Omniverse, making possible collaborative visualization and management of reality-capture information on the cloud rather than depending on local infrastructure. Lucas Heinzle, Hexagon’s vice president of R&D, highlighted how AEON’s advanced sensor suite and seamless Omniverse integration position digital twins as a powerful yet more accessible tool for industry-wide collaboration and innovation. Looking ahead, Hexagon plans to establish a continuous improvement cycle using the OpenUSD framework to generate high-fidelity digital twins and train AEON’s Artificial Intelligence, paving the way for scalable robotic solutions that meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of industrial automation.
