Before any of the 1,000 AEON humanoid robots planned for Schaeffler's manufacturing operations touch a live production line, they will spend time in a purpose-built Humanoid Gym in Germany — a controlled industrial environment where robots train, get validated, and earn their place on the floor.
The initiative, announced jointly by Hexagon Robotics and Schaeffler, formalises what has become a recurring challenge for industrial humanoid deployments: the gap between a robot that can perform a task in a lab and one that performs it reliably across shifting conditions in a factory. The Humanoid Gym uses a Train-Validate-Deploy model, letting AEON develop and refine capabilities in a representative manufacturing environment while Schaeffler's own operations team builds the expertise to run and integrate humanoids at scale.
AEON learns industrial tasks through imitation learning and repeated execution. New capabilities are validated against real Schaeffler factory applications before deployment, minimising disruption to live production. Schaeffler's position as both a major humanoid user and a supplier of advanced actuator technology to AEON creates an unusually tight feedback loop between robot developer and customer.
"The real value creation comes when humanoids perform multiple tasks reliably and at a high-performance standard in production. Schaeffler's Humanoid Gym gives us an environment where AEON can meet the performance and reliability standards across real use cases and therefore allow us to scale our manufacturing deployments," said Arnaud Robert, President of Hexagon Robotics.
"With AEON being trained in our Humanoid Gym, we are taking the next step in turning humanoid robotics into an industrial reality. Schaeffler's unique role as both a user of humanoids and a key component supplier allows us to help shape the performance of humanoid robots through our advanced motion technologies. Through our collaboration with Hexagon Robotics, we can test and refine these systems under real-world conditions, supporting our broader ambition to strengthen manufacturing performance and enable scalable automation," said Dr. Jochen Schröder, Chief Operating Officer at Schaeffler.
The two companies announced their strategic partnership in April 2026. Hexagon Robotics is the robotics division of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B), which employs around 16,000 people across 50 countries. Training at the Humanoid Gym is expected to accelerate AEON deployment across Schaeffler's global operations over the next six months.
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