BMW has documented three humanoid-robot programs at two plants, but the records do not describe a head-to-head test. Figure 02 completed production work at Plant Spartanburg, Figure 03 is being shown in a logistics workflow at the same site, and Hexagon AEON is following a staged pilot plan at Plant Leipzig.

Figure 02: a measured production record at Spartanburg

BMW says Plant Spartanburg launched its Figure AI pilot in 2025, the first deployment of humanoid robots in a BMW facility. Over ten months, Figure 02 assisted production of more than 30,000 BMW X3 vehicles. It operated five days a week in ten-hour shifts, moved more than 90,000 components, logged about 1,250 operating hours and took roughly 1.2 million steps.

The task was sheet-metal loading. Figure’s own production report defined an 84-second total cycle requirement, including a 37-second loading phase. Its placement-accuracy goal was greater than 99 percent per shift and its intervention goal was zero, so those figures are requirements rather than independently measured outcomes.

BMW says Figure 02 performed repeatable positioning tasks with millimetre-level accuracy. The pilot also led BMW to revise safety concepts with additional barriers and partitions and to improve 5G coverage in the hall. Figure reports that hardware failures were minimal across more than 1,250 operational hours, while identifying the forearm as its leading hardware failure point; that finding informed the design of Figure 03.

Figure 03: a more dynamic logistics workflow

Figure says Figure 03 has arrived in Hall 52 at Plant Spartanburg following the Figure 02 deployment. Its published material describes this as the first demonstration of Figure 03 performing a logistics workflow in a manufacturing environment.

The new workflow moves beyond fixed sheet-metal loading. Figure describes parts, bins and carts arriving in slightly different positions, requiring the robot to perceive each scene and make corrections rather than replay one hard-coded motion. Its Helix 02 control system coordinates the hands, arms, torso and feet while the robot manipulates parts, repositions its body and pulls a cart on caster wheels.

Figure calls this combination loco-manipulation: the robot grasps with both hands while changing foot placement and posture to maintain reach and balance. That makes the published Figure 03 evidence a logistics demonstration, while the Figure 02 record includes months of operating data from a production task.

Hexagon AEON: a staged Leipzig battery pilot

BMW describes AEON as the first European humanoid pilot in its production network. The company says the robot made its operational debut at Plant Leipzig in December 2025, followed by additional testing scheduled for April and integration into pilot operations in the summer.

The planned work focuses on high-voltage battery assembly and component production. BMW has also pictured AEON assembling battery modules at Leipzig. The robot stands 1.65 metres tall, weighs 60 kilograms and can move at up to 2.5 metres per second.

Unlike the walking Figure robots, AEON uses wheels in place of feet. Its human-like torso can accept different gripping tools, hands or scanning devices without changing the core structure. BMW presents that configuration as a way to test more than one production task during the Leipzig program.

What can actually be compared

The strongest distinction is the maturity and type of evidence. Figure 02 has a completed ten-month operating record with unit, component and runtime totals. Figure 03 has a first-party logistics demonstration that emphasizes perception and whole-body control. AEON has a BMW-described rollout sequence for a Leipzig battery-production pilot.

Those records establish different sites, tasks and stages. They do not establish a winner, a shared control system, a return-on-investment comparison or a robot-level safety ranking.

Sources

This article was researched and fact-checked against the following sources: