Gasgoo Munich- BMW Group has officially announced the deployment of humanoid robots at its European factories to launch production pilots.
At the battery assembly line of its Leipzig plant in Germany, the AEON humanoid robot from Sweden's Hexagon has been deployed for high-voltage battery assembly and parts production. In the past, employees working these stations typically had to wear bulky protective suits.
Notably, the key actuators enabling AEON to perform these tasks come from a Chinese company—DH-Robotics. This means that in the industrial application of embodied robotics, Chinese core components are entering the validation phase of the global top-tier supply chain.
Chinese Electric Grippers Enter BMW Plants
The AEON robot deployed by BMW stands 1.65 meters tall and weighs 60 kilograms. It features a highly anthropomorphic mechanical structure, supports rapid swapping of functional end-effectors and high-precision perception modules, and adopts a wheeled mobile chassis design—allowing it to adapt to tight spaces within the factory while easily handling long-distance movements.
BMW engineers integrated these robots into the BMW intelligent robot ecosystem through standardized interfaces and upgraded the workshop's safety systems to enable human-robot collaboration.
Image Source: DH-Robotics
Testing for the project's next phase is set to begin in April. During the pilot period starting this summer, BMW aims to fully integrate AEON robots into the production network. "If we can successfully integrate the robots in Leipzig, we can roll them out to all our plants worldwide," said Michael Ströbel, BMW's Head of Process Management and Digitalization.
This isn't BMW's first foray into humanoid robotics. Back in 2025, its Spartanburg plant in the U.S. partnered with Figure AI to deploy Figure 02 robots, completing an 11-month trial run.
Data shows the robot assisted in producing over 30,000 BMW X3s in ten months, moving more than 90,000 parts and operating for over 1,250 hours. For BMW, the U.S. pilot confirmed that humanoid robots can safely execute these tasks.
Now, from Spartanburg to Leipzig, the mission of these humanoid robots is evolving from simple material handling to more complex battery assembly.
At the heart of this shift lies an upgrade in end-effector capabilities.
In the Leipzig tests, AEON is equipped with the AG-series electric gripper from DH-Robotics, which features an enveloping adaptive design. This allows the robot's gripper to automatically adjust its grasping strategy based on the shape and size of the workpiece, ensuring flexible adaptation while maintaining high repeatability.
Moreover, the AG series boasts a long stroke, high repeatability, flexible adaptability, and plug-and-play compatibility. It can be quickly integrated with different humanoid robot platforms—including multi-joint arms and humanoid robots—ensuring stable operation within complex production cycles.
According to DH-Robotics, the AG series is already widely used in embodied intelligence, 3C manufacturing, education and research, automotive parts, semiconductors, and medical and laboratory automation. In the field of embodied intelligence specifically, DH-Robotics' dexterous hand products have been broadly applied in bin picking, human-like interaction, home organization, and warehousing.
Who is DH-Robotics?
Public records show DH-Robotics was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Shenzhen. At its inception, the company focused on anthropomorphic dexterous hands, attempting to solve the industry pain point of robots that "could move but weren't dexterous." But the path proved difficult, as early humanoid robots were largely seen as "stage stars" for showcasing technology, with few industrial customers willing to pay for dexterity.
In the years that followed, DH-Robotics chose a different path: rooting itself in industrial automation scenarios to accumulate technology in precision motion control. To this end, the company built a broad product line—over 200 products including servo electric grippers, voice coil actuators, servo electric cylinders, dexterous hands, and the iFM intelligent flexible motion system—providing flexible, intelligent, and low-carbon electric actuator products and solutions for sectors like 3C, new energy, and semiconductors.
It is precisely this technical capability, honed on the factory floor, that is now feeding back into the embodied robotics race.
2026 is viewed by the industry as the "first year of mass production" for the industrial application of humanoid robots. As of the first quarter, more than 20 mainstream automakers globally have laid out plans for humanoid robots, including Tesla, BMW, and Hyundai, as well as Chinese players like BYD, XPENG, and Changan.
Morgan Stanley has predicted that the global humanoid robot market could reach $5 trillion by 2050.
Faced with this immense potential, the industry's true competitive focus is shifting from "can the robot walk" to "can the robot work."
Clearly, through its partnership with BMW, DH-Robotics is deeply participating in this contest.
Image Source: DH-Robotics
According to data provided by DH-Robotics, total shipments in 2025 reached 100,000 units, with overseas deliveries exceeding 12,000 sets across more than 40 countries and regions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In the field of embodied intelligence, DH-Robotics released four new dexterous hand products in 2025, including the DH-5-20, DH-5-14, and DH-3-7. This completed a product layout ranging from three to five fingers and from 6 to 20 degrees of freedom, while establishing partnerships with leading humanoid robot enterprises such as UBTech, Zhiyuan Robotics, and GalaxyBot.
The DH-5-20 five-finger dexterous hand features 20 active degrees of freedom, five-dimensional tactile sensing, and a rapid 2Hz response. Designed for the most challenging unstructured tasks, it achieves fine manipulation and intelligent response close to that of a human hand.
The DH-5-14 five-finger dexterous hand builds on a 14-active-DOF anthropomorphic structure, boosting single-finger force to 18N and load capacity to 25kg. While maintaining high dexterity, it prioritizes stability and reliability under heavy loads.
The DH-3-7 three-finger dexterous hand, meanwhile, offers a streamlined 7-active-DOF biomimetic design with plug-and-play features and high cost-effectiveness, providing a stable, efficient, and easy-to-deploy dexterous hand solution for widespread industrial gripping applications.
At the end of 2025, DH-Robotics also formed a strategic partnership with Huaxiang Qiyuan, a subsidiary of listed company Ningbo Huaxiang, intending to strengthen cooperation in the R&D, manufacturing, and sales of general-purpose humanoid dexterous hands.
Specifically, Huaxiang Qiyuan and DH-Robotics will collaborate on the development and mass production of specific six-degree-of-freedom dexterous hand products tailored to the needs of Huaxiang Qiyuan and its clients. DH-Robotics will be primarily responsible for product design and development verification, while Huaxiang Qiyuan will handle solution confirmation, mass assembly, and client sales.
DH-Robotics' deep involvement in BMW's European factory humanoid robot pilot project is not only a significant breakthrough for Chinese electric grippers in the international high-end manufacturing sector, but also strong proof that Chinese core robotics technology is gaining international recognition.
From Shenzhen to Leipzig, and from industrial automation to embodied intelligence, DH-Robotics is using its hands to prove one thing: when humanoid robots truly start "working," Chinese core components are already at the table.
