Buying guide
AEON vs Clone Protoclone in 2026
Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.
Key differences
- AEON has more verified real-world deployments (1 vs 0).
- AEON is at the pilot stage; Clone Protoclone at the research stage.
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Hexagon | Clone Robotics |
| Form factor | humanoid | humanoid |
| Maturity | pilot | research |
| Autonomy | — | — |
| Availability | internal-onlyenterprise | preorder-openpreorder |
| Price | Not announced | $20,000 (manufacturer target) |
| Capability claims | — | — |
| Brain |
| — |
| Verified deployments | 1BMW Group | 0 |
| Privacy practices | — | — |
| Sources on file | 5 | 8 |
Editorial summaries
AEON
Hexagon's AEON is an industrial humanoid robot built for factory work such as assembly lines and high-voltage EV-battery manufacturing, developed with NVIDIA, Microsoft, and the Swiss actuator maker maxon. It carries 22 sensors and self-swapping batteries (about 23 seconds) for around-the-clock operation, with a walking speed near 2.5 meters per second. DEPLOY records it at pilot maturity with one verified deployment, at BMW Group Plant Leipzig: the honest counterpoint to aggregator 'humanoids are working in factories at scale' framing, this is a verified pilot, not commercial-at-scale. As industrial equipment sold to manufacturers, it has no consumer price.
Clone Protoclone
Clone Robotics is accepting reservations for the Clone Alpha, a limited first edition of 279 units, through its own website. No purchase price has been published. The reservation availability is verified from the maker's page; the price is not disclosed.
Common questions
- What is the difference between AEON and Clone Protoclone?
- AEON and Clone Protoclone are both humanoid robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.
- Which has more verified deployments, AEON or Clone Protoclone?
- AEON has more verified deployments (1) on the DEPLOY registry than Clone Protoclone (0). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.
Recent coverage
- Study reveals public boundaries for workplace robots - The Engineer - HomeAEON · Google News · 2026-06-17
- BMW deploys humanoid robots in Leipzig production - Let's Data ScienceAEON · Google News · 2026-06-11
- What Is a Humanoid Robot? [2026] - RoboZapsClone Protoclone · Google News · 2026-06-10
- Clone Alpha: Synthetic Muscle Humanoid Robot [2026] - RoboZapsClone Protoclone · Google News · 2026-06-10
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