Agile Robots, a provider of AI-powered automation solutions, hasacquired the remaining shares of the BMW spin-off idealworks. Following its initial investment in 2023, Agile Robots now holds 100% of idealworks. The BMW Group remains a long-term partner.
idealworks founder MA Schneider
Founded in 2020 as a subsidiary of the BMW Group, idealworks has built a comprehensive robotics system encompassing the AnyFleet automation platform, the iw.sim simulation technology, and the iw.hub autonomous mobile robot – supported by a growing network of at BMW Group production sites worldwide
in operation
Rapid growth
Furthermore, idealworks has a strong and growing customer base in other sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing. "This is an important milestone for idealworks," says Michael Alexander Schneider, CEO of idealworks. The company transforms processes in the automotive, manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing sectors.
Agile Robots
Agile Robots was founded in 2018 by renowned robotics researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Munich and is experiencing rapid global growth. Currently, more than 2,300 highly qualified robotics and AI enthusiasts work at locations in Germany, China, and India. The company employs one of the largest research and development teams in the AI and
robotics industry.
PhD obtained at the DLR
Agile founder Zhaopeng Chen has been fascinated by robots since childhood. Inspired by science fiction classics, he studied engineering in China and earned his doctorate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). There, he developed a novel humanoid hand – a much-lauded milestone in global robotics research and the foundation for Wessling Robotics, his first spin-off company with his later founding partner at Agile Robots, Peter Meusel.
Agile founder Zhaopeng Chen
As deputy head of the DLR laboratory for modular robotics, Zhaopeng significantly shaped research on intelligent, autonomous robots. Zhaopeng has lived with his family in Bavaria for almost two decades.
