Hexagon AB, a worldwide chief in digital actuality options like digital twins, GNSS, and LiDAR, continues to make strides in advancing R&D and agentic AI. Curiously, the Stockholm-based firm attributes numerous this R&D to its Hyderabad international functionality centre (GCC).
Hexagon R&D India in Hyderabad has round 2,200 staff. Burkhard Boeckem, CTO at Hexagon AB, not too long ago visited the Hyderabad GCC through the firm’s Tech Day occasion and highlighted the affect that the centre is creating for the corporate’s international operations.
Reflecting on the importance of the centre, Boeckem advised AIM that Hyderabad is one in all Hexagon’s three principal R&D centres globally, moreover Switzerland and the US. “The main focus right here is totally on R&D, with some service features intently aligned to our innovation initiatives,” Boeckem stated.
The centre fosters sturdy collaborations with expertise giants like AWS and Microsoft, in addition to native and international academia. “The partnerships we have now constructed listed here are instrumental in driving innovation. We invited our companions to the Tech Day, and it’s evident that 2025 would be the yr of brokers in AI,” Boeckem remarked.
The Future is All About Agentic AI
Hexagon’s method to AI has been strategic and evolutionary. Boeckem stated that from the early adoption of deep studying in 2012 to embracing generative AI in 2018, the corporate has constantly been forward of business traits.
“Our work revolves round taking real-world information and creating digital twins with metrology-grade accuracy, leveraging machine studying, deep studying, and generative AI to realize insights and actionable intelligence,” he stated.
Boeckem defined that the analysis crew, which relies in Hyderabad, facilitates a lot of this work.
The identical is true for agentic AI. Boeckem stated that these techniques, which may autonomously make choices and work together with their setting, are poised to rework industries.
“Hexagon’s tagline, ‘Shaping Actuality’ aligns completely with agentic AI,” Boeckem stated that whether or not it’s an autonomous flying laser scanner or off-road autonomy in mining, Hexagon’s focus is on rising autonomy in decision-making.
Hexagon’s R&D efforts span 28 industries, with divisions devoted to geosystems, manufacturing intelligence, asset lifecycle intelligence, security infrastructure, and autonomous options. The Hyderabad GCC performs a pivotal position in these domains by housing the worldwide innovation hub—a 400-strong crew targeted on this innovation.
“The expertise pool right here [in Hyderabad] is phenomenal, and we’re enthusiastic about the way forward for agentic AI and its potential to rework industries,” Boeckem stated, including that the corporate spends 15% of its income again into R&D, Hyderabad being one of many largest centres for it.
AI on the Edge and within the Proper Locations
Hexagon’s focus is on bringing agentic AI into the engineering, mining, and building operations as an alternative of specializing in vehicles and driving, which Boeckem calls manufacturing intelligence. “Let the Bosch and Continentals of the world take it and produce it to scalability, Hexagon is targeted on course of optimisation and inspection automation.”
Boeckem stated that autonomous automobiles are one thing that the corporate focuses on, however in industrial use instances as an alternative of on-road driving.
The corporate collaborates with resolution suppliers like Boston Dynamics and Airbus to create merchandise that clear up issues. For instance, Hexagon created the BLK2FLY which received the Time Innovation of the Yr award in 2022. It has wonderful impediment avoidance and monitoring capabilities.
A key focus space for Hexagon is AI on the edge, enabling real-time information processing and insights on the system stage. Boeckem highlighted the Aura face scanner, a product developed with vital contributions from the Hyderabad crew.
Aura reconstructs a 3D digital twin of the face in milliseconds, providing functions in dermatology, cosmetic surgery, and medical aesthetics. The scanner leverages AI on the edge to supply unparalleled insights with precision.
With its modern system that resembles a smooth, golden monitor, Aura is way more than only a show — it homes 13 cameras together with a sophisticated illumination system. This expertise can reconstruct a extremely detailed digital twin of your face in a millisecond.
It permits them to analyse facial options in 3D, providing insights into a spread of considerations, from assessing UV harm and brown spots to evaluating pore circumstances. It additionally permits them to simulate the potential results of beauty procedures, corresponding to Botox injections or facelifts, offering a transparent visualisation of the anticipated outcomes.
Moreover, the usage of AI on the edge, significantly agentic AI, is a vital facet to contemplate. As agentic AI turns into extra prevalent, there’s a rising concentrate on moral and regulatory concerns. Making certain that these techniques function safely and pretty is essential, particularly when it comes to privateness safety—corresponding to when utilizing facial scanning expertise.
Regardless of this perception in agentic AI, Boeckem can be a agency believer in teamwork and doesn’t fully agree that there could be corporations that work with simply AI brokers. “The inspiring and motivating issues we’re doing at Hexagon R&D India… can’t be changed by AI brokers. Probably the most profitable corporations discover the fitting steadiness between human ingenuity and AI,” Boeckem stated, including that Jensen Huang’s thought of the long run about bodily AI is totally true.
He believes that although humanoids won’t be in folks’s houses, we would see them in harmful and life-threatening locations for people. “By 2026, we might have most likely exhausted all the probabilities of a immediate and provide of a giant language mannequin. I feel then it’d be time to maneuver on to the following chapter.”
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