Zeiss Innovation Summit 2026: Revealing the Talos metrology robot for automated inspection

Germany's ZEISS has turned decades of precision-measurement expertise into a robot that investigates parts by itself. Revealed at the ZEISS Innovation Summit 2026 in Berlin (4-6 November), ZEISS TALOS is the Oberkochen-based metrology group's first true metrology robot: a robotic arm with a 3.30 m reach that measures medium and large components with a volumetric uncertainty below 100 micrometres, and it does it without reference markers, stickers or external tracking cameras, because a self-calibrating mathematical twin compensates for temperature drift and shop-floor vibration in real time. The new ZEISS TALOS AX blue-light sensor carries two 24-megapixel cameras imaging at 100 Hz (200 Hz in fast scan) across a 500 mm volume plus four multidirectional feature flashes, so a single automated workflow captures both full-field surface geometry for a digital twin and precise features such as holes, edges, bolts and threads. In this first look, Manuel Winter, Head of Robotics at ZEISS RQS and the engineer behind Talos, and product sales manager Thomas McGukin demonstrate Smart Teach drag-and-drop programming that generates collision-free, optimised measurement paths straight from the CAD model, and walk through a customer example from engine maintenance, repair and overhaul. The payoff is inspection leaving the temperature-controlled measuring room and moving next to the line, on car bodies, giga-castings, aerostructures, truck cabins and weld seams. By: Aerospace Testing International Magazine, published at November 10, 2026.