by Gary Mintchell | Jun 2, 2026 | Robots, Software, Technology
Manufacturers have lots of data. Every day brings new technologies for gathering and storing it. The right question probes into what specific problem can be solved. I sat in the world’s shortest press conference (not complaining, even though they blew off my question) with a company I don’t know who asked the question—how can we better integrate the myriad details required to build the best robotic workcell.
The company is called Robotiq. Based in Quebec City, Canada, introduced IQ, an AI-enabled platform designed to make robotic Workcell integration faster, more predictable, and easier to scale. IQ captures unstructured automation project data, coordinates engineering workflows, and helps partners generate validated Workcell designs based on real customer inputs and historical deployment data from thousands of previous factory installations.
“AI” can be a generic marketing buzzword. I asked for a definition, but the press conference closed before they got to it. Reading through the press release, the definition apparently involves machine learning algorithms. Fair enough.
“Automation does not scale when integration remains manual,” said Samuel Bouchard, CEO of Robotiq. “With IQ, we are moving from manually engineering robotic systems one project at a time to automatically generating Workcells from real customer inputs, Robotiq components, AI, and proven know-how from thousands of past projects. For manufacturers, this means a clearer path to automation: fewer surprises, faster decisions, more predictable performance, and better financial justification, including in many 1-shift operations.”
Robotic Workcell integration depends on thousands of small details. Customer requirements, production constraints, factory floor layouts, site measurements, throughput targets, product variants, and local installation realities all affect whether a project succeeds. When that data is incomplete, fragmented or siloed, engineering teams experience project delays during the discovery and design revision phases.
The IQ solution includes:
- Automated data capture: Extract technical requirements via voice notes, legacy file uploads, and 3D site scanning.
- AI-enabled project coordination: Machine-learning models align manufacturer specifications, partner capabilities, and Robotiq application engineering expertise.
- Simulation and design validation: 3D environment scans are converted into digital twin models, matching customer cycle times and application data against standardized engineering rules to validate Workcell performance before physical deployment.
IQ is available today for robotic palletizing applications, where Robotiq has already standardized the hardware components, software workflows, and deployment knowledge needed to generate validated Workcell designs. Over time, Robotiq plans to extend the same Automatic Integration model to additional robotic applications.
To commission robotic systems successfully, manufacturers need local system integration support, application expertise, and reliable service. Robotiq partners play that role. IQ provides partners with a repeatable digital workflow to capture project information, apply Robotiq deployment expertise, collaborate with customers and Robotiq experts, and support Workcells more consistently after installation.
“IQ does not replace partner expertise,” Bouchard added. “It amplifies this expertise to accelerate and scale projects. Manufacturers need local partners who understand their production reality and can provide the installation capacity and support needed to keep lines running. IQ gives those partners better information, better coordination, and a clearer path from opportunity to running system.”
by Gary Mintchell | May 20, 2026 | Networking
I remember the beginning of the serial networking (remember RS232 and RS422/RS485?) transition to ethernet. There were two companies that I recall who specialized in serial-to-ethernet converters. Digi was one. I thought those days were long faded into memory. Imagine my surprise to receive this press release announcing an nee serial device server. I know that devices used in manufacturing have a long lifespan. But, wow, this goes back!
Digi International announced May 19 the Digi Connect EZ 4 TS and Digi Connect EZ 8 TS, next-generation serial device servers designed to help organizations modernize legacy serial infrastructure with enhanced security and centralized management — without requiring enclosure or wiring changes.
The EZ TS family builds on the current Digi Connect EZ platform and provides an efficient transition path for existing ConnectPort TS and PortServer TS deployments, while introducing new capabilities for today’s IT and OT requirements.
Digi expands upon the many devices still in use.
Serial connectivity remains essential across industrial automation, robotics, retail POS, kiosks and embedded systems. However, many deployments lack the security and remote access capabilities required in modern environments. Digi Connect EZ TS enables organizations to securely connect and manage legacy serial devices over IP — without replacing existing equipment.
Key Features
- Efficient transition upgrade for Digi ConnectPort TS and PortServer TS environments
- 4- and 8-port models with software-selectable RS-232/422/485
- Digi TrustFence security with encryption, authentication and VPN support
- Centralized management via Digi Remote Manager or On-Prem Manager
- Slim, panel-friendly design for easy cabinet integration
- Fast setup with Digi Navigator and Python support for edge automation
- 1-year Digi LifeCycle Assurance (24/7 technical support and centralized management)
What It Enables
- Secure modernization of legacy serial infrastructure
- Remote monitoring, troubleshooting and firmware updates
- Compliance with enterprise security standards (TLS, FIPS, VPN, RADIUS, TACACS+)
- Excellent for industrial, energy, manufacturing and enterprise environments
by Gary Mintchell | May 18, 2026 | Automation, Events, Robots
Few trade show/conferences exist in our market anymore. I attend only a few of them. I will be at Automate at Chicago’s McCormick Place next month. If you’d like to meet for a coffee and chat while I’m there, send me a note.
I will see Keegan (didn’t get the proper spelling). I walk into a Starbucks in Elgin, IL Thursday for my doppio espresso with cinnamon and spot a guy wearing a Cognex shirt. Turns out he works for them and will be at Automate. They have lots of new products to show, he told me. Stop by and say hi (not a paid announcement).
Jeff Burnstein, President, Association for Advancing Automation (A3), agreed to talk with me about the upcoming show.
As an aside, you should get used to the term “physical AI” replacing the old term “robotics.” I’m hearing that often.
The first thing Burnstein promoted for the show was humanoid robots. Check out the pavilion and forum that Nvidia sponsoring. A3 have an annual conference on humanoids. There will be much to discuss.
I asked about applications. I talked with the general manager of a company division designing and building humanoids. I asked him why. His reply, “These are build for bench assembly tasks, and existing benches are designed for humans. Rather than rebuild an assembly station, just buy a robot built to human dimensions.”
Back to Burnstein, “Companies are putting the technology out there hoping for customers to find applications.” I may have written recently this idea concerning the AI LLM product mindset—instead of searching for a customer need and designing a solution, we produce a solution and hope that customers will discover applications. I’m interested in pursuing these inquiries during my time at the show.
Burnstein further commented, “AI is moving more rapidly than we expected.”
He told me that A3, the organization, is doing a lot with government, testifying before Congress and working with agencies. An official of the US Dept. Of Commerce will be speaking at Automate. A3 are pushing for a government central strategy for development and application of robots, to incentivize adoption. This should be a national priority since right now China dwarfs us in the manufacture and application of robots. Further, government also as a major user, lots of applications. Part of the personal initiatives is sales. Government can also stimulate companies to build robots here.
Why the push on robots? Major shortage of workers. Burnstein told me currently the number is 438K. Analysts state the shortage could be 1.38M by 2033.
A3 encourages government to invest in university and private research. This was an interesting comment given I’d just read a blog post by Kevin Meyer regarding the current administration efforts to cut such funding.
He concluded with a request for people to accelerate robotic safety standards for humanoids.
Automate 2026 At-a-Glance
- North America’s largest robotics and automation event
- June 22-25 at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
- Free to the public (ages 12 and up)
- 50,000+ attendees, 1,000 exhibitors, 450,000 sq. ft. show floor
- Automate brings together automation professionals from around the world to explore the latest technologies in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine vision, motion control, and industrial automation.
- For more information and to register for Automate 2026, visit automateshow.com.
Facts about A3:
For more than five decades, the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA-Advancing Vision + Imaging (AIA), and the Motion Control and Motors Association (MCMA), along with A3 Mexico, have played a key role in helping automation technologies become among the most critical tools of the 21st Century. As these technologies have converged, our association has had a convergence of its own. We are now the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), one trade group for the entire automation ecosystem.
by Gary Mintchell | May 12, 2026 | Automation, Edge, Generative AI
Immediately following my trip to a software conference featuring AI solutions, I attended an online press conference from Siemens at Hannover Fair. I’ve attended it in person several times over the years. This year Siemens held the press conference (with fewer than usual journalists) at their stand instead of a great hall that featured dinner following.
Siemens featured AI and agents introducing us to Eigen. They are tied to Microsoft Copilot for their solutions. I was more impressed by the Aras deep dives into governance than Siemens’ ignoring of that topic.
There were many announcements.
Industrial AI Suite and WinCC Unified now with general availability
- Enhanced cybersecurity: IEC 62443-4-2-certified security functions and air-gapped operation for critical infrastructures
- Industrial Information Hub with bidirectional data flow and ARM support for flexible, decentralized applications
- Growing partner ecosystem: New partner solutions for machine vision, quality inspection and robust industrial hardware
The Industrial AI Suite, based on Industrial Edge, is now generally available. It simplifies the entire AI lifecycle and enables embedding industrial AI via a complete infrastructure, easily scaling AI models and managing them across locations. The Industrial AI Suite supports a wide range of AI-based applications such as predictive maintenance and visual inspection to reduce downtime and sustainably increase production quality. In the latest version, the Industrial AI Suite also enables significantly more effective AI model retraining by allowing customers to combine image data with production data from MES systems or controllers.
Industrial Edge Management version 2.0 combines a redesigned, more user friendly and efficient user interface with enhanced data management and security for distributed infrastructures. At the same time, the platform now supports additional hypervisors such as OpenShift and Hyper-V, enabling Siemens Industrial Edge to be operated flexibly on existing IT infrastructures. Siemens thus bridges the requirements of both the IT and OT worlds.
IEC 62443-4-2-certified security functions for critical infrastructures, including air-gapped operation in which systems are physically isolated from external networks, are targeted for release in the second half of 2026 and are expected to provide enhanced cybersecurity. The high security and data management capabilities have been independently confirmed. Testing institute UL Solutions has awarded Siemens Industrial Edge and the virtual PLC the “Smart Systems Verified – Platinum” certification, evaluating six key categories: connectivity and interoperability, control and automation, digital experience, functional value, resilience, and cybersecurity.
The Industrial Information Hub has been fundamentally expanded. The data management solution enables bidirectional data flow: data models can now be synchronized in parallel between edge devices and central IT systems in both directions. This opens up new IT/OT integration scenarios. In addition, the new version of the Industrial Information Hub is available on ARM-based devices such as the SIMATIC IOT2050, which can, for example, be operated on battery power, with LTE-based wireless networking planned for a future release. Thanks to energy-efficient operation, this also means edge applications can be implemented at locations without permanent power supply. These innovations are particularly relevant for decentralized SCADA applications in logistics, water and waste management, or for renewable energy.
New partner solutions are also expanding the Industrial Edge ecosystem. Together with 36Zero Vision, MVTec and Basler, solutions are being developed in the areas of machine vision and quality inspection. From AI-driven defect detection and no-code image processing to modularly deployable image processing and analysis functions, companies can integrate machine vision use cases into manufacturing in a scalable manner.
Eigen
Siemens brings AI to the physical world with Eigen Engineering Agent
- New class of industrial AI product moves beyond AI-powered guidance to autonomous task completion
- Now commercially available, Eigen Engineering Agent delivers up to 50 percent efficiency gains in automation engineering tasks
- Latest milestone in Siemens’ announced €1 billion industrial AI investment advances company’s AI-centric growth strategy
The Eigen Engineering Agent is production-ready and available to the more than 600,000 users of Siemens’ Totally Integrated Automation Engineering platform, TIA Portal. It is part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio and is digitally available now.
The Eigen Engineering Agent takes its name from the German word “eigen.” While the word translates to “one’s own,” engineers know it best through concepts like “eigenvalues,” which are properties that remain constant even as everything around them transforms. As the AI landscape transforms rapidly and physical AI matures, the Eigen Engineering Agent is designed to be that constant: a steady source of intelligence, rooted in Siemens’ industrial heritage and capable of carrying out real work.
by Gary Mintchell | May 11, 2026 | Edge, Industrial Computers
Industrial automation suppliers are scrambling for advanced compute edge solutions, often through partnerships rather than acquisition. This is the first of Siemens announcements from the recently held Hannover Messe.
Industrial computing and edge AI specialists, OnLogic, and technology company Siemens, a global leader in automation and digitalization, have announced a strategic partnership to extend the Siemens Industrial Edge (IE) ecosystem into “Extreme Edge” environments where standard hardware cannot survive. By combining Siemens Industrial Edge with OnLogic fanless, ruggedized edge computing hardware, the collaboration empowers customers in minerals, energy, and distributed infrastructure to digitize critical assets that have been previously unreachable.
Here are a few of the features sought out for rugged applications.
Modern distributed infrastructure relies on processing data directly at the point of origin, including high-vibration conveyor belts, wash-down floors, and other locations that would challenge or destroy traditional technology solutions. OnLogic devices act as the “rugged armor” for the Siemens IE “brain”, featuring advanced thermal management, interference-limiting enclosures, and capabilities like customizable I/O to pull data from 30-year-old legacy equipment into modern Siemens apps.
Here are a few features:
- Zero-touch scalability and sustainability
- The integrated solution accelerates time-to-value through systems compatible with Siemens Industrial Edge.
- Plug-and-play deployment: OnLogic units support zero-touch provisioning via the Siemens Industrial Edge Management (IEM) platform, enabling rapid global scaling of containerized apps.
- Actionable sustainability: The low-wattage, high-efficiency design of OnLogic hardware helps customers reduce Scope 3 emissions while delivering long product lifecycles to reduce e-waste, helping to make the Siemens DEGREE sustainability standards actionable.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 30, 2026 | Security
The typical cybersecurity firm releases reports. Here is one from a company called Resiliance. The unique take on this concerns linking cybersecurity technology to insurance risk. I’ve talked with people from various standards committees who believe a combination of insurance risks plus board-level concern with those insurance risks will drive management to pay more attention to the situation.
So consider this report as part of a larger management strategy.
Proprietary claims data reveal the simple practices manufacturing cybersecurity leaders should implement to limit financial risk
The best responses to change and management are the search for the simplest. Not too simple, but definitely trying to defeat overly complex processes.
Manufacturing is currently the single most targeted industry for cyberattacks. Given their critical role in the modern interconnected economy and low tolerance for downtime, manufacturers have become a prime target for threat actors looking for bigger payouts. On April 28, 2026, Resilience released The State of Cybersecurity in Manufacturing to identify the key drivers of financial losses based on real claims data and security practices that deliver measurable reductions in financial risk across its manufacturing portfolio. The report offers manufacturing security leaders, risk managers, and brokers clear, evidence-based solutions grounded in real claims.
Key findings from Resilience’s manufacturing claims data include:
- Over 90% of total incurred losses in Resilience’s manufacturing portfolio were attributable to ransomware, despite ransomware making up only 12% of claim volume among manufacturers. This shows that when attacks do happen, the losses are severe.
- Phishing and transfer fraud accounted for 30% of manufacturing claims, showing that human error is still one of the leading causes of cyber disruption.
- About 26% of all portfolio losses came from an MFA misconfiguration as the point of failure. The single most expensive event in Resilience’s manufacturing portfolio, attributed to BlackCat, was enabled by misconfigured MFA.
- Wrongful data collection caused 12% of claims, driven primarily by website tracking and pixel-related litigation, rather than operational data collection from connected manufacturing systems.
- There are five specific, implementable security controls that manufacturers can undertake to meaningfully address material risk and harden their defenses against cyber threats.
Importantly, Resilience’s new data illustrates that the controls security leaders should implement aren’t complicated. Simple adjustments are all that’s needed to strengthen their posture against cyber risk.
What security controls deliver the highest ROI for manufacturing organizations? Based on Resilience’s analysis of manufacturing insurance claims data and financial risk modeling, five controls consistently delivered the most significant identified impact on financial exposure:
- Auditing and validating MFA deployment supports consistent enforcement across all accounts, elimination of bypass conditions, and proper configuration of conditional access policies.
- Strengthening vulnerability management for external-facing systems hardens organizations from software vulnerability exploited directly linked to expensive ransomware outcomes.
- Implementing procedural controls for financial transfers can protect against phishing and transfer fraud attacks that represent the most frequent claim activity in the portfolio. This is a strategic cost-saving practice, as the average transfer fraud event costs roughly ten times more than the average email compromise.
- Extending security requirements to vendors and supply chain partners is designed to help insulate manufacturers from a distinct cause of loss in the claims data. Manufacturers should extend their security requirements to critical vendors, including contractual MFA and patching requirements, continuous monitoring of vendor risk posture, and contingency plans for disruptions to critical suppliers.
- Cyber risk quantification and transfer support the translation of cybersecurity risk into financial language that resonates with CFOs and boards to assist in securing adequate investment. Resilience’s claims data provides a concrete basis for this conversation: ransomware dominates loss, a single point of failure (MFA misconfiguration) drives the largest share of exposure, and unpatched software is a direct line to the most expensive outcomes. These findings are intended to inform specific control investments and insurance coverage decisions.
