Automate is coming to Detroit this year May 12-15. I cannot make it due to family events. When I began the phase of my career that included robotics, automation, and machinery, most of the trade shows were in Detroit due to the influence of the auto industry. There was a programmable controller show, vision show, and robotics show. All separate; all pretty big. Ah, for the good old days.
I have robot news previewing the show from all my friends in Denmark. OnRobot who continues to innovate in end effectors. I was positive that would never be a growth and innovation area, but they proved me wrong. Also more news from Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots.
OnRobot to Showcase Effortless Automation Deployment
OnRobot will showcase its D:PLOY platform and latest gripper innovations at Automate 2025. In collaboration with integration partner EMI, OnRobot will offer attendees hands-on experience demonstrating how D:PLOY fully automates the deployment of robotic applications. This will be showcased through a live demo of a D:PLOY packaging application featuring OnRobot’s VGC10 gripper, set up rapidly in just hours with no programming.
D:PLOY is the first automatic development platform for cobots and industrial robots that enables the configuration of complete, Off-The-Shelf robotic systems for high-mix manufacturing applications. With full price transparency and same-day installation, D:PLOY gives manufacturers the freedom to adapt in real time, without relying on external experts or programming – and with typical ROI in less than a year.
Visitors will also experience the benefits of OnRobot’s One System Solution: seamless integration of the company’s end-of-arm-tooling across all major robot brands, and true plug-and-produce functionality. Tool changes happen in seconds – no rewiring or reprogramming – showing how easily manufacturers can scale across new applications.
A diverse range of OnRobot’s flexible grippers will be on display, including the new 2FG14, 3FG25, and VGP30. These tools are designed to easily automate diverse tasks, support quick workpiece changeovers, and empower operators to take control. Notably, the VGP30 high-payload pneumatic vacuum gripper is a powerful and robust solution for palletizing boxes, capable of handling cost-saving, thinner cardboard and irregular shapes and porous surfaces. It is ready for immediate deployment out of the box and features intelligent vacuum control that automatically adjusts to any box or interlayer, minimizing air usage and energy costs – ideal for high-mix palletizing applications. Additional OnRobot grippers, including the 2FG7, 3FG15, and Soft Gripper, will be showcased by EMI.
Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots to Debut New and AI-powered Automation Solutions Across Integrated Industry Workflows
Joint showcase from Teradyne Robotics companies will feature comprehensive automation solutions across automotive, electronics manufacturing, and logistics zones, highlighting the power of collaborative and mobile robotics.
Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) will demonstrate their joint commitment to empowering customers with increased productivity through a diverse range of automation applications at Automate 2025.
“Our combined presence is a powerful demonstration of how Teradyne Robotics addresses the complete spectrum of automation needs across diverse industries,” says Ujjwal Kumar, Group President of Teradyne Robotics. “The applications on display across automotive, electronics and logistics emphasize our holistic approach to automation that empowers businesses to optimize their entire workflow, from component handling to final palletization,” says Kumar, who will deliver the Automate keynote “Tech Hype vs Industrial Need: Separating Science Fiction from Scalable Solutions” at 9:00am on Thursday, May 15.
The Automotive zone will include a production flow, utilizing the same type of automotive workpiece across various applications. AI Automation will demonstrate painting with a new explosion-proof (ATEX certified) UR cobot; Mission Design will present dispensing applications; and 3D Infotech will feature a quality inspection process using a UR cobot and the new UR AI Accelerator toolkit to examine the part assembled by Mission Design, highlighting enhanced perception capabilities. Finally, Robotiq will demonstrate palletizing of the packaged workpiece.
The Electronics zone will feature Adaptive Robotics, performing cobot-assisted soldering of electronic components, alongside a hands-on demonstration of UR’s new OptiMove motion control algorithm that dynamically optimizes speed and acceleration within hardware limits, resulting in smoother cobot movements, reduced vibrations, and improved cycle times.
The AI Accelerator, UR’s new toolkit developed in close collaboration with NVIDIA, will also be hard at work in the Electronics zone, incorporated into Flexxbotics’ machine tending solution to provide improved part localization, and in Acumino’s innovative cobot training demo executing complex assembly of electronic components.
The Material Handling & Logistics Zone will underscore the combined strengths of UR and MiR to deliver fully integrated autonomous intralogistics solutions that are now powered by AI technology leveraging NVIDIA’s accelerated computing libraries:
MiR’s autonomous Pallet Jack – the MiR1200 – will demonstrate the movement of pallets within warehouses and production facilities with AI-driven perception systems for robust pallet recognition, even if pallets are broken or imperfectly loaded. The Pallet Jack will work with the MC600, a new mobile cobot that features a UR20 cobot mounted on a MiR600 AMR for increased payload and reach. This integrated MC600 solution, which just won an RBR50 award, will palletize and de-palletize the MiR1200.
I use speech-to-text often in the mornings when I think of something during my morning walks. However, text-to-speech isn’t useful for me—but it could have many enterprise use cases. I first heard of Deepgram in January this year. This news makes one-per-month since. They’ve been busy. I haven’t used it, but it sounds useful.
From the company’s press release—Aura-2 Beats ElevenLabs, Cartesia, and OpenAI in Preference Testing for Conversational Enterprise Use Cases, Delivering Natural, Context-Aware Speech Synthesis with Unmatched Clarity, Speed, and Cost-Efficiency for Real-Time Enterprise Interactions
Deepgram, the leading voice AI platform for enterprise use cases, today announced Aura‑2, its next-generation text-to-speech (TTS) model purpose-built for real-time voice applications in mission-critical business environments. Engineered for clarity, consistency, and low-latency performance, and deployable via cloud or on-premises APIs, Aura‑2 enables developers to build scalable, human-like voice experiences for automated interactions across the enterprise, including customer support, virtual agents, and AI-powered assistants.
Aura-2 is built on Deepgram Enterprise Runtime—the same infrastructure that powers the company’s industry-leading speech-to-text (STT) and speech-to-speech (STS) capabilities—providing enterprises with the control, adaptability, and performance required to deploy and scale production-grade voice AI. With Aura-2, Deepgram extends its leadership in enterprise speech technology to TTS, enabling businesses to deliver natural, responsive, and contextually accurate conversations at scale. Today, more than 200,000 developers and 1,200 companies, including Fortune 500 enterprises and voice AI startups like Jack in the Box, Vapi, and OneReach.ai, build on Deepgram.
Enterprise applications require more than natural-sounding voices—they demand domain-specific pronunciation, a professional tone, consistent contextual handling, and the ability to perform reliably, cost-effectively, and securely—often in environments that require full deployment control.
Aura-2 delivers high-quality, context-aware speech designed for the scale, precision, and resilience that business-critical environments demand. Unlike entertainment-focused systems optimized for creative expression, Aura-2 reflects the priorities of enterprise voice AI, delivering benefits across key dimensions:
Domain-Specific Pronunciation Excellence – Aura-2 ensures precise handling of industry terminology, accurately pronouncing healthcare terms, financial jargon, product names, and complex numerals without special tagging. This built-in accuracy eliminates the need for extensive pronunciation dictionaries or manual intervention, ensuring clear communication in specialized fields where precision matters most.
Professional Voice Quality & Naturalness – With 40+ distinct voices spanning U.S. English and localized accents, Aura-2 delivers authentic, business-appropriate speech that avoids the overly theatrical tones common in entertainment-focused TTS. Organizations can select consistent voice personas—from “empathetic and charismatic” to “calm and professional”—that align with their brand identity across all customer touchpoints. Support for additional languages is already in development to further expand global reach.
Context-Aware Delivery – Aura-2 intelligently adjusts pacing, pauses, tone, and expression based on context—whether delivering a phone number, handling a support escalation, or navigating a transactional interaction. The result is smooth, coherent speech with uniform volume and crisp articulation throughout.
Explore the blog for an in-depth breakdown of Aura-2’s capabilities: https://deepgram.com/learn/introducing-aura-2-enterprise-text-to-speech
A highlight of any trip to a trade fair in Germany was always the Festo stand. They turn engineers loose to build some incredible motion displays. This year at Hannover they constructed an “Incredible Machine.”
The Festo Story
It all began 100 years ago in a workshop in Esslingen am Neckar. Festo founder Gottlieb Stoll asked himself how technology could make work easier. From the initial production of machines for woodworking, the company developed into the production of pneumatic and electrical automation technology for mechanical engineering in a wide range of industries. Today, Festo is one of the world’s leading automation specialists.
To mark the company’s 100th anniversary, Festo has designed an extraordinary application, the Incredible Machine. It is not a specific product, but works on the principle of a Rube Goldberg machine, in which one movement triggers the next. The Incredible Machine demonstrates the history of automation technology from the past to the present and reflects our wide range of competencies and our comprehensive expertise.
The Incredible Machine shows the fascination for motion technologies, be it pneumatic, electric, digital or a combination of these, it presents the most important industries in which Festo operates, it inspires enthusiasm for technology and it provides an outlook on what the future of automation could look like – because inventiveness and a pioneering spirit have been part of our DNA from the very beginning.
Just as a butterfly can trigger a chain of movements by fluttering its wings, sometimes a tiny impulse can bring about significant changes. That is why our eMotionButterfly sets the machine in motion. During this journey, we look back at our history, but above all we are looking forward to the future. A motion impulse runs in 12 modules over a total length of 46 feet, triggering a chain reaction of different motion functions in the machine. More than 1000 Festo products and more than 1.12 miles of tubes and cables are installed in the machine.
Whether pushing, turning, lifting, positioning or relocating workpieces, materials and products during their production process, whether dosing, filling, throttling or pumping liquids and bulk materials in the process industry: motion is involved everywhere in industrial manufacturing processes. As a specialist in automation, Festo has made motion its core business.
The machine is not a purchasable product, but rather an innovation carrier that demonstrates the range of technical solutions in automation technology. Festo also wants to show how important freedom for creativity and inventiveness are to maintain a leading position in global competition. Festo wants to be the best partner for its customers, always at the highest technological level and as a holistic provider of electrical, pneumatic and digital solutions and – as a special USP – the matching training courses from Festo Didactic.
Innovations can solve specific problems and have the potential to change entire sectors and create new industries. The driving forces behind these innovations are the ecosystems of customers and partners who are looking for solutions to their challenges. The journey in the machine leads through specific industries, such as battery production for electric cars, laboratory automation in the life sciences, intralogistics and the semiconductor industry. It delves into the company’s history and ends with insights into the actuator technology of the future. But the momentum continues.
Motion is changing our world and will continue to do so in the future. How this change will unfold over the next 100 years remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: it will be characterized by motion and bold ideas. Through small impulses that can trigger chain reactions and ultimately lead to something big.
People used to (actually, still do) respond to my answer about what I cover as automation, “Oh, robots.” And I’d say, “Yes, that, too.” The robot market was pretty stagnant for quite a time until the cobot flurry from Denmark. Then, quiet again for the most part. Something interesting does come my way at times. The current topic seems to be expansion of software control to make robotics easier to use and with expanded repertoire.
Flexxbotics announced the latest release of FlexxCORE, the patent-pending technology at the center of the Flexxbotics solution. The new release delivers more powerful capabilities for advanced robotic machine tending, robotic quality control, and robotic production lines by enabling robots—both industrial and collaborative—to run multiple machines with multiple operations for multiple part SKUs. These new FlexxCORE capabilities equip manufacturers to scale robotic production across the smart factory in a standardized way for greater plant capacity, quality, and EBITDA margins.
FlexxCORE now includes enhanced robot awareness, parallelized data pipelines, and greater data granularity which further extends the interoperable communication and coordination between robots, factory machines, inspection equipment, and other plant machinery.
Enhanced Robot Awareness – Empowers robots in advanced tending scenarios to interpret each machines’ jobs, processing routines, operational status, and more
Parallelized Data Pipelines – Leverages asynchronous, parallel pipelines for hyperperformant real time robot+multi-machine orchestration
Greater Data Granularity – Expanded data model and event data capture for robotic operational context, pattern recognition, and machine learning
FlexxCORE is a low-code environment for composing and running Transformers – powerful translation driver connectors – which includes a secure, high performance run-time framework with data pipelines, protocols, class structures, method sets, and data models for development. Transformers enable bi-directional read/write between robots and all types of factory equipment for many-to-many interoperability.
FlexxCORE delivers compatibility with over 1000 different makes and models of robots, machines, other factory machinery and inspection equipment options, and enables 22x faster connector creation than conventional automation integration methods.
Now, global companies can roll out production robotics across the smart factory in a standardized way for advanced robotic machine tending to enable:
Robot+Multi-Machine Orchestration—Robots control multiple machines simultaneously to achieve longer unattended robotic production for “lights out” manufacturing.
Robotic Processing of Multiple Parts—Coordinated robotic production of numerous different part types or SKUs within a part family while managing multi-step processes.
Robot Multi-Job Work Order Staging—Work order changeovers detect order completion – including FDA regulated Line Clear – and update part properties for the next order in-feed.
Autonomous Process Control—Offset parameters adjusted in real time directly in the machine controller’s G-code for process control autonomy, improving quality and digital thread traceability.
Future-Ready Agility—Enables the flexible adoption of new breakthroughs – such as AI-driven processes – to quickly adapt to new market realities and rapidly changing conditions.
Keeping track of the many changes within the cybersecurity solution ecosystem takes more time than I can devote. I’m glad my old colleague Greg Hale made that his focus. Rubrik first came to my attention just a couple of months ago. They did get a mention in a post several years ago as an executive invested in a company that never crossed my path again.
Rubrik’s unique proposition is resiliency. In this news, the company announced capabilities related to users of Google Cloud.
In its ongoing commitment to deliver comprehensive cyber resiliency, Rubrik announced April 9 upcoming capabilities designed to help ensure Google Cloud customers can quickly recover their business from a cyberattack or operational disruption.
“As organizations increasingly shift their business-critical data to the cloud, they’re confronted with new challenges in protecting sensitive information against rapidly evolving cyber threats—challenges their traditional security technologies simply can’t address,” explained Anneka Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Rubrik. “We aim to empower Google Cloud customers to address these challenges with confidence, enabling them to strengthen their cyber resilience, streamline data protection, optimize backup and recovery processes, and ensure business continuity in the face of any cyber incident.”
“For organizations navigating today’s complex cyber threat landscape, comprehensive cyber resiliency is non-negotiable,” said Stephen Orban, Vice President of Migrations, ISVs, & Marketplace at Google Cloud. “Our collaboration with Rubrik provides customers with the tools and technologies to establish isolated recovery environments on Google Cloud, fortified by the proactive security insights and expertise of Mandiant.”
Precisely designed for Google Cloud, this collaboration delivers:
Cloud-Based Isolated Recovery Environment in Google Cloud – Rubrik, in collaboration with Mandiant, is developing a cloud-based isolated recovery solution on Google Cloud. This solution is designed to enhance organizational cyber resilience by ensuring business-critical data backups are secure from cyber threats and efficiently, safely replicated to Google Cloud via Rubrik’s Secure Vault after an incident. By leveraging Rubrik’s Data Threat Analytics and Orchestrated Application Recovery Playbooks, combined with Mandiant’s periodic security assessments and Incident Response services, it aims to establish a secure recovery environment on Google Cloud, to enable swift core application restoration and business continuity.
Strengthened protection of Google Cloud Engine and Google Cloud SQL – New threat-analytics capabilities are planned for Anomaly Detection, Data Discovery and Classification, Turbo Threat Hunting, and Threat Monitoring. These capabilities are designed to work together to proactively detect cyber threats, accelerate incident response and recovery, and ensure sensitive data remains protected and compliant.
Enterprise-grade protection for Google Workspace – Rubrik’s solution is designed for Google Workspace customers, to help them protect their mission-critical SaaS data from cyber threats, insider risks, and accidental deletion, through newly-offered immutable backups, automated anomaly detection, and rapid, granular recovery.
Rubrik’s strengthened protection of Google Cloud Engine is available now. New threat analytics capabilities, expanded protection of Google Cloud SQL, expanded protection of Google Workspace, and Cloud-Based Isolated Recovery Environment are planned to be generally available at a later date.
The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) provides annual updates at a forum in Orlando in February. I missed that meeting, however recently receiving an update from Aneil Ali, The Open Group OPAF Director.
OPAF members have worked diligently for years developing a standard of standards in order to break the proprietary grip of specific process automation suppliers—hence the word “Open” in the name. Owner/operators facing needed technology upgrades balked at the price of rip-and-replace automation.
I have seen these efforts a few times in the past. The results have provided benefits, but usually far from the vision of the founders.
This organization continues to move forward. They have released version 2.1 of the standard, launched a product certification program, and have witnessed some products making it through the system.
The headline news is ExxonMobil’s Lighthouse project. They have operationalized the OPAF system at a resin finishing plant in Baton Rouge at tail end of 2024. Engineers beat deadlines for startup. They have published some good lessons learned from the project. It’s the first deployment of a commercial OPAF system making money for the owner/operator.
One complaint levied over the years concerned the proliferation of standards, many of which are not interoperable. OPAF has addressed standards harmonization hosting for the fourth year standards harmonizing meetings in Eastern Hemisphere. Recently one was in Germany with FieldComm, OPC UA, Namur, OPAF, PI. They typically meet for three days looking for where there is a risk for divergence and potential problems for endusers.
Ali noted the OPAF have started a regular cadence of user meetings as an effort to get them together to air wishes/desires. These thoughts can be distilled to assignments for working groups.
Ali concluded, “The Forum always open to receiving guidance and feedback from end users not in the ecosystem—we’re not a closed club.”
