A3 - Association for Advancing Automation

Check out our a look at how our member Milvus Robotics structures workflows with effective AMR operations! Autonomous mobile robots are self-navigating systems designed to move materials through facilities without fixed infrastructure, making workflow design essential to their performance. Defined zones, organized routing, and coordinated handoffs between people and robots help create a material flow that scales reliably. #Robotics #AMR #Automation

The future of automation depends on a strong, skilled, and inspired workforce. That means employers, educators, and students all play a role in shaping what comes next. We've created a Workforce Development hub to bring these groups together in one place. Manufacturers can find ways to support the next generation of talent through competitions, training programs, and industry partnerships. Educators can access classroom resources, student events, and tools to help bridge the gap between industry and instruction. Students can explore videos, blogs, tours, and training pathways that show what a career in automation, robotics, and AI can look like. If you come across training programs offered by our member companies, feel free to tag them to help others discover the opportunities they provide. Explore the full set of resources here: https://hubs.la/Q03XdkLm0 #WorkforceDevelopment #AutomationCareers #A3Community Kawasaki Robotics Universal Robots ABB Dürr InOrbit.AI

Interoperability is quietly becoming the deciding factor in whether mobile robotics scales. End users are mixing fleets from multiple vendors, yet those robots still struggle to speak the same language. The result is friction, extra engineering overhead, and workflows that break the moment a new robot enters the building. That is why ISO 21423 represents more than another technical document. Nearly 90 participants across industry, academia, and integration are shaping it at the DIS stage, building from shared ideas in the MassRobotics Interoperability Standard and VDA 5050 and aligning around MQTT and JSON for practical adoption. VDA 5050 works beautifully for centrally coordinated systems. ISO 21423 supports distributed, less hierarchical architectures. Together, they create a foundation the industry has needed for years. Picture this on a factory floor or in a hospital. Robots from two different vendors approach the same narrow space. Today, that moment often ends in a standstill that requires a human to intervene. Under ISO 21423, those same robots can negotiate, reroute, and keep operations moving. If robotics is going to scale globally, a shared foundation for communication has to exist. ISO 21423 is that foundation. Publication is planned for mid-2026! Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q03KwGxK0 Carole Strait Franklin Florian Pestoni Mark Lewandowski Stephen S. duMont Daniel Theobald

A smart look at modern packaging automation from our member 3M! Random case sealing isn’t just about speed. It is about keeping production lines flexible as product mixes shift, order sizes shrink, and demand cycles become less predictable. Always great to see A3 members pushing packaging automation forward!

Marc Raibert knows something about rising expectations in robotics. As the founder of RAI Institute and the person who spent decades shaping the field at Boston Dynamics, he has seen the bar move higher every single year. In this short clip, he talks about how incredibly high expectations have become for any new robotic capability. A breakthrough used to feel extraordinary. Now it becomes the baseline overnight. What the world sees as rapid progress is usually the result of months of experiments, failures, iteration, and long stretches of slow improvement. Raibert’s perspective is a useful reminder. Robotics advances are not driven by hype or pressure. They happen because engineers and researchers keep pushing when the work is uncertain, the path forward is not obvious, and the challenges stack up faster than the solutions. This is the real engine behind innovation in automation today. Learn more at https://hubs.la/Q03X0zTP0 #Automation #Robotics #AI #Engineering #Innovation #A3

Machine vision only works when the lighting works. Once you understand that, the entire spectrum opens up in useful ways. UV reveals what is designed to stay hidden. Visible light carries most of the workload, but only when lighting geometry is fully controlled. SWIR shows moisture, penetrates certain plastics, and even looks through silicon. Thermal imaging visualizes emitted energy, not reflected light, uncovering electrical faults or structural flaws. And multispectral and hyperspectral systems move beyond single wavelengths altogether by creating a full signature for every pixel. The takeaway is simple. You cannot solve modern inspection challenges with human vision alone. The light spectrum is a toolbox, and choosing the right wavelength often determines whether an application succeeds or fails. This is the world where machine vision truly performs. Learn more: https://hubs.la/Q03X0tk70 #MachineVision #Automation #VisionAI

Most conversations about industrial AI still focus on building a single agent. The reality is that modern operations need something more advanced: coordinated teams of intelligent agents that can learn, specialize, and adapt together. Our new on-demand course explores exactly that. Over 3 to 4 hours, learners work through how multi-agent systems are designed, trained, orchestrated, and deployed in environments where reliability and real-world complexity matter. The program moves beyond abstract theory. It shows how modular skills improve agent performance, how machine teaching structures learning, and how orchestration patterns make multiple agents behave with expert-level consistency. It also connects these methods to real industrial challenges in manufacturing, logistics, utilities, and other large-scale environments. The course is taught by Kence Anderson Anderson, CEO and co-founder of AMESA and author of Designing Autonomous AI. His background includes building more than 200 autonomous systems across major global organizations, and the curriculum reflects that applied experience. Sign up here: https://hubs.ly/Q03WWCn10 #IndustrialAI #AutomationEducation #A3Training

Throwback alert 🚨 ! On one night in 1963, Joseph Engelberger stepped onto The Tonight Show and showed the world what a robot could do. That moment helped spark the imagination of an entire industry. Kawasaki Robotics saw that potential early. Their work with Unimation in the late 1960s helped carry industrial robotics from a TV stage into factories around the world. The fun reenactments you see today capture the same spirit. They show how a single idea can turn into decades of innovation. Fun fact: Kawasaki has been an #A3Member since 1987!

System integration continues to play a defining role in how robotics, automation, and industrial AI move from concept to reliable production. Across manufacturing, teams are facing more complex requirements as connected machines, safety standards, and data-driven operations become standard expectations rather than future goals. The work of an integrator now spans a wide range of disciplines. Technical depth remains central, but the demands around risk assessment, machine vision alignment, robot programming, control architecture, and IT and OT convergence have grown sharply. Many projects rely on integrators who can navigate multiple hardware ecosystems and support a mix of robotics, motion control, sensing, and analytics technology. Safety expertise is a major factor. Modern deployments depend on accurate risk assessments and fluency in standards such as ISO 10218, ISO 13849-1, and ANSI A3 R15.06-2025. That knowledge shapes everything from collaborative robot configurations to guarding concepts to commissioning practices that keep systems stable throughout their operational life. Project management has also taken on new importance as factories adopt more flexible automation. Communication, milestone control, documentation, and life-cycle support determine how well a system performs long after the first day of production. Integrators who anticipate scalability and long-term maintenance often produce systems that adapt more easily to shifts in volume, product variety, or new data requirements. A full breakdown of the qualities and capabilities shaping today’s top integrators can be found here: https://lnkd.in/efNXkmaZ #Robotics #Automation #SystemIntegrators #SmartManufacturing

Andromeda Co-Founder and CEO Grace Brown did not follow the traditional path into robotics. She started building a humanoid companion robot during the strict lockdowns in Melbourne, partly as an engineering challenge and partly because she wanted to create a best friend for herself during a time when everyone felt isolated. That side project eventually led her to ask a much bigger question: why do so many people experience loneliness every day, and why has almost no technology been designed for them? In our new episode of Automated with Brian Heater, Grace talks about the early moments that shaped her work, including the first time she realized she might be building something that could compete with teams backed by hundreds of millions of dollars. She shares stories that will stay with you, from older adults forming unexpected emotional connections with a robot, to engineers who were moved to tears after seeing those interactions firsthand. Grace speaks openly about the identity shift from engineer to leader, the six month “stunt” she thought would be a one off experiment, the rejections, the doubts, and the surprising moments of clarity that kept pushing her forward. She describes it as feeling like magic when technology creates a connection that did not exist before, and her reflections on belief, persistence, and observation are worth hearing for anyone working in robotics or building something new. Watch the full episode at automated.fm #Automation #Robotics #HumanoidRobotics #Engineering #RoboticsLeadership #AutomatedPodcast