Automate 2026: What We're Watching

Automate is always a useful reality check. The gap between what's being demoed and what's shipping in production environments tells you what to look for.  

Here's what has our attention this year.

Cross Industry Pollination

Some of the newest and most interesting automation tools come from cross pollinating with different industries

Some of the problems being solved in medical devices and consumer electronics are transferable to manufacturing and industrial automation. Solutions to these problems include things like vision reinforcement learning, fine motion control, and unique material handling solutions. We've been doing this kind of cross-industry borrowing for 25 years, and Automate is one of the best places to see it happening.  

One specific example we’re watching is in the beauty industry.  

Beauty robotics platforms are now being piloted at places like Ulta and Nordstrom. When a robot operates inches from someone's face, the engineering requirements start looking a lot more like those of a medical device than factory automation, and we’re seeing a lot of this kind of convergence.  

Join us for a Panel: Building robots that humans trust.

We're hosting an invite-only event with Whipsaw during the show built around a question that doesn't get enough attention: how do you engineer a robot that humans actually trust? The answer lives in the details: feedback loops, physical design, and failure behavior.  

Wednesday, June 24
6:00 PM Central Time
Location is just a 5 minute walk from the McCormick Center

Request an Invite here.  

Bring Us Your Hardest Engineering Problems

We'll be at the show with a new booth and engineers that solve difficult problems every day - the engineers behind the breakthroughs. If you want to talk through what you're building, schedule time with an engineer and see how Andrews Cooper helps companies Automate the Impossible.