Smart Manufacturing & Digital Twin
Schneider Electric signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cognite, a Tempe, Arizona provider of industrial data and AI software, in a $3.1 billion all-cash deal — a bet that industrial AI is shifting from analytics to executing operations.
Big automation vendors are buying the industrial-AI software layer — expect tighter data/AI bundling and fewer independent platforms.
IIoT & Connected Manufacturing
At Automate 2026, Rockwell demonstrated FactoryTalk Orchestration software to manage material flow and production processes, running alongside Emulate3D digital-twin software and OTTO AMRs for coordinated, end-to-end plant operations.
Orchestration software is emerging as the layer tying MES, digital twins and AMRs together — worth scoping if you run mixed automation.
Automation & Controls
An IIoT World analysis argues manufacturers ask the wrong question about software-defined automation. At Siemens the S7-1500 virtual PLC shares components with the hardware PLC and behaves identically; the real question is where a vPLC genuinely improves operations.
Don't rip out hardware PLCs for virtual ones by default — target vPLCs where flexibility or consolidation delivers a concrete gain.
Edge Computing & Inference
Albatron.ai launched the TALO-A1000, an NVIDIA Jetson Thor-powered edge unit combining synchronized sensor data, deterministic networking and real-time control. It delivers up to 2070 TOPS for large vision models, multimodal and physical-AI workloads.
Edge compute for on-line vision and robotics keeps jumping — 2000+ TOPS at the edge makes in-line AI inspection increasingly viable.
Process Technology
A Flow Control/LJ Star piece argues process observation systems deserve the same engineering rigor as any other critical component in high-pressure or corrosive applications, rather than being treated as an afterthought.
Don't treat sight-glass and observation hardware as afterthoughts — spec them to the same standard as valves and instrumentation.
Automation & Controls
Single Pair Ethernet is gaining ground in industrial networking for its single-twisted-pair cabling; adding Power over Data Lines (SPoE) makes it simpler still, though EE Times notes implementation is non-trivial. A reference design walks through the build.
SPE/SPoE can cut field-wiring cost and complexity for sensors — worth evaluating for greenfield or retrofit device-level networks.
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