Show Notes
In Episode 251 of The Robot Report Podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman are joined by special guest Sarah Wynn, Senior Editor for Packaging OEM, to recap their firsthand experiences on the show floor at Automate in Chicago. The conversation traces the industry's shift away from early-stage humanoid hype toward the practical, real-world deployment of Physical AI and edge computing. It then transitions into how software orchestration, digital twins, and advanced kinematics are solving labor shortages and preserving vital manufacturing knowledge.
The following innovators, executives, and organizations were highlighted or featured via interview vignettes during the episode:
Boston Dynamics & Agility Robotics: Discussed regarding the static floor displays of their respective industrial humanoids, Atlas and Digit.
ABB: Featured in a vignette with Craig McDonnell (Managing Director, Business Line Industries, ABB Robotics) discussing Physical AI, AI-powered palletizing, and collaborations with Nvidia.
FANUC: Highlighted for real-time motion tracking in assembly, protein processing automation, and natural language robot programming.
Sereact: Featured in an interview clip with Mason Coleman (Director of Sales, North America) addressing zero-shot picking, e-grocery trends, and workforce reallocation.
Schneider Electric: Discussed for their views on cloud latency limitations and their push for hardware-agnostic, open automation systems.
Rockwell Automation: Featured in an audio clip with Ara Surenian (Business Manager, Production Logistics) introducing FactoryTalk Orchestration following their acquisition of OTTO Motors.
SEW-EURODRIVE, Festo, & CODI Manufacturing: Noted for their compact, gantry-style robotic cells and packaging line solutions.
Vention: Recognized for their prominent and accessible automation platform demos.
Kassow Robots: Featured in an interview clip with founder Kristian Kassow, who explained the strategic advantages of 7-axis cobots over traditional 6-axis configurations for mobile manipulators and confined spaces.
– SPONSORS –
This episode is brought to you by Tiger Data
Every growing Postgres database eventually hits a wall. Queries slow down, dashboards lag, and teams consider adding a second database.
Tiger Data, creators of TimescaleDB, extends Postgres with time-series primitives, columnar storage, and automatic partitioning so your queries stay fast on live data. No pipelines, no migration, no second system. Just Postgres, built for the workload you actually have.
Try it free at https://www.tigerdata.com/go/trial?utm_source=content-syndication&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=robotics-ads
More from The Robot Report Podcast
Ben Waters, CEO of Wibotic, joins Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre to discuss how wireless charging is evolving for larger, more autonomous robotics fleets.
Janine Sinanan-Singh, Director of Gen AI Research at Appen, joins Mike Oitzman and Gene Demaitre to discuss the data, evaluation, and human oversight needed to advance robotics and agentic AI. They explore how video and egocentric data can support robot training, why latency and generalization remain difficult, and where human judgment still matters. Janine describes Appen’s evolution from speech and linguistics into supporting generative AI, multimodal systems, agents, and robotics with expert data. The conversation examines what humanoid robot demos do—and don’t—show, how synthetic data can help teams scale, and what it takes to evaluate systems beyond the lab.
The interview this week explores the European robotics market with OMRON’s Miguel Garces Moreno, covering growth in collaborative robots and AMRs, shifting demand toward sectors such as pharma, and the impact of labor shortages and supply-chain pressures.
Sai Vemprala, CTO of General Robotics, talks about why robotics still faces a major gap between research and real-world deployment—and how the company’s Grid platform aims to close it.
Teddy Haggerty is the founder and CEO of Robostore and Robo Inc., where he has helped push robotics into education, enterprise pilots, and early commercial deployments. His perspective is shaped by years of building in drones, crypto infrastructure, manufacturing, and import-export before turning his focus to robots.