6d ago · Video

Building the Robotics Workforce: What Employers Can Learn From the U.S. Army

Robotics needs people who can bridge engineering and everyday operations. Can workforce training keep pace? In Episode 9 of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, examines three responses to that challenge: the U.S. Army’s new robotics specialty, Emory and Georgia Tech’s combined medical and robotics degree, and the skilled trades discussion at Ford’s Detroit gathering. The Army graduated 10 warrant officers from a 19-week program for its new 390A Robotics Technician Integrator role. Their training spans artificial intelligence, coding, drones, sensors and communications systems. Aaron explores what employers can learn from creating a career that bridges the gap between operators and engineers. Emory and Georgia Tech are taking a longer route with a five-year program combining an MD with a master’s in robotics. With four to six students expected annually and the first graduates anticipated in 2032, the program could develop future healthcare technology leaders while doing little to address immediate workforce needs. At Ford’s ACCELERATE the Essential Economy event, the discussion turns to a reported training pipeline producing roughly 55 skilled workers for every 100 needed. Aaron examines the limitations of that figure and the reported completion gap between traditional training and high-quality apprenticeships, asking where employers should invest their training dollars. With as many as 1.9 million U.S. manufacturing jobs potentially going unfilled by 2033 if workforce challenges persist, Aaron’s takeaway is practical: identify the role your business needs, define the required skills, and consider how to upskill the engineers or operators you already employ. LINKS AND RESOURCES Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com Aaron Prather’s A3 analysis of the Army’s new robotics technician role: https://www.automate.org/robotics/industry-insights/the-u-s-army-is-training-a-new-kind-of-robotics-technician automate.org Emory and Georgia Tech’s MD/MS in Robotics announcement: https://news.emory.edu/stories/2026/09/emory-school-medicine-and-georgia-tech-launch-new-mdms-dual-degree-program-robotics Emory News Ford’s ACCELERATE the Essential Economy event and skilled trades findings: https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/accelerate-essential-economy-roundup fromtheroad.ford.com Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute’s workforce study: https://themanufacturinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Digital_Skills_Report_April_2024.pdf themanufacturinginstitute.org Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Oct 16 · Video

Avoiding Automation Failures with ATI Cofounder Bob Little

Buying a robot is only one part of making automation work. The bigger challenge is understanding the manufacturing process, choosing the right integration partner, and defining what success needs to look like on the factory floor. In Episode 8 of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, speaks with Robert “Bob” Little, cofounder of ATI Industrial Automation and an Engelberger Robotics Award winner with more than 40 years of experience in robotics. Bob explains why an impressive trade show demonstration can be difficult to reproduce in a working factory. Manufacturers need to document their process, identify the variability employees manage every day and stay involved with their integrator. Clear KPIs, agreed acceptance criteria and a willingness to adjust the plan help keep a project moving toward the right outcome. The conversation also examines why workforce planning belongs in the automation strategy from the beginning. Bob discusses worker buy-in, job security and opportunities to move into other roles, along with the limits of trying to automate every task. Looking ahead, Bob shares his view of where physical AI could make existing robot arms, machine vision and factory systems more adaptable. He weighs the current readiness of humanoid robots, the safety and training-data challenges facing physical AI, and the competitive advantage manufacturers may gain by owning the technology and the data behind it. Aaron and Bob also discuss the component supply chains needed to support U.S. reshoring and whether companies developing robotics in-house will share those advances with the wider market. For manufacturers deciding where to start, Bob points to repeatable processes, enough production volume to justify the investment, and direct conversations with multiple integrators and robot suppliers. The goal is a system that improves productivity and can grow with the business. LINKS AND RESOURCES Follow Bob Little: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-little-707791a LinkedIn Explore Robert Little Robotics: https://www.rlittlerobotics.com rlittlerobotics.com Robert Little’s Engelberger Robotics Award recognition: https://www.automate.org/robotics/engelberger/joseph-f-engelberger-awards automate.org Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com A3’s guide to choosing a system integrator: https://www.automate.org/robotics/blogs/how-to-pick-the-right-system-integrator-for-your-project A3 Find A3 Certified Robot Integrators: https://www.automate.org/robotics/robotic-integrator-certification-program/meet-the-a3-certified-robot-integrators automate.org A3 on physical AI and easier industrial robot deployment: https://www.automate.org/robotics/industry-insights/how-physical-ai-could-make-industrial-robots-easier-to-deploy Association for Advancing Automation A3 webinar on physical AI in manufacturing and safety: https://www.automate.org/ai/webinars/physical-ai-in-manufacturing-and-safety-with-safetics-and-doosan automate.org Robert Little’s Engelberger Robotics Award recognition: https://www.automate.org/robotics/engelberger/joseph-f-engelberger-awards automate.org Explore Automate 2027: https://www.automateshow.com Automate 2027 Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Subscribe to A3 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a3automate Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Oct 9 · Video

Robot Hands and the Business Case for Humanoids

A humanoid can walk, jump, and backflip. Its business value depends on what it can do with its hands. In Episode 7 of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, examines how Unitree, Tesla, Tangent Robotics and Boston Dynamics are confronting the gap between humanoid capability and useful industrial work. Unitree’s stock market swings raise a basic commercial question: how much of its humanoid business comes from productive industrial applications and customers who will buy again? Aaron looks beyond valuations and shipment totals to examine where the robots are going and what they are actually doing. He then examines reported hand assembly and touch sensor problems in Tesla’s Optimus program. Tesla has not confirmed the hardware details discussed, and Aaron distinguishes ambitious production targets from the engineering needed to reach them. Tangent Robotics’ $4.5 million funding round, co-led by Toyota Ventures, and Boston Dynamics’ new four-finger Atlas hand offer two approaches to robotic dexterity. Tangent is developing fine motor skills for demanding assembly tasks. Boston Dynamics is designing for industrial work while weighing the added complexity of every finger. For businesses evaluating automation, the question is whether the robot can perform the task reliably and survive the working environment. Aaron’s verdict: manipulation is the product, whether those hands arrive on a humanoid or another kind of robot. LINKS AND RESOURCES Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com Aaron Prather’s A3 analysis of Unitree and humanoid IPO scrutiny: https://www.automate.org/robotics/news/china-may-be-starting-to-police-the-humanoid-bubble Original reporting on Tesla’s Optimus production challenges: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/teslas-optimus-hits-snags-hands-suppliers-scale-up-begins Tangent Robotics’ $4.5 million funding announcement: https://www.tangentrobotics.ai/pre-seed-funding-round-led-by-fly-ventures-and-toyota-ventures/ Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas hand design: https://bostondynamics.com/blog/robot-hands-for-modern-ai-and-real-work/ A3 International Robot Safety Conference: https://www.automate.org/events/international-robot-safety-conference Connect with Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Oct 2 · Video

China’s Robot Lead, Amazon’s $100M Facility and Vogue’s Humanoids

Five million industrial robots are working in factories worldwide. Amazon is expanding the manufacturing infrastructure behind its robotics network. Vogue is putting humanoids on a runway. Three different stories raise the same business question: when should you buy, build, or borrow a robot? In Episode 6 of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, examines what the latest robotics headlines reveal about deployment, scale and business value. The IFR’s World Robotics 2026 report shows a record 603,000 industrial robot installations in 2025, with China accounting for 59% of the total. The United States moved into second place, but the gap remains enormous. Aaron breaks down what those numbers measure and why industrial robots, warehouse robots, and humanoids need to be understood separately. Amazon’s planned investment of more than $100 million in Greenwood, Indiana, illustrates a different strategy: bringing more manufacturing capabilities in-house to support an expanding fulfillment and robotics network. Aaron explores when automation demand makes building your own infrastructure a business decision worth considering. Finally, Vogue World’s Unitree humanoids prompt a discussion about marketing spectacle, audience expectations, and the camera robots doing useful work behind the scenes. The question running through all three stories is practical: what job does the robot do, and how does that job justify the investment? LINKS AND RESOURCES Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com Aaron Prather’s analysis of the IFR World Robotics 2026 report: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-numbers-explain-where-global-robotics-heading-aaron-prather-lkt5e Aaron Prather’s A3 analysis, “Amazon Used to Buy Robots. Now It Builds Them.” https://www.automate.org/robotics/industry-insights/amazon-used-to-buy-robots-now-it-builds-them The story behind the Unitree robots at Vogue World Milano: https://www.vogue.com/article/the-story-behind-the-runway-robots-at-vogue-world-2026-milano Explore A3’s free Signal reports: https://www.automate.org/market-intelligence/signal Connect with Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Sep 25 · Video

Permission to Deploy: FCC Robot Reviews, Triton 1 and Mixed-Fleet Standards

Every robot needs permission before it can scale. This week, Aaron Prather examines three gatekeepers shaping the automation market. The FCC has begun granting conditional approval to specific foreign-made robots, including four Husqvarna robotic lawnmowers and three ANSCER Robotics mobile robots. These decisions show that the U.S. market is not completely closed, but approval is model-specific, conditional and tied to national security and supply-chain commitments. Neptune Medical’s Triton 1 robotic endoscopy system received FDA 510(k) clearance after a 50-patient first-in-human study reported 100% cecal intubation, no adverse events and a 54.2% adenoma detection rate. That regulatory milestone matters, but commercialization still depends on physicians choosing to use Triton and hospitals agreeing to buy it. For mobile robot fleets, ISO 21423 has completed its approval stage and is moving toward publication as a global interoperability standard. InOrbit’s open-source OpenRobOps platform includes what the company calls the first reference implementation of the standard, turning a technical specification into working code. The promise is less vendor lock-in, but interoperability still does not mean plug and play. Aaron explains what buyers should verify before purchasing foreign-made robots, why FDA clearance is a starting gate rather than the finish line and why interoperability requirements belong in every mixed-fleet RFP. LINKS AND RESOURCES Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com FCC conditional approval for ANSCER Robotics: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-996A1.pdf FCC conditional approval for Husqvarna: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-957A1.pdf Neptune Medical’s Triton 1 FDA clearance announcement: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260916350630/en/Neptune-Medical-Receives-FDA-Clearance-for-Triton-Robotic-Endoscopy-System FDA 510(k) record for the Triton 1 System: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K260503 ISO 21423 standard status: https://www.iso.org/standard/86749.html InOrbit’s OpenRobOps announcement: https://www.inorbit.ai/blog/openrobops-release Subscribe to A3 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a3automate Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Sep 18 · Video

1,500 Warehouse Robots, Vention's AI Lab and a $12M Bet on Touch

Three robotics stories point to the same business lesson: successful deployment depends on far more than the robot. Hai Robotics has been selected to deploy more than 1,500 HaiPick Climb robots for an unnamed European fashion retailer. The planned goods-to-person system includes 1.2 million double-deep storage locations and is designed for a throughput above 24,000 totes per hour. But the strongest signal is not the robot count. The retailer already operates HaiPick systems and is expanding. A first order proves a sales team can win a customer. A repeat order suggests the technology delivered enough value for that customer to invest again. Vention opened a Physical AI lab in Montreal after reporting 400% growth in Physical AI-related revenue and more than 28,000 machines deployed. Its CEO's blunt assessment, "The base model is not the problem," moves the conversation away from demonstrations and toward productization. The bigger questions are whether industrial data is useful, how it is collected and used, and whether AI capabilities can meet the reliability, cost, and variability requirements of production. AIDIN Robotics raised approximately $12.1 million from HD Hyundai Robotics and Samsung Venture Investment. AIDIN's force, torque, and tactile sensing technology helps robots measure contact and control pressure. HD Hyundai and AIDIN plan to develop a five-finger robotic hand and automation for polishing and grinding in shipbuilding and heavy industry, giving the investment a defined industrial application. In Episode 4, Aaron Prather explains how racking and orchestration make warehouse robots useful at scale; how data and execution determine whether Physical AI becomes a product; and how force sensing gives robots the feedback they need after contact. Technology keeps changing, but the deployment playbook does not. The companies that solve the engineering around the robot may be the ones that turn promising technology into systems customers buy again. Read The Business of Automation on Substack: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com Hai Robotics' 1,500-robot deployment announcement: https://www.hairobotics.com/news/hai-robotics-selected-deliver-worlds-largest-deployment-rack-climbing-warehouse-robots Aaron Prather's analysis of the Hai Robotics deal: https://www.automate.org/robotics/industry-insights/the-most-important-number-in-hai-robotics-1-500-robot-deal-is-two Vention's Physical AI lab announcement: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/vention-opens-physical-ai-lab-to-bridge-ai-research-and-scalable-industrial-deployment-825567370.html Aaron Prather's analysis of AIDIN Robotics: https://www.automate.org/motion-control/industry-insights/everyone-is-funding-the-robots-brain-hd-hyundai-is-funding-its-fingertips Subscribe to A3 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a3automate Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Sep 11 · Video

The Q2 Numbers Are In: Robot Orders Rise as Demand Moves Beyond Automotive

North American companies ordered 8,940 robots worth $622 million in the second quarter of 2026. Unit orders increased 4.3% from a year earlier, while order value climbed 21.3%. Those are strong headline numbers, but the bigger story is what changed underneath them. In this episode, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, joins Principal Analyst Alex Coleman to explain why non-automotive customers accounted for 56% of Q2 robot units and how semiconductors, life sciences, food and consumer goods, metals and automotive components are offsetting continued weakness among automotive OEMs. They also examine whether the gap between unit growth and order value reflects pricing pressure, demand for larger systems or buyers adding more vision and advanced functionality. The conversation explores why automotive OEMs remain under pressure as EV investment slows and trade uncertainty complicates capital planning, why automotive components have held up better and what consumers keeping vehicles longer could mean for parts demand. Aaron and Alex also unpack the sharp swings in collaborative robot orders, with cobots falling to 12.7% of Q2 units, and ask whether the category itself is getting harder to define as capabilities overlap. Finally, they look ahead to Q3 and Q4 and the sectors most likely to shape the rest of 2026, including logistics, material handling, life sciences and semiconductors. Read the Q2 2026 robot order report: https://www.automate.org/market-intelligence/insights/robot-orders-increase-in-q2-as-automation-demand-broadens-across-industries Explore A3 Market Intelligence: https://www.automate.org/market-intelligence Learn more about MI+: https://www.automate.org/market-intelligence/mi-plus Explore The Business of Automation: https://www.automate.org/business-of-automation Subscribe to The Business of Automation newsletter: https://substack.com/@thebusinessofautomation https://businessofautomation.fm/

Sep 4 · Video

Teradyne vs. JAKA, NSF’s $30M Robot Center and Carbon’s 150M Plants

Three robotics stories reveal where the industry’s next competitive battles are moving: patents, people and data. Teradyne Robotics filed a patent infringement case against JAKA at Europe’s Unified Patent Court. The National Science Foundation committed $30 million over five years to a center studying how people and robots adapt to one another. Carbon Robotics says its Large Plant Model was trained on roughly 150 million labeled plants. In Episode 2 of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, connects these announcements to a larger shift. More of robotics’ value and risk now sit outside the machine itself. Teradyne alleges that multiple JAKA collaborative robot models infringe patents covering hardware and software associated with Universal Robots. Those allegations have not been proven in court. The larger business story is where the case was filed. Historically, enforcing patent rights across Europe could require separate proceedings in multiple countries. A ruling from the Unified Patent Court could potentially affect JAKA products across 17 of its 18 current member states. For robotics manufacturers, integrators and buyers, intellectual property exposure is becoming an increasingly important part of evaluating an automation purchase. The second story focuses on the Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation, led by the University of Texas at Austin. The center brings together researchers from six universities and industry partners including Amazon, Apptronik, Diligent Robotics, Google DeepMind, Hello Robot, MassRobotics, NVIDIA and Robust AI. The research is not only about making robots more capable. It is about understanding how people and robots learn from one another and adjust their behavior over time in homes, hospitals, workplaces and public spaces. A robot can perform every task correctly and still fail if the people around it do not trust or accept it. Aaron explains why training, workforce design and clear team leadership should be part of an automation strategy from the beginning. Carbon Robotics provides the clearest example of value moving away from the robot itself. Its LaserWeeder uses computer vision and lasers to identify and eliminate weeds, but its deeper competitive advantage may be the data behind the machine. Carbon says its Large Plant Model was trained using roughly 150 million labeled plants collected across more than 100 crops in 15 countries. That scale allows growers to adapt the system to field conditions using only a few images instead of waiting for an entirely new crop-specific model. The relationship also introduces another business question. iMerit helped provide the annotation infrastructure supporting Carbon’s data flywheel, and iMerit has now been acquired by EXL. When an outside vendor becomes critical to a robot’s performance, a change in ownership can become part of the customer’s risk. Together, these stories raise three questions every automation buyer should ask: What is the intellectual property risk? How will people respond to the system? Who owns the data the machine generates? Read the deeper analysis, with every source linked and every number cited: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com This episode is presented by the A3 International Robot Safety Conference, November 3-5, 2026, at Huntington Place in Detroit. Learn more and register: https://www.automate.org/events/international-robot-safety-conference/register Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Aug 28 · Video

This is The Business of Automation

The Business of Automation is a weekly video podcast exploring the money, markets, policies, and business decisions shaping industrial automation. Hosted by Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, the show goes beyond the headlines to examine what developments in robotics, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, supply chains, investment, and government policy mean for companies across the automation industry. From humanoid robotics and emerging technologies to market growth, trade policy, and automation ROI, each episode delivers informed analysis for automation leaders, manufacturers, investors, integrators, and anyone building the future of industry. https://businessofautomation.fm/

Aug 28 · Video

Serve’s Forecast Cut, FORT’s SPAC and SoftBank’s $200M Gravis Bet

Three robotics stories reveal the same business risk: dependency. Serve Robotics grew revenue 404% year over year and still cut its 2026 forecast by more than 60%. FORT Robotics is pursuing a public listing at a $556.6 million enterprise value. SoftBank invested $200 million in Gravis Robotics, a Swiss startup bringing autonomous capabilities to heavy equipment that companies already own. In the first episode of The Business of Automation, Aaron Prather, Director of Market Intelligence at A3, examines what these stories reveal about platform dependency, vendor lock-in, safety infrastructure, retrofit autonomy and the growing concentration of robotics capital. Serve shows what can happen when expected growth relies heavily on another platform’s customers and delivery volume. After lower-than-expected activity through Uber Eats, the company reduced its annual guidance and accelerated its expansion across Grubhub, DoorDash, advertising, software and healthcare robotics. The lesson is not that partnerships are inherently bad. It is that part of your business plan belongs to someone else when your forecast depends on that company’s customers, interface or demand. FORT represents a different strategy. Its safety hardware and software are designed to work across machines, manufacturers and applications. Aaron examines FORT’s effort to become shared safety infrastructure for physical AI, along with the valuation, shareholder-redemption risk and cash questions surrounding its proposed SPAC merger. Gravis is addressing equipment lock-in from another direction. Its retrofit technology can add autonomy across multiple heavy-equipment brands without forcing companies to replace an entire fleet. That model could have implications for construction, mining, agriculture, ports and other industries where replacing existing equipment is economically unrealistic. SoftBank’s investment also adds to its expanding robotics portfolio, creating a tension between increasingly vendor-agnostic technology and increasingly concentrated capital. Together, these stories raise a question every automation buyer should ask: Who controls the relationship your operation depends on? Read the deeper analysis, with every source linked and every number cited: https://thebusinessofautomation.substack.com This episode is presented by the A3 International Robot Safety Conference, November 3-5, 2026, at Huntington Place in Detroit. Learn more and register: https://www.automate.org/events/international-robot-safety-conference/register Follow Aaron Prather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amprather Explore A3: https://www.automate.org https://businessofautomation.fm/

Business of Automation

Episodes

Building the Robotics Workforce: What Employers Can Learn From the U.S. Army

Avoiding Automation Failures with ATI Cofounder Bob Little

Robot Hands and the Business Case for Humanoids

China’s Robot Lead, Amazon’s $100M Facility and Vogue’s Humanoids

Permission to Deploy: FCC Robot Reviews, Triton 1 and Mixed-Fleet Standards

1,500 Warehouse Robots, Vention's AI Lab and a $12M Bet on Touch

The Q2 Numbers Are In: Robot Orders Rise as Demand Moves Beyond Automotive

Teradyne vs. JAKA, NSF’s $30M Robot Center and Carbon’s 150M Plants

This is The Business of Automation

Serve’s Forecast Cut, FORT’s SPAC and SoftBank’s $200M Gravis Bet

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This is The Business of Automation

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