ABB Robotics chose the opening day of Automate 2026 in Chicago to debut its Physical AI Toolchain, a software stack designed to take robot intelligence from simulation to real-world factory floors. The reveal at Booth #1241 positions one of the world's largest industrial robot makers at the center of the physical AI race now reshaping manufacturing.
From simulation to industrial-grade execution
The Physical AI Toolchain spans data generation, training and validation, deployment and optimization. It lets connected robots learn from fully simulated, synthetic and real-world data, then apply that learning to live operations with what ABB calls industrial-grade accuracy. The toolchain is the operational complement to ABB's March 2026 partnership with NVIDIA, which produced RobotStudio HyperReality and narrowed the long-standing sim-to-real gap.
"Now physical AI fundamentally changes how robots operate and the value they create," said Marc Segura, President of ABB Robotics, framing the launch around the company's Autonomous Versatile Robotics (AVR) approach and its six core capabilities: human-machine interaction, sensing and perception, autonomous learning and reasoning, motion control, navigation and dexterity.
PoWa cobot and a new safety partner
Automate 2026 also marks the show debut of ABB's new PoWa collaborative robot family, built for higher speed and payload. Alongside it, ABB unveiled an exclusive collaboration with Aura Sensae, an Italian developer of capacitive sensing technology. A GoFa surface-finishing demo paired with Aura Sensae's patented HEXOPUS proximity sensing lets the robot detect and respond to nearby human movement in real time, advancing fence-free collaboration.
Vision, reasoning and speak-through control
Other stand demonstrations include an AI-powered palletizing cell that combines vision, learning and reasoning to handle fully randomized palletizing, and OmniCore EyeMotion software that brings vision intelligence to a wide range of camera and sensor hardware. Visitors can also try ABB's speak-through technology, which lets operators direct robots through natural interaction rather than fixed interfaces.
ABB's push mirrors a broader physical AI wave on display in Chicago, from Kawasaki's 8-axis physical AI robot to Festo's GripperAI cobot gripper. It also builds on ABB's recent dexterity partnership with PSYONIC and the foundation-model momentum behind NVIDIA Cosmos.
ABB will host an Automotive Customer Day on June 23 and a Software & Digital Day on June 24 at its booth, with the toolchain's full technical details rolling out across the show.
Reporting based on coverage from Design World, RoboticsTomorrow and ABB Robotics.