Your Guide to the Automate Show and ABB PoWa offering expands
The Lydey Automation 2026 guide to The Automate show
The Automate Show in Chicago this year is only a couple of weeks away, and the buzz in the automation world is already at a fever pitch. Manufacturers all over are showing off new tech and product offerings, and a massive crowd is expected. If you’re considering going to the Automate Show this year, now would be a good time to register and book your room, before it’s too late.
This month’s news update is packed with Automate info and manufacturers who are showing this year at Automate. We asked all our manufacturers to share details of their booth with us; most opted not to–they don’t want to spoil the surprise–but a few gave us a behind-the-curtain peek.
Not Registered for Automate yet, but want to go?
Quick Links to the Show:
Exhibitor List
SCHUNK always brings a huge spread to the Automate show, often occupying the space at the front door, so they’re hard to miss. Expect a huge display of their robot tool changers, new grippers and probably even some surprises. Expect lots of robots in their booth
ABB Robotics will have a massive booth showing off, among other things, the new PoWa line of Collaborative-industrial Hybrid robots. Lots of displays for specific industries, and every year they have a new cool killer robot app to show off. Definitely do NOT miss.
Murr has been a little cagey about Automate, but we suspect they’re debuting a new IO product line. You can see all their machine interface products as well — everything between PLC and sensor is what they do. You’ll also get to see their IP67 rated machine control platform.
Coval will be showing some new vacuum pumps — Coval has been pushing the edge in IO-Link enabled vacuum generation, and this year’s show will include a lot of IO-Link products. Expect to also see lots of different vacuum grippers both at their booth and others.
IAI will be showcasing their Elecylinder offering with the “EC Tower” — not many details were provided, but worth the trip. Also showing will be their new line of multiaxis robotic axis controls and lots of newer, smaller specialized actuators like the RoboPump and Cable actuators.
Emerson has lots of new stuff this year, including a turnkey machine showcasing many new products from Afag and Aventics; a complete assembly line system manufacturing a ball-point pen, as well as a signifcant presence on their new XV valve series, proportional systems and lots of actuators and process-specific gear.
Our Other Manufacturers showing at Automate
PoWa Offering Expands with new larger Payload offerings
PoWa, ABB Robotics’ newest and latest offering of Collaborative Robots, is expanding their payload capacities up to 30kg. This brings the variant count in the PoWa family up to 5 different configurations.
The PoWa family of robots ranges currently from the 10kg and 13kg (the CRB 1910), and now extends up through 16kg, 20kg and 30kg (the CRB 1920).
For RobotStudio users who have updated to the latest version, you’ll find the CRB 1910 and CRB 1920 available for simulation and graphical programming.
The PoWa runs on either the OmniCore E10 compact controller or the OmniCore C30 compact controller.
The last iteration, a baby PoWa @ 7kg, is expected later in the year. Current users who want a smaller Cobot in this family can use the GoFa series, which provides a 5kg variant in this payload class.
Is 5.8 meters per second really Collaborative?
As Lydey Automation sales engineers have gone out to discuss the new PoWa with our customers, a common question keeps coming up — Given the PoWa’s high speed capabilities, customers have asked us is 5.8 meters per second of tool center point speed is actually collaborative.
It shows intuition on our customer’s part to ask that — it most definitely is not.
To answer this question in context, think about an all-too-frequent scenario in deploying Collaborative robots — you purchase a Cobot to deploy a collaborative application, but after purchasing your cobot, your tooling is forced to change to something non-collaborative — remember, the standards call for your workcell to be collaborative, not just your robot–and if what you put on your cobot makes it noncollaborative, the whole cell is noncollaborative.
And now, your application forces you to cage your cobot, and you’ve just forfeited a core reason for buying the cobot in the first place.
ABB's Answer to This -- Make a Hybrid Robot.
The PoWa robot employs all the required force and torque sensing to comply with the safety standards governing Collaborative Robots. The PoWa also makes use of SafeMove Collaborative. The difference between our robots and the rest of the cobot world, is that we’re capable of Industrial speeds when you don’t create your Quasi-Static or Transient contact zones. Without creating those zones (if your application doesn’t require it), the robot won’t be constrained down to collaborative speeds, and you can run your robot at industrial robot speeds.
Two ways to use your PoWa Robot:
Collaborative:
With configured transient contact or quasi-contact zones, SafeMove Collaborative will provide you with recommended speeds and forces, and the robot will be constrained to these speeds and forces in normal function.
Noncollaborative:
Within SafeMove Collaborative, if you do not configure transient or quasi-static contact zones, your robot will not require reductions in speeds or forces to accomodate the potential of contact.