A weekly, sourced digest of AI in factories, plants and industrial operations, for the people who run them. Plus a plain-language glossary and a list of the companies and labs in the field.https://industrialmind.com/en-ushttps://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w42/https://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w42/South Korea's trade ministry granted a regulatory exemption for live tests of 20 humanoid robots at four sites. · D.R. Horton signed a multi-year agreement with Promise Robotics for more than 1,250 homes. · AMT reported August manufacturing technology orders at the third-highest monthly total on record. · Factory floor: Northrop Grumman adds AI quality control and a cobot to F-35 module line (Assembly Magazine) · Factory floor: August manufacturing technology orders reach third-highest monthly total (Manufacturing Dive) · Factory floor: Plant managers say AI return on investment remains elusive for many (Manufacturing Dive) · Factory floor: IFS launches IFS Intelligence for governed AI actions in industrial operations (Unite.AI) · Robotics: Korea clears first 20 humanoid robots for factory floors (Seoul Economic Daily) · Robotics: ABB adds AI Robot Trainer to OmniCore EyeMotion vision system (Assembly Magazine) · Robotics: D.R. Horton signs multi-year Promise Robotics deal for 1,250 homes (The Robot Report) · Energy & process industries: Seeq and Applied Computing pair Orbital model with analytics for energy operators (Pipeline and Gas Journal) · Energy & process industries: Aramco Digital and OrbitronAI form industrial AI partnership (IndexBox) · Deals & funding: Forgepoint raises $9.8M seed for AI that handles manufacturing quotes (Unite.AI) · Research: Swedish researchers build 147-task framework to move factory AI past prototype (Bioengineer.org) · Research: Review of 74 studies finds mining maintenance AI remains narrow (Bioengineer.org)Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w41/https://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w41/Schneider Electric said it will acquire PTC for about $22.6 billion, and GlobalFoundries and TSMC announced a $2 billion interposer agreement. · A Kazakhstan survey found 58.8% of industrial AI projects still at the pilot stage. · Factory floor: BMW sets 8% to 10% margin goal, with agentic AI extending from the plant into development (Automotive Manufacturing Solutions) · Factory floor: Kazakhstan study finds 58.8% of industrial AI projects still at pilot stage (The Times Of Central Asia) · Factory floor: Limble survey: 47% of maintenance leaders report over 10 hours of unplanned downtime a month (Assembly Magazine) · Robotics: UBTECH and FAW-Volkswagen partner to test humanoid robots in logistics (Gasgoo) · Robotics: Panasonic plans to make humanoid robots for plants and warehouses by 2029 (Nikkei Asia) · Robotics: AWS launches open-source Physical AI Toolchain for robotics developers (The Robot Report) · Robotics: Boston Dynamics names former Amazon executive Rohit Prasad as CEO (The Robot Report) · Energy & process industries: Bayer plans $2.2 billion Ohio pharmaceutical plant with first module ready in 2031 (Manufacturing Dive) · Deals & funding: Schneider Electric to acquire PTC for about $22.6 billion (The Robot Report) · Deals & funding: GlobalFoundries and TSMC sign $2 billion deal for US-made silicon interposers (Manufacturing Dive) · Deals & funding: RobCo valuation passes $1 billion in employee secondary share sale (PYMNTS.com)Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w40/https://industrialmind.com/digest/2026-w40/The IFR says industrial robots in use worldwide passed 5 million in 2025, up 9% from the year before. · HARMAN reports a 37% improvement in defects per million units after an AI rollout, and Britvic cites one alert that avoided six hours of downtime. · Hitachi and Fanuc will test physical AI in Hitachi factories first, and Inbolt and SiMa.ai both raised funding. · Factory floor: HARMAN reports 37% fewer defects per million after rolling out factory AI at four sites (Assembly Magazine) · Factory floor: Britvic avoids six hours of downtime after a pump alert from AI condition monitoring (FoodProcessing.com.au) · Factory floor: Hyundai's Georgia Metaplant named Assembly Plant of the Year for its automation (Assembly Magazine) · Robotics: IFR reports industrial robots in use worldwide passed 5 million in 2025 (Manufacturing Dive) · Robotics: Boston Dynamics unveils a four-fingered, 13-degree-of-freedom hand for Atlas (The Robot Report) · Robotics: Hitachi and Fanuc partner to commercialize physical AI, testing first in Hitachi factories (AI Insider) · Energy & process industries: Schneider Electric estimates digital asset management could cut mining maintenance costs 30% to 40% (BNamericas) · Deals & funding: Inbolt raises $12.5 million for AI vision that guides industrial robots (Robotics & Automation News) · Deals & funding: SiMa.ai raises $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation for edge chips for physical AI (TechCrunch) · Deals & funding: Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Michigan launch a $3 billion manufacturing program (Manufacturing Dive)Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT