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Fabtech 2019: Self-learning Robots with a Human Touch

The fear for many when it comes to robots and automation is losing the human touch and expertise that comes with years of experience. One company has managed to take the expertise of human hands and seamlessly transfer that to robotics. LestaUSA’s new Finishing Robots are programmed using the movements and actions of leading…

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The fear for many when it comes to robots and automation is losing the human touch and expertise that comes with years of experience. One company has managed to take the expertise of human hands and seamlessly transfer that to robotics.

LestaUSA’s new Finishing Robots are programmed using the movements and actions of leading human painters and finishers. It then takes those programmed actions and perfectly repeats them time after time, allowing businesses to scale their operations without losing the effectiveness of an expert painter.

“This allows manufacturers to keep the talent they have,” said LestaUSA President Derek Degeest. He also explained that this helps extend the careers of many painters because it reduces the wear and tear that the job can have on the body.

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Packaging robots can beat labor long term on cost, PMMI argues

Packaging robots can beat labor long term on cost, PMMI argues

PMMI's Tom Egan wrote in Processing Magazine that adding packaging automation and robotics can now be justified as more cost-effective over the long term than the high cost of labor in food, beverage and CPG plants. Separately, Packaging World describes AI-enabled AMRs from ABB and Agilox that automate material movement between packaging stations. The remaining gap is adoption among smaller manufacturers.

  • 01Two reference points for infrastructure-light material movement: ABB's Flexley Mover P603 carries 1,500 kg with sub-centimeter positioning and no floor markers, and Agilox's OFL lifts 800 kg pallets on peer-to-peer fleet software with no central traffic controller, per Packaging World.
  • 02The open ground is small and mid-sized manufacturers: MTC's Mike Wilson counts tens of thousands of UK SMEs with no robotic automation at all and expects cobots to take most of that growth.
  • 03A robotics business case should include procurement, not only line labor: a June 2026 China Journal of Accounting Research study found heavy robot adopters spread buying across more suppliers, gaining resilience but losing inventory efficiency and adding transaction costs.

Sep 18, 2026

Xtellio brings telematics to jobsite tools and heaters

Xtellio brings telematics to jobsite tools and heaters

Xtellio launched a two-tier telematics platform in March 2026: 32 battery-powered Xense sensors for small tools and wired Pro-Xentral devices for excavators, light towers and heaters. The company claims a 10-year battery life. Data is delivered through open APIs, which Xtellio frames as customer ownership of the data, aimed at rental and construction fleets where small assets have gone largely untracked.

  • 01Xtellio’s stated 10-year battery life for its Bluetooth Xense sensors is the key spec to test in the field; if it holds up, tagging hundreds of tools can look like a one-time install rather than a recurring battery-maintenance program.
  • 02For rental houses and contractors running mixed fleets, the sharper question is no longer which machines have telematics but whether the heaters, light towers and hand tools do, and whether that data lands in the same system.
  • 03Open APIs and “data liberation” are part of Xtellio’s pitch, and the coverage frames that as a prompt for RFP questions: what the APIs expose, where data can be sent, and whether customers can take historical data if they switch providers.

Sep 18, 2026

Senate bill would double smart water grants to $50 million a year

Senate bill would double smart water grants to $50 million a year

S. 2388, the Water Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2025, would double an EPA water tech pilot to $50 million a year through 2028. Grants would cover design, construction, training and operations for leak detection, advanced metering and AI analytics, WaterWorld reported. Planning and maintenance stay on the utility's tab.

  • 01Under S. 2388 as WaterWorld describes it, feasibility studies are not grant-eligible, so a utility would have to pay to build the case for a smart water project before applying for help building the project itself.
  • 02The bill's eligible list puts advanced digital design and construction management tools in the same bucket as meters and sensors, which would give a utility's capital delivery team a claim on the same grant as its field operations group.
  • 03The existing pilot program's authorization runs through 2026, per WaterWorld; the bill would extend it to 2028, and its last reported status was 'introduced' as of Aug. 12, 2025.

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