At IMTS 2026 in Chicago, exhibitors spotlighted solutions to address common challenges in the modern industrial landscape, as manufacturers scramble to keep abreast of constant shifts. 

Some of those trends include connectivity, robotics, AI and cybersecurity, while manufacturers also cited challenges such as supple chain uncertainties, tariffs, reshoring and workforce shortages.  

For example, Flexxbotics, which provides an autonomous manufacturing platform for closed-loop production and industrial AI, released the latest version of its technology to help manufacturers improve connectivity and address the challenge of having siloed information across company operations.  

“What that platform provides for manufacturers is effectively a real-time control plane for orchestration of your autonomous operations,” Tyler Bouchard, CEO and co-founder of Flexxbotics told Automation World at IMTS.  

The platform is able to detect changing conditions, determine corrective responses and enable controlled action through capturing and contextualizing production data. Production teams can determine when the software can act autonomously and when human-in-the-loop approval is required.  

It is designed to help manufacturers increase production capacity, improve yields and reduce downtime by scaling human expertise across operations, according to Bouchard. He added that the feature of administering a correction to a deviation is what makes the platform different from others. 

“We help with the correction of that deviation, and then we administer that correction itself through the same digital pipelines we've created to capture information,” Bouchard said. “We can write back to that equipment, and that closes the loop on production at anywhere from a work cell level to a line to an entire factory.” 

The platform creates real-time feedback loops across multi-plant operations and includes edge software with protocol-level drivers. According to the company, the software processes events, contextualizes production data and coordinates closed-loop operations. 

Bouchard added that the platform addresses an industry trend toward connectivity, as “information is generally siloed across the manufacturing floor,” as well as manufacturers struggling with digitizing process control.  

The platform, Bouchard said, aims to solve this by bringing information that is in different business systems into one, so employees can view it and take action.  

“[That’s something] we see as a big benefit for manufacturers to be able to get a handle on that process control, and then use that as a way to build on effectively as a foundation to scale automation. Because for automation to be able to work, it needs to be able to comprehend process control,” he said.