Industry Brief, October 29, 2026: Robot orders up 24.8%, KUKA AMR channel, Siemens drives

By MillBrief Editorial · October 29, 2026

Three items today. The industry association A3 has published its third-quarter robot order numbers for North America, and they are the strongest of the year, though not for every sector: food and consumer goods went the other way. KUKA has partnered with KOMSA to sell its mobile robots to smaller companies in Germany through resellers. And Siemens has filled out its new generation of Sinamics G drives with four models built around cybersecurity and safety ratings. Vendor and association numbers are labelled as such, and any arithmetic marked as ours is ours.

Robot orders jump 24.8% in Q3, but food orders fall

North American companies ordered 10,989 robots valued at $723.5 million in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), as reported by The Robot Report and in A3’s release on October 28. That is up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value on the third quarter of 2025, and A3 calls it the strongest quarter of the year so far. Nine-month orders reached 28,984 robots worth about $1.89 billion, up 9.6% in units and 13.3% in value.

The growth was spread unevenly. Automotive OEM orders returned to year-on-year growth (up 7.5%) after falling in the first half, but A3 says they were still 17% below the prior year over nine months. Automotive component suppliers ordered 90.4% more. Semiconductors and electronics/photonics rose 97.6% in units, plastics and rubber 67.7%, life sciences 38.7% and metals 37.0%. All other industries were up just 0.5%, and food and consumer goods fell 23.7%. That is a sharp turn: in A3’s second-quarter release in August, food and consumer goods orders were up 18%.

Collaborative robots had a strong quarter too: 1,831 units worth $63.8 million, up about 56% in units on Q3 2025 and 16.7% of all robot units ordered. Through September, cobots made up 15.9% of units but only 9.4% of order value. A3 also notes that the September ISM manufacturing PMI was 54.5, a ninth straight month of expansion, and lists higher input costs, trade uncertainty and the timing of large manufacturing projects as things to watch.

Some arithmetic of our own. On A3’s totals, the average order value per robot in Q3 was about $65,800 ($723.5 million / 10,989). For cobots it was about $34,800 ($63.8 million / 1,831); for all other robots, about $72,000 ($659.7 million / 9,158). These are averages of what was ordered, across very different robots and order sizes, not prices you should expect to pay. Against the 8,940 robots A3 reported for Q2, Q3 units were up about 23% quarter on quarter (10,989 / 8,940), and the totals reconcile: A3’s first-half 17,995 plus 10,989 gives the 28,984 nine-month figure.

Why it matters: When automotive suppliers, electronics makers and plastics shops are all ordering more at once, integrators can get busier, and that can show up in quotes and lead times. If you plan to buy in the next few months, get dates as well as prices, and ask how many projects the integrator has ahead of yours; our page on integrator rates and our questions to ask an integrator cover both. Food and beverage buyers are in a different spot: orders in your sector fell this quarter, which may mean more room on integrators’ calendars, though one quarter is not a trend. The cobot average of about $34,800 per unit falls inside the arm-only price ranges on our cobot cost page for arms up to 20 kg; it is an average order value, not a cell price, and a working cell usually needs grippers, guarding and integration on top.

Sources: The Robot Report and RoboticsTomorrow (A3 release), October 28, 2026; RoboticsTomorrow (A3 Q2 release), August 11, 2026.

KUKA will sell mobile robots through an IT reseller network

KUKA Group and KOMSA GmbH have announced a strategic partnership on autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), Engineering.com reported on October 28. The aim is to make KUKA’s automation available to a broader range of customers in Germany. KUKA brings its mobile robotics portfolio and automation know-how; KOMSA brings its sales structure, its reseller network, its relationships with system integrators and its experience of taking new technology to market through indirect channels. The partners say the deal should lower the barriers to adoption for small and mid-size companies and give IT resellers and integrators more automation to offer.

The launch comes with a joint partner program that includes training and certification. KOMSA will act as the center of competence for KUKA’s mobile robotics and will support selected channel partners, as needed, through planning, implementation, commissioning and customer acceptance. Initial pilot projects are already underway, the companies say. The announcement was made at NVIDIA GTC Berlin 2026 by KOMSA’s chief executive Toni Burger and KUKA’s chief executive Christoph Schell. No prices, product names or customer names were given.

Why it matters: This deal sells mobile robots the way IT hardware is often sold: through resellers, with a distribution partner behind them. That can make buying easier and support closer to hand, but it adds a layer between you and the robot maker. If an AMR is offered to you through a reseller, ask who does the site survey, who commissions it, who signs off customer acceptance, and who you call when the fleet stops at 2 a.m.: the reseller, the distributor or the manufacturer. Write the answers into the quote; our RFQ generator gives you a structure for it, and our explainer on what a system integrator does covers the roles a reseller may or may not fill.

Source: Engineering.com, October 28, 2026.

Siemens adds four Sinamics G drives with security and safety ratings

Siemens has introduced four more drives in the next generation of its Sinamics G family for continuous-motion applications, the G200, G210C, G210 and G210X, Engineering.com reported on October 28. They complete the new generation built around the Sinamics G220, which was introduced in 2023. Siemens positions the G200 for general-purpose industrial use, the G210C for compact machines that need higher power density and overload capacity, the G210 for moving, positioning and processing jobs, and the G210X for pumps, fans, compressors and other infrastructure.

Siemens says all the new-generation drives are intended to be ready for the EU Cyber Resilience Act and to offer security capabilities up to Security Level Capability 2 as defined in IEC 62443-4-2. Integrated safety functions go up to Safety Integrity Level 3. The drives integrate with Siemens’ TIA Portal engineering software, have a built-in web server, and expose drive and operating data over OPC UA for asset and energy management, condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. The article gives no prices or availability dates.

Why it matters: Drives are a quiet part of almost every machine you buy, and networked drives need the same attention to security updates as any other connected device. The two ratings Siemens quotes are worth asking about on any machine quote, whoever makes the drive: which IEC 62443 security level the components support, and which safety integrity level the safety functions reach. Also ask whether drive data is available over OPC UA or another open interface, since that decides whether you can monitor energy use and wear without buying extra software. Those questions belong alongside the licence and service items on our list of hidden costs of automation.

Source: Engineering.com, October 28, 2026.