Can AI Automate Automation?

Vention’s Demo Day took place virtually on October 29. The company showed new products designed to make automation easier to implement and use, including its AI Operator bin-picking system. Images provided by Vention. 

Automation used to be reserved for the highest volume applications at the largest manufacturing facilities. But as technology has developed, automation has become more accessible to smaller manufacturers and high-mix applications. “There have truly been advancements in hardware and software that are making automation more accessible, reliable and affordable,” says Brendan Sterne, chief product officer at automation supplier Vention. The company provides a platform for designing, ordering, programming and operating automation systems for a range of applications, including manufacturing. At its virtual 2025 Demo Day event, Vention featured a number of releases aimed at making automation more accessible from design to operation, including AI features it says can “automate automation.”

Design

Users begin the process in a browser using Vention’s new Projects feature. It provides a centralized workflow for defining the requirements and scope of automation projects to facilitate collaboration, including what Vention says is the industry’s largest library of machine specifications.

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Users can design automation cells in a browser using Vention’s MachineBuilder. Its new Design Assistant uses AI to automatically fill in connection points, add components to subassemblies and designs enclosures.

With the scope of the project set, users then move to MachineBuilder to assemble the cell. The quote is updated automatically as components are added and removed, and it automatically notifies users when a component they’ve chosen isn’t compatible with another component in the cell. MachineBuilder also features a new AI-based Design Assistant, which can automatically fill in connection points with connector parts (such as gussets) and aids in building subassemblies (for example, when a user adds a conveyor to a cell, the Design Assistant automatically adds the other components in the subassembly, such as legs, motors and sensors). The Design Assistant also helps users design enclosures with only border specifications.

Once the cell is built, users can now check that the design will function as intended before moving on to programming the system. “People design physical machines all the time, but it’s easy to get it wrong physically,” Sterne notes. Simulation Checker is a true physics simulation that shows where components in a design interfere so they can be resolved before programming. And when the system arrives on the shop floor, users can know it will function as intended.

Vention also released AI Operator, which uses its MachineMotion AI controller, NVIDIA’s Isaac AI platform and a camera mounted on the robot’s wrist to easily automate bin-picking and other tasks that require picking parts presented in an unstructured manner.

Operation

Demo Day also marked the global rollout of AI Operator, a product designed to bring AI models to the shop floor, enabling robots to perform bin picking or other tasks where parts are presented in what Sterne refers to as an “unstructured manner.” Powered by Vention’s plug-and-play MachineMotion AI controller, it uses NVIDIA’s Isaac AI platform and a camera mounted on the robot’s wrist for perception, depth calculation, gripping and path planning, adjusting the robot in real time to avoid collisions. Sterne says all that’s needed to program the system is a CAD file of the part to be picked, making it well-suited to high-mix, low-volume manufacturing.

For users that run their automation systems unattended, Vention’s new RemoteView provides a 24/7 video feed of the cell. “Even though the lights are off, eyes are still on the cell,” Sterne says. RemoteView also logs a seven-day recording history of the system, including status updates and alerts so users can spot problems, trace them to the root cause and solve them. This system can also be paired with Vention’s RemoteSupport, which uses a one-way camera on the system controller to connect with Vention’s support team for troubleshooting, reducing downtime.

The company offers pre-engineered automation systems as well, including its new Rapid Series system for sanding. In addition to sanding, it works with metal finishing processes, such as polishing.

The company offers turnkey solutions as well, including a “Click and Customize” machine tending application builder featuring new bases with either high-precision drawers or an angled part presenter. Vention also released a new variant of its pre-engineered Rapid Series systems for sanding, which Sterne says is compatible with polishing and other metal finishing processes.