Mitsubishi Electric develops physical AI and humanoid robot integration for manufacturing

Mitsubishi Electric has unveiled new technologies focused on “physical AI” designed to enhance industrial automation. At CEATEC 2026, the company demonstrated how physical AI can enable robots to perceive, reason, and adapt to environmental fluctuations, such as autonomously adjusting screw-tightening tasks even when components are misaligned.

A key development is a collaborative processing system that integrates humanoid robots with CNC machine tools. This system utilizes an AI task planner to distribute work—including cleaning, part removal, transport, and inspection—between machines and robots. The goal is to reduce repetitive manual labor and minimize the need for extensive production line reconfigurations by allowing robots to adapt to environments originally designed for human operators. Mitsubishi Electric aims for practical application of this system by 2030.

Additionally, the company showcased its Task-Versatile Universal Sound Separation (TUSS) technology, which uses a single AI model to extract specific voices or sounds from mixed environments, such as identifying equipment anomalies in factories. Mitsubishi is also collaborating with the startup Akari to develop digital twin models for factory simulations and is working with Thailand’s CP Group to demonstrate robot-assisted services in convenience stores.