TAIROS and Automation Taipei 2026: Taiwan’s factory floor enters the age of physical AI

The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show (TAIROS) and Automation Taipei 2026 showcased Taiwan’s shift from conventional automation toward AI-powered machines that can perceive, reason and act, as manufacturers deepened international ties and pursued robotics as a new source of industrial competitiveness.

From automation to AI

That shift was on display at TAIROS and Automation Taipei 2026, held Aug. 19-22 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, where robotics, AI and smart manufacturing converged into an increasingly integrated industrial ecosystem.

The exhibition showcased Taiwan’s robotics and intelligent-automation capacity, bringing together 886 domestic and international exhibitors across 3,506 booths.

Its most prominent theme was the robotics supply chain, encompassing everything from AI computing and machine vision to sensors, motion control, servo motors and robotic joints.

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) attended the opening ceremony on Aug. 19. In his remarks, Cho highlighted the government’s 10 major AI projects, saying Taiwan should use its advanced manufacturing capabilities to combine AI chips with a wide range of devices and platforms. 

Cho said the strategy rests on two pillars: advancing the AI software industry and expanding smart AI applications across industries. The government ultimately aims to create what it describes as “smart living environments for all.”

The policy framing underscored that, for Taiwan, automation is no longer merely a means of reducing labor requirements. It is becoming a strategic layer connecting Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors, electronics, machinery and information technology.

Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) also visited the exhibition on Aug. 21. During her visit, she toured booths across the exhibition to learn more about advanced industrial technologies and newly developed products.

Hsiao praised the exhibition for aligning closely with the government’s policy priorities, saying it offered a tangible showcase of the latest advances in AI robotics, intelligent automation and cross-sector applications.

When AI stops giving answers and starts taking actions

For computer scientist Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰), a former managing director of Google Taiwan, the deeper transformation lies not simply in more powerful machines, but in a fundamental change in how humans interact with technology.

AI, he told TCN on Aug. 22, is moving interaction from commands to conversation, from searching to directly asking, and from tools to collaboration.

Chien added that automation is consequently moving beyond replacing individual manual tasks toward systems capable of operating within complex commercial environments.

He pointed to autonomous vehicles and increasingly capable humanoid robots as evidence that AI is moving from providing “answers” to taking “actions.”

Chien pointed to Waymo’s driverless taxis, which have expanded to 11 US cities and were providing about 500,000 paid rides a week by March 2026. He also cited Amazon’s robotics push, saying the company's humanoid robots are already moving boxes in warehouses and unloading goods at homes.

AI agents, Chien further pointed out, are already beginning to undertake multi-step work autonomously — from designing and analyzing scientific experiments to conducting market analysis, formulating business strategies and coordinating complex projects across multiple systems.

That trajectory was embodied on the exhibition floor in Nangang. NVIDIA stated that its partners demonstrated digital twins, autonomous mobile robots, humanoids, collaborative arms and AI-powered inspection systems, using technologies such as NVIDIA Omniverse, Isaac Sim and Jetson platforms to connect simulation, training and real-world deployment at the exhibition.

Taiwan’s hardware meets the AI brain

At the exhibition, Delta Electronics presented embodied-AI platforms, humanoid dual-arm robots, human-machine collaboration and Sim-to-Real applications, digital twin technologies, and other smart-manufacturing solutions.

Advantech focused on three aspects: AI-driven production, intelligent operational decision-making and AI infrastructure, emphasizing the growing importance of edge computing in industrial environments, including the combination of edge computing and AI agents.

Solomon demonstrated AI vision and 3D-vision applications, and featured its “Agentic Physical AI” platform, which combines reasoning, active perception and physical action.

The company showcased its active-perception technology, which allows the robot to first scan a broad field to locate a target. It then uses the visual cues it gathers to automatically adjust its observation strategy and obtain a clearer image.

Techman Robot highlighted its growing focus on physical AI. Company executives said its collaborative robot arms have already entered wafer-handling applications on semiconductor production lines, where precision and reliability are critical.

Techman said it is initially focusing on single-arm, dual-arm and AMR-integrated configurations to help customers validate precision handling on production lines. Its new TM45S heavy-load robot is expected to begin commercial shipments in 2027.

Together, the demonstrations pointed to a broader shift: the factory of the future may no longer be defined primarily by how many machines it contains, but by how intelligently those machines can perceive their surroundings, learn from data and act within them.

German pavilion highlights international ties

TAIROS and Automation Taipei 2026 were not only venues for Taiwanese companies to display their developments. The exhibitions also served as an international industrial matchmaking platform.

According to the German Trade Office Taipei, the official representative of German business in Taiwan, its German Pavilion brought together 20 German companies, making it the exhibition’s largest national pavilion, spanning industrial automation, precision measurement, machine vision, industrial communications and software.

Two solution-pitch sessions focused on AI data centers, high-tech facilities, space and aerospace applications, with topics spanning high-precision inline measurement, data center automation, AI and automation system integration, machine vision and so on. It illustrated how automation technologies are migrating into increasingly sophisticated industries.

The German Trade Office described the two economies as having complementary industrial strengths: Taiwan brings formidable semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing capabilities, while Germany contributes longstanding expertise in precision engineering, automation and systems integration.

For Taiwan, TAIROS and Automation Taipei 2026 therefore offered more than a showcase of machinery. They presented a glimpse of an industrial economy attempting to fuse its hardware prowess with increasingly autonomous intelligence — and, in doing so, to move from being a manufacturing powerhouse to becoming a builder of the intelligent machines that will reshape manufacturing itself.