ABEJA and Murata Manufacturing Test Physical AI Technology for Automating Experimental Work

ABEJA said on August 31, 2026, that it conducted a joint technical test with Murata Manufacturing of physical AI aimed at automating research and experimental work. The companies said coordinated actions by a dual-arm robot using a VLA model, including passing parts between its arms, succeeded in the test environment.

For development departments seeking to automate research and experiments, a key challenge is that conventional industrial robots have been difficult to operate when the position or orientation of the tools they handle changes even slightly. ABEJA said it tested, in a test environment, whether a dual-arm robot could use camera images to regrip and reorient tools such as cylinders and insert them into a rack. The results could help determine how much experimental work requiring fine adjustments by people can be assigned to machines.