ethercat-mcp is an MCP server that lets an AI assistant scan EtherCAT slaves, step the state machine, read and write CoE objects and PDO data, and diagnose bus health. It ships with a five-slave virtual bus of Beckhoff and Inovance devices, so it can be tested without hardware. It also exposes CiA 402 servo commands like enable, jog and positioning, so keep it on the simulator and away from a live line.
For controls engineers: who want to test agent tooling against a simulated EtherCAT bus.
AgentCAD is a CAD runtime an AI agent calls over MCP, a CLI or Python to create and edit DXF drawings and parametric FreeCAD parts. Each change is checkpointed and reversible, and a separate validator re-reads the file to flag geometry and dimension problems. It is a day old, so watch it before any drafting team relies on it.
For drafters and design engineers: curious about agent-driven drawing edits.
Otto Group will deploy ten AI-controlled dual-arm robots from Sereact to sort returns at its logistics center in Poland, with 15 more planned based on first results for a total of 25. Sereact runs and maintains them as a service, and staff move to supervision, exceptions and quality checks. Results-gated rollouts are how robot deals are getting signed.
GE Vernova agreed to buy Trench Group, a maker of high-voltage bushings, instrument transformers and coils, from Triton Partners for about $9.0 billion, with close expected in late 2027. The same day it reported Q3 orders of $29 billion and gas equipment backlog plus slot reservations rising from 116 to 122 GW. The biggest grid OEM is buying a supplier and its factories because equipment capacity, not demand, is the constraint.
