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At JIEEC 2026 in Bilbao, utilities, manufacturers and tech providers discussed, amongst others, how the grid can drive industrial decarbonization, regulatory aspects, new designs of substations for the smart grid, digitalization and flexibility for efficient and safe operations and the competitiveness of industry. David Purón, Barbara’s CEO, joined the panel on innovative startups and SMEs facing the challenges of the future electricity grid.

The collaboration combines Edge AI orchestration and lifecycle management with CRA-readiness architecture, helping IPC and Edge AI manufacturers move from selling hardware to delivering a governed, ongoing software and compliance layer.

Barbara, a UAO member, took part in the UAO Global Summit in Milan represented by its CEO David Purón. Three days on IEC 61499, industrial AI and IT-OT integration showed open automation moving into real plants.

Barbara 3.4.0 is here. Configuration is more precise, batches are more transparent, alerts are more personal, and every config finally has a home. Let’s dive into the key highlights.

Barbara joined ICC 2026 in Sacramento to show how Ignition can run across hundreds of distributed edge devices, with high availability built in.

Most conversations about Agentic AI in industry start three levels too high: autonomous factories, agents talking to other agents. This is the small version that actually works, five building blocks that let an operator ask the plant a question and get a real answer.

Velasea will supply industrial PCs tested and prepared for Barbara, enabling companies to deploy applications and AI models across hundreds of industrial sites.

Everyone is chasing generative AI and autonomous agents, but the industrial AI that already delivers, predictive maintenance and computer vision, never left the factory floor. A field reality check on hype versus what actually works, and why the best engineering starts with the problem, not the technology.

At Automate 2026 in Chicago, our CTO Isidro Nistal and VP of Sales Javier Rodríguez joined Schneider Electric to show how open software-defined automation runs on an edge-native platform — and to connect with the automation community.