ASSEMBLY: What is Industry 5.0?

Gariepy: Industry 5.0 is about building industrial systems that learn and adapt—not just systems which have been interconnected, but still execute the same tasks over and over. That’s a fundamental shift from how most factories operate today.

For decades, we’ve designed factories around predetermined instructions: program the machine, repeat the process and optimize for consistency. The shift to Industry 5.0 is about creating production environments where technology empowers people rather than simply replacing manual tasks with automated ones. 

For instance, when we deploy AMRs into a facility, the goal isn’t just to move material from point A to point B. It’s to create a system that coexists with workers, adapts to changing conditions and gets smarter over time. Technology in service of people, with systems that continuously improve.

ASSEMBLY: How is Industry 5.0 different than Industry 4.0?

Gariepy: Industry 4.0 gave us connectivity. Its about digitalization: connecting machines, devices and systems so you can monitor operations in real time and make data-driven decisions. Technologies like IoT, cloud computing and digital twins all fall under that umbrella.

Industry 5.0 builds on that connected infrastructure, but shifts the focus from connectivity to adaptability. The question moves from “Can we collect this data?” to “Can the system act on it intelligently, without human intervention, and keep getting better?” We envision factories that go beyond following instructions; they make independent decisions, learn from outcomes and optimize themselves throughout their entire lifecycle.

Three technologies make this possible: software-defined automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Software-defined automation architectures give you the flexibility to update and evolve systems without ripping out hardware. AI gives those systems the ability to perceive, predict and decide. Robotics gives AI a physical presence—machines that can act in the real world. When you bring all three together, you’re able to move from automation to autonomy. 

ASSEMBLY: What role do humans play in Industry 5.0?

Gariepy: Industry 5.0 is about designing technology around how people actually work and amplifying what they’re capable of. For years, we’ve asked workers to adapt to systems: learn the interface, navigate the menus, interpret the data and figure out what to do. In Industry 5.0, the system adapts to the worker.

We’ve accumulated tens of thousands of hours of robot operational data. Using AI, we’ve shown that we can now let someone on the floor ask a plain-language question, such as “Why does the robot keep stopping in aisle one?” and get an immediate answer with context, visuals and actionable insight. It puts powerful information directly in the hands of the people who need it most. Tha’'s what human-centric really means: technology that amplifies what people can do.

ASSEMBLY: What is the role of robots in the new era of human-centric manufacturing?

Gariepy: Robots go beyond being tools and become collaborators. The old model kept robots isolated and caged off, doing repetitive tasks in spaces where people weren’t allowed. That’s changing fast.

AMRs move through the same aisles as workers. Robot arms operate alongside people on assembly lines. The physical separation between worker and machine is disappearing, and that forces us to think differently about safety, about factory layout, about how we coordinate dozens or hundreds of machines operating in shared spaces.

At Rockwell, w’'ve built production logistics middleware that ties together everything from traditional robot arms to AMRs to mobile manipulators in a single coordinated system. That integration layer is what makes human-robot collaboration actually work at scale.

ASSEMBLY: What is the role of artificial intelligence in Industry 5.0?

Gariepy: AI is what makes adaptability possible. Without it, you have connected systems that still require humans to interpret data and make every decision. With it, you have systems that perceive, learn and act.

At Rockwell, we’re embedding AI into design tools that help engineers build systems faster. We’re embedding it into control systems that optimize processes in real time. And we’re building agentic systems—AI takes action, moving from “here’s what you should know” to “here’s what I’ve done about it.”

In robotics, AI is what allows machines to handle the variability of the real world. An AMR navigating a factory uses a variety of AI techniques to perceive obstacles, predict movement and adapt its path on the fly.

ASSEMBLY: Has Rockwell Automation developed any new products for today’s new manufacturing paradigm?

Gariepy: Yes. We are actively engaged in AMRs and software-defined automation (SDA). We manufacture our AMRs in-house, first in Canada and as of October 2025 also in the United States. We have fleet management software, production logistics middleware, and the ability to seamlessly integrate autonomous robots with the rest of a factory’s more traditional automation architecture. That end-to-end capability matters, because deploying robots successfully depends on how it fits into existing operations.

Our Logix SDA platform brings control, safety and motion into a software-defined architecture that can evolve without replacing hardware. Using Logix SDA alongside other Rockwell software, such as Unified Robot Control, enables machine builders to combine high-speed motion control with open-source frameworks like the Robot Operating System (ROS), accelerating development without sacrificing reliability. And, we’re embedding AI across the stack—in design tools, real-time process optimization and agentic systems.