Dark factories, also called lights-out manufacturing, are one of the most discussed and most misunderstood ideas in modern manufacturing. We sit down with Professor Francis Werfels and researcher Andreas Verlaenen, whose lab won an international robot cloth-folding competition, to look at the real state of robotics, AI, and automation on the factory floor.

You'll learn why robots still struggle with generalization, what the famous towel-folding test really proves, why humanoid and collaborative robots still need clear work instructions, and why the field may be "100 years" from a ChatGPT-sized dataset at today's data-collection rates. We also compare Optimus, Figure, Boston Dynamics, and Toyota, and explain why your manufacturing data is a competitive moat worth building now.

The throughline: machines automate, but people stay in control.

Built for manufacturing leaders, plant managers, and operations teams.

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