Electronica 2026 Opens in Munich With Edge AI, Embedded Security and Robot Demos

Electronica 2026 opens in Munich on Tuesday, November 10, and runs through Friday, November 13, with chip and module suppliers using the fair to present hardware aimed at industrial automation, automotive electronics, robotics and connected devices. GigaDevice, Cavli Wireless and Kudelski Labs each announced showcase plans on November 9, placing microcontrollers, cellular system-on-modules and device security at the center of their pitches to European customers.

The event gives suppliers a stage as demand grows for computing that runs inside machines rather than in remote data centers. GigaDevice said Europe is an important market for it, citing demand for innovation in industrial automation and automotive electronics. The company, which makes Flash memory, 32-bit microcontrollers, sensors and analog products, said the exhibition lets it engage regional customers and partners.

Hardware Built for Movement and Interfaces

GigaDevice will demonstrate a six-axis collaborative robotic arm driven by its GD32H77R microcontroller, which uses an Arm Cortex-M7 core running at up to 600 MHz for real-time joint control. The setup combines absolute encoder feedback with EtherCAT-based communication and CiA 402 drive profiles for precise positioning and coordinated motion. A host controller handles trajectory planning, teaching and playback and system monitoring, while the arm adds obstacle avoidance, collision protection and hand-guided teaching.

The company is also presenting three graphical interface designs built on its GD32H7 series. One uses the Qt toolkit for microcontrollers, supporting rich widgets, multilingual input, multimedia and real-time data visualization. Another pairs a GD32H77D microcontroller with hardware-accelerated 2D graphics and a MIPI-DSI display interface, and a third demonstrates flexible graphical development with video playback and audio. For engineers working in embedded systems, the displays show how much interface work is moving onto the microcontroller itself.

Cellular Modules and an AI Firmware Assistant

Cavli Wireless plans to unveil the P16QS, an LTE Cat 1bis system-on-module, alongside Cortex AI, which the company describes as an autonomous firmware engineering assistant. The P16QS runs on a 32-bit RISC-V processor at 325 MHz, supports real-time operating system development, and offers peak download speeds of 10 Mbps and upload speeds of 5 Mbps. It adds Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.4, an integrated secure element, interfaces for NFC, smart cards and magnetic-stripe readers, optional satellite navigation and an optional embedded SIM, all in a package measuring 40.0 by 30.0 by 2.7 millimeters.

Cavli said the module targets payment terminals, connected soundboxes, low-cost instrument clusters, vehicle telematics, asset and mobility tracking, and other secure connected devices. At the fair it will show the part inside a point-of-sale concept that combines payment peripherals, local processing, secure connectivity and wireless communications in one design. The company is also presenting its CQ16 and C16QS modules and its 5G RedCap and 5G NR portfolio, with connectivity and device management handled through its Hubble platform.

Security Across the Device Lifecycle

Kudelski Labs, the innovation arm of the Kudelski Group, will demonstrate embedded, edge AI and device lifecycle security, including a robotic quadruped called KLARQ. The robot combines on-device perception and inference from Axelera AI's Metis chip with the company's keySTREAM platform, which gives each device its own identity and manages security from first activation through later updates. Kudelski said the demonstration shows how security can be built into autonomous products starting at the silicon level.

The company will also present on-chip work for post-quantum cryptography and services to prepare manufacturers for the Cyber Resilience Act, including independent evaluation and side-channel testing. It plans to highlight a collaboration in which Microchip's TrustMANAGER is integrated with keySTREAM to support secure in-field provisioning and credential management. The company argues that trust has to be designed into every layer as AI moves into devices that sense, decide and act in the physical world.

The announcements point to steady demand for engineers who can work across hardware and software: microcontroller programming, real-time control, wireless module integration and security provisioning for fleets of connected products. What to watch next is whether the designs shown in Munich translate into volume orders from industrial and automotive buyers, and how quickly manufacturers adopt the security and compliance features being promoted at the fair.