Novanta (Nasdaq: NOVT): Force/Torque Sensing Through ATI Industrial Automation
Novanta's ATI Industrial Automation brand makes the tool changers and force/torque sensors that let a robot arm feel how hard it's gripping something — the difference between assembling a part and crushing it. In its most recent quarter it booked its first significant servo drive orders tied to humanoid robotics — not for robots doing work yet, but for the training centers where those robots are still learning how.
Who they are
Novanta is a diversified supplier of precision technology to medical and advanced industrial equipment makers, organised around photonics, vision and precision motion. Its brand portfolio includes ATI Industrial Automation (robotic end-of-arm tooling and force/torque sensing), Celera Motion (precision motors and encoders), Cambridge Technology and ARGES (laser beam steering), and JADAK (machine vision and identification technology) — a collection of specialist names that customers often know better than the Novanta corporate parent.
The company acquired ATI Industrial Automation in 2021 for $172 million upfront plus contingent payments, explicitly to expand its position in "mission-critical robotic applications, such as electric vehicle production, medical robotics, and collaborative robotics," creating what CEO Matthijs Glastra described at the time as a nearly $250 million Precision Motion segment. That acquisition is now the company's most direct point of exposure to humanoid robotics, five years after the deal closed.
What they do
ATI's core products are automatic tool changers, multi-axis force/torque sensing systems, and robotic collision sensors — the hardware that lets an industrial or surgical robot swap end effectors and sense contact force in real time. These products serve electric vehicle production, medical and surgical robotics, and collaborative robotics applications, and Novanta's own marketing frames the technology explicitly around next-generation demands: "surgical robotic technologies require ultimate precision and high force torque sensitivity, while automated logistics robots and emerging humanoid technologies require an equal balance of freedom of movement with accuracy and extreme safety."
The company's most concrete humanoid-specific disclosure to date came in its Q2 2026 earnings call: Co-Chief Operating Officer Chuck Ravetto described receiving the company's first significant orders for servo drives intended to support hundreds of humanoid robots in customer training and development facilities. Management was careful to characterise this as the phase after prototyping but before real-world deployment — robots being trained in dedicated centers, not yet shipped to end customers doing productive work.
How they make money
Q2 2026 results were strong across the board: revenue of $265.8 million, up 10.3% year over year with 9% organic growth, adjusted gross margin improving 100 basis points to 47%, adjusted EBITDA up 16% to $60.7 million, and adjusted EPS up 17% to $0.89. All four of Novanta's business units achieved organic growth in the quarter, with particular strength flagged in precision robotics, physical AI, semiconductors, and minimally invasive surgery.
Management raised full-year 2026 guidance following the quarter, targeting more than 15% revenue growth, aided by the recently closed Riverpoint Medical acquisition, which is expected to be immediately accretive to revenue growth, gross margins, EBITDA margins and EPS while expanding medical end-market exposure to roughly 60% of total revenue — a reminder that, like several names in this chain, Novanta's near-term growth story is driven by a mix of end markets in which humanoid robotics is a genuine but still modest contributor.
Where it sits in the value chain
Novanta sits in Stage 4 — Sensing & perception, specifically at the force/torque sensing and tool-changing layer through ATI, complementing Vishay Precision Group's strain-gauge tactile sensing and Ouster and Hesai's vision-based lidar and camera sensing. Together these three companies cover most of the sensing modalities a humanoid needs: sight (lidar/camera), touch (strain gauges), and force feedback at the joint and end-effector level (ATI's sensors).
The servo drive orders for training centers also touch Stage 5 of this chain (compute and AI models), since those training facilities exist specifically to generate the movement and manipulation data that trains a robot's control models — making Novanta's disclosed order an indirect but real signal of investment happening upstream of any robot's actual commercial deployment.
The bigger trend
Novanta's disclosure that its first significant humanoid-related orders are for training-center servo drives, not production robots, is an unusually precise and honest signal about where the humanoid industry actually stands in mid-2026: companies are investing seriously in the infrastructure to teach robots tasks, which is a necessary precursor to deployment but is not deployment itself. That distinction, explicitly drawn by Novanta's own management, is a useful corrective to more breathless framing elsewhere in the industry.
What makes Novanta's position durable regardless of how fast humanoids specifically scale is that its core precision-motion and force-sensing technology already serves large, established markets in surgical robotics and industrial automation. Humanoid robotics is additive optionality on top of a diversified base, not a bet the whole company depends on.
What to watch
- Whether the training-center servo drive orders convert into follow-on orders as robot programs move from training toward field deployment.
- Robotics and automation segment revenue growth rate, currently outperforming the broader Automation Enabling Technologies segment.
- Integration progress and margin contribution from the Riverpoint Medical acquisition.
- Any expansion of ATI's force/torque sensing product line specifically toward humanoid hand and wrist applications.
- Full-year 2026 guidance execution against the raised >15% revenue growth target.
Related companies
🇺🇸Complementary tactile and strain-based sensing to Novanta's force/torque and tool-changing hardware — not yet profiled.
🇺🇸Vision-based sensing counterpart, completing the sight-touch-force sensing stack a humanoid needs.
🇺🇸Major end customer for precision-motion and sensing technology in surgical robotics.
FAQ
What does ATI Industrial Automation make?
Robotic tool changers, multi-axis force/torque sensing systems, and collision sensors used in industrial, collaborative and surgical robotics. Novanta acquired ATI in 2021 for $172 million upfront plus contingent payments to expand its position in mission-critical robotic applications.
What humanoid-specific orders has Novanta disclosed?
In its Q2 2026 earnings call, management described receiving its first significant orders for servo drives intended to support hundreds of humanoid robots in customer training and development facilities — a step beyond initial prototyping but before robots are deployed for real-world productive work.
Is Novanta profitable?
Yes. Q2 2026 revenue was $265.8 million, up 10.3% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $60.7 million, up 16%, and adjusted EPS of $0.89, up 17%. All four of the company's business units achieved organic growth in the quarter.
Is robotics Novanta's main business?
No. Novanta serves medical and advanced industrial equipment markets broadly, including surgical robotics, semiconductor manufacturing, and laser processing, alongside general industrial robotics and automation. Following the Riverpoint Medical acquisition, medical end markets represent roughly 60% of total company revenue.