Embedded World 2026: Day 1

Embedded world 2026 officially began, and the exhibition halls were already very busy. The event opened on March 10 and quickly attracted large crowds of visitors from across the embedded systems industry. Some of the busiest areas included Hall 3 and Hall 4, where major industry players such as Infineon and STMicroelectronics were exhibiting. Their booths attracted strong visitor interest and steady foot traffic throughout the day.

At Raspberry Pi’s booth 5-343, several Raspberry Pi–based solutions were shown by partners and ecosystem companies. Our editor, Brian Tristam Williams, spoke with multiple representatives about the products and demonstrations at the booth.
 

Sixfab presented the Alpon X5 AI Edge Computer, a CES Best of Innovation Award recipient in the Enterprise Tech category, together with an Edge AI Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi 5. Moreover, the Raspberry Pi Smart Display Module was shown for integrating the Compute Module 5 into professional displays for audiovisual and digital signage applications. Raspberry Pi Compute Modules were also highlighted, providing all interfaces of the flagship single-board computers without physical connectors.
 

The CM5 Programming Jig was demonstrated for high-volume deployments of Compute Module 5. The jig used a precision-aligned pogo-pin interface for reliable electrical contact and reduced wear on high-density connectors. It allowed operators to flash firmware and run diagnostics in seconds, reducing assembly-line cycle times, lowering defect rates, and simplifying operator training.

Industrial Raspberry Pi solutions from Sfera Labs were also presented at the booth, including Strato Pi Plus and Iono Pi v3, which provided industrial controllers and PLCs with modular I/O, analog and digital interfaces, and support for protocols such as 1-Wire and Wiegand.

At the Qualcomm booth, Brian interviewed Manvinder (Manny) Singh, who drives strategy and execution for building and deploying Qualcomm’s embedded and edge solutions. Questions focused on Qualcomm’s acquisitions of Arduino and Edge Impulse and their effect on supporting edge AI from prototype to deployment.

Manvinder spoke about the new Arduino platform, its AI and robotic application use cases, Arduino App Lab development tools, and the platform’s alignment with Arduino’s open-source philosophy. Further coverage of this interview was planned for upcoming editorial and video content. For more about past Elektor x Edge Impulse collaborations, check out the guest-edited Elektor magazine by Edge Impulse.

At the Celus booth, Tobias presented a new version of their core AI platform and its integration with NXP, also available at the NXP FRDM lab booth from embedded world. Celus supports a component library exceeding one million parts. The platform allowed engineers to specify design intent, select main ICs, and identify booties, the building blocks of the design. It could compare datasheets, reference software, and component specifications across suppliers. Users could define requirements for each subsystem, including microcontrollers with AI accelerators, Wi-Fi, battery, and power management, to generate schematics and populate the bill of materials. The system allowed exploration of alternative compatible components across the full design.



At the Arduino booth, we found the new Arduino VENTUNO Q board. The board featured a Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 and an STM32H5 MCU. At the booth, a project called Parking Lot demonstrated vehicle detection and tracking using the VENTUNO Q, performing real-time detection and sending cropped images to a local Visual Language Model for analysis. At the Edge Impulse booth, the same board controlled a voice-activated robot, using Edge Impulse models to follow objects and recognize a wake word. The demo included 3D visualization of joint updates and collected data from the robot’s camera, microphone, and motor values.

Embedded world 2026 continues this week in Nuremberg. More coverage from the show floor would follow.