VANCOUVER, Canda--At this year's IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots., Kiju Lee, a mechanical and aerospace engineering researcher lab at Case Western Reserve University, presented a study on the Twister oragami tower robot she created. Lee initially made the robot with paper, but has now made one using 3D printing. Possible robot applications include fragile-object manipulation and direct human-robot interaction.

LAFAYETTE, IN--Subaru of America is expanding its U.S. assembly plant here to accommodate an upcoming model. The company is shuffling assembly lines and adding space for its upcoming Ascent three-row crossover. Subaru says it is investing $100 million into its plant here and adding about 200 jobs. The additions will yield a total of 5,800 employees working in the facility to produce the Outback, Impreza, Legacy and new Ascent.

WASHINGTON-—U.S. factory activity rose to the highest level in 13 years last month as hurricanes disrupted supplies but drove up demand for manufactured goods. The Institute for Supply Management said its September manufacturing index rose to 60.8 from 58.8 in August, the highest reading since May 2004.

OWENSBORO, KY--Automotive frame manufacturer Metalsa Structural Products is adding 113 jobs here with a $36.5 million expansion to produce a new line of stamped and welded components. The spending will include investment in robotic welding cells, assembly line robots, infrastructure and building expansions to accommodate the new production line and additional warehouse space.

JIADING NEW CITY, China--Shanghai STEP Electric Corp. announced plans to build a factory here that will have an area of 48,000 square meters and an annual output of around 10,000 industrial robots.

SINGAPORE--Pixel Automation has developed PixCell, a modular system that enables nonsequential placement of processing cells so manufacturers can easily increase capacity or introduce additional steps or processes. The system is customizable so firms can produce different products using the same manufacturing line at the same time.

DANVILLE, VA--Unison Ltd., a manufacturer of tube-bending equipment, will invest $5.2 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation here. The plant will be the company’s second manufacturing facility and support the activities of the company’s plant in North Yorkshire, England.

YOKOHAMA, Japan--Nissan Motor Co. is attempting to foster a corporate culture that produces manufacturing innovations in leaps and bounds instead of steady incremental improvement. Corporate Vice President Atsuhiko Hayakawa says the new approach is called kakushin, which means to deliver change that's a multiple of a previous improvement.

SAN FRANCISCO--Cruise, the self-driving car startup that sold to General Motors last year, has developed a production design vehicle based on the Bolt electric vehicle. Temporarily dubbed Generation 3, the car is now ready for the factory production line. Thus far, the company has produced about 50 of the cars.

ATLANTA--SoftWear Automation's LOWRY, a four-axis sewing robot, equals 10 workers and produces approximately 1,142 t-shirts in an eight-hour period, compared to 669 by humans working at full-speed.