The next AUTOMATICA 2014 has already achieved a record one and one-half years before its start. “We never had so many registrations this early,” a very pleased Project Group Manager Armin Wittmann stated. More than 50 percent of the trade fair area occupied in 2012 are already booked for AUTOMATICA 2014, which will take place on the grounds of the New Munich Trade Fair Centre from 20 to 23 May 2014. In 2014, the high-growth sector of service robotics will be an additional exhibition focal point with its own hall.
“We never achieved such good evaluations from visitors and exhibitors as in 2012,” Armin Wittmann emphasized. “We already have registrations for the next event in 2012 shortly after the last trade fair for more than half of the area, which was occupied at the last AUTOMATICA. This has never happened before.”
AUTOMATICA 2012 solidified its significance as the international meeting place of the automation industry and the world’s largest trade fair for robotics with 31,000 visitors from more than 100 countries. More than 720 exhibitors from 40 countries exhibited their products and solutions in five halls in May for the manufacturing industry. The global range increased at the same time. There strongest visitor increases were from the Russian Federation, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, the Republic of Korea and Japan. A total of one-third of the visitors and exhibitors came from foreign countries.
Strategic Further Development in the Direction of Service Robotics
Starting from 2014, AUTOMATICA is also going to be one of the top trade fairs in the world in the area of industrial service robotics. This field was previously shown in special exhibits. Norbert Bargmann, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Messe München International, explained the reason for the expansion of robotics: “In the meantime, an increasing number of manufacturers and products are taking big steps forward and are rapidly moving to industrialization. And an increasing number of solutions are also achieving commercial success on the market. We want to deal with this trend at the trade fair at an early stage and support companies in this area even more strongly. We are going to dedicate a separate trade fair hall to industrial service robotics in 2014.”
Dr. Michael Wenzel, Managing Director of Reis Group Holding and CEO of VDMA Robotics + Automation, emphasized at the end of the last fair: “I have seen the clear commitment of association members to Munich and AUTOMATICA. There is a clear decision for AUTOMATICA 2014 to put service robotics more strongly in the limelight. I am very pleased that there has been a closing of ranks in the industry – especially in robotics – for this strategic further development. There are already commercially successful applications in professional service robotics.”
The fact that the trade fair was already well positioned in this respect could be seen at AUTOMATICA 2012 by the great number of visitors at the booths of research institutes such as the German Center for Aerospace, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation as well as the European platforms such as euRobotics and EUnited.
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