AUTOMATICA has recorded a registration record. Exhibitors have already booked more space today for the trade fair in Munich on June 21 to 24, 2016 than at the previous event. In five exhibition halls, more than 800 companies are going to display their solutions for the optimization of production processes and professional service robotics and will show that the era of smart robotics and automation has begun.
In fact, business in the industry could hardly be better these days. Patrick Schwarzkopf, CEO of VDMA Robotics + Automation stated it precisely: “The German robotics and automation industry had sales of 11.4 billion euros in 2014. This new record represents an increase of nine percent over the previous year. We expect a sales increase of five percent in the current year. Against these positive signals, industry is pushing developments ahead such as man-machine collaboration, mobile robotics and Industry 4.0.”
For AUTOMATICA, this means revolution instead of evolution in terms of technology and exhibits. Robotics, industrial machine vision, integrated assembly solutions and professional service robotics are among the drivers of technological development. Innovation has once again picked up speed over the past two years, as Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer at KUKA AG emphasized: “Specific topics such as Industry 4.0, safe human-robot collaboration and new applications of robots are in demand. The users want not only to see and hear the benefits, but also to use them in actual practice quickly too. As a leading company in robotics and automation, we are working at full speed at KUKA to fulfill these wishes. Consequently, we can already promise today that we will show pioneering and unique technology solutions at AUTOMATICA 2016. These are solutions that enable significant productivity gains and show automation possibilities where they were previously only possible with great difficulties.”
One trade fair—many industry sectors
AUTOMATICA shows the complete spectrum of products, systems and solutions for almost every automation project. Automotive and metalworking industry, medical, pharmaceutical, food and plastics industry: AUTOMATICA appeals to users from the most diverse sectors of production. In this context, exhibitors and visitors have a common goal: the optimization of production processes.
Professional service robotics—breakthrough of smart robots
Robots have left their protective cages and work closely with people together. Whether mining or agriculture, construction, forestry or cargo handling, whether in the soil or under water, in the air or in space: service robots have taken their place in practice. The trade fair focus “Professional Service Robotics” will again show specific, hands-on applications.
IT2I: The new embedded trade fair for digitization of production
Following the successful premiere of the topic area “Industry 4.0 in Practice” at AUTOMATICA 2014, the trade fair is integrating the newly developed exhibition concept “IT2Industry” next year. This concerns the trade fair and open conference for intelligent, digitally networked work environments. Exhibitors will present solutions and services for the industrial Internet of things in Hall A5 and present best practice examples at the conference.