The integration of artificial intelligence is becoming an ever more essential aspect for the sustainability of industrial manufacturing. European firms face a distinct risk of falling behind in adopting this advanced technology, despite the availability of various industrial AI solutions and the current ease of their implementation. The premier exhibition automatica will showcase this remarkably in June 2025.
A survey conducted by the Statista Research Department in December 2024 highlights the fragility of the situation. For instance, China possesses the highest rate of AI production technology, reaching 94%. The US ranks second yet is unexpectedly quite far behind. Forty-six percent, or under half of all manufacturing firms, utilize AI in this area. The survey indicates that the German-speaking nations (DACH region) rank last with just 20 percent.
Christian Fenk, the CSO of the Munich-based company robominds AI, believes that the situation needs to change: “In terms of suppliers, Europe ranks as one of the leading markets worldwide for AI solutions aimed at production.” Anyone questioning this should visit automatica in Munich and observe firsthand the extensive variety of AI solutions that encompass all facets of automation. Any business that postpones its own embrace of this technology jeopardizes its competitive standing.
US President Donald Trump is one of those who have understood the significance of AI. He started his second term by initiating the $500 billion Stargate venture intended to bring AI infrastructure in the U.S. to a whole new level. The enormous investment into this key technology is to not just ensure a competitive edge for the industry, but to secure the entire nation’s prosperity and sovereignty. What that means for Europe: Time to act.
Achieving the unachievable through intelligent automation
Let’s return from global politics in Washington to a manufacturing facility in northern Germany: AI is significant here as well. It doesn’t impact the global order here, but it aids in enhancing the competitive stance of a plastics processing firm confronted with the task of organizing numerous pre-separated parts for assembly. Standard automation is not feasible in this case, as the vast assortment of components would necessitate significant programming work and ongoing modifications to the program while it is running.
robominds successfully addressed this issue with an AI solution that independently responds to changes in real-time. The integration of robots, robobrain®, and appropriate AI capabilities allows the system to identify, grasp, and sort all component variations without requiring programming or training. “Genuine artificial intelligence serving as a connector for unstructured processes opens up completely new areas of application in automation.” “Even with a further increase in the variety of products for customers, AI places them in a favorable position by allowing adaptable responses to upcoming changes,” states Tobias Rietzler, CEO of robominds.
Smart 3D vision replaces teaching and programming
The combination of 3D vision and powerful AI is one of the prerequisites for implementing smart robotics solutions. This technology enables robots to act appropriately in any given situation and to take on tasks subject to dynamic changes. This helps overcome the limitations of inflexible programmed sequences and lets machines achieve maximum autonomy.
At automatica, lots of machine vision providers present actual use cases for such solutions, including start-ups such as Mech-Mind Robotics. This company was founded in 2016 and, with the support of Intel and other investors, has attracted a total funding of more than $200 million. It is already considered one of the top players in deploying AI and Deep Learning applications to implement extremely challenging automation tasks.
Trade fair stands of exhibitors such as Basler, Carl Zeiss, IDS, MVTec, or VMT offer visiting professionals the perfect opportunity to get up to speed on the latest technology in AI-based machine vision. Our exhibitors will be happy to elaborate on tasks to be solved, the ease of system integration, associated costs, and return of investment.
Global robot manufacturers showcase visionary developments
Visitors are also eagerly awaiting the innovative solutions showcased by robot manufacturers at automatica. One thing we already know: We never had more registered robot manufacturers than this year, and many of our first-time exhibitors are from Asia.
Language programming is another AI-related topic that will play a pivotal role very soon. If it was possible to program robots using natural language, the greatest obstacle associated with their use would just vanish in an instant. A team from Augsburg, Germany, has shown that this dream of convenient language programming is now within reach.
The team at KUKA has been working on using generative AI to create program code for some time now. Roland Ritter, Head of Software Portfolio Management at KUKA, explains what this is all about: “We are currently developing an AI chatbot capable of translating natural language commands into code, which is then used to program the robot for the task at hand. If we succeed, anyone could perform entry-level robot programming with ease.”
Experiments are conducted in a virtual environment for now, and AI-generated robot programs are still being tested using digital twins in an effort to make them suitable for real-world applications. But progress is being made and it is only a matter of time before AI assistants and robot programming will work hand in hand.
Autonomous mobile robots—powered by artificial intelligence
Just as in stationary robots, artificial intelligence plays a key role in mobile robotics, too. Autonomous navigation may have the greatest impact in this domain as it unlocks fully autonomous deployments of AMRs in complex and continuously evolving environments. It was not without good reason that ABB Robotics acquired Sevensense Robotics in 2023. The Swiss company specializes in VSLAM technology (Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping). This AI-based technology is considered a game changer as it enables AMRs to map unknown environments and navigate them with great precision. Sami Atiya, Head of Robotics & Discrete Automation Business Area at ABB: “Each robot is equipped with machine vision technology and AI, and is tasked with scanning a specific part of the building. Each robot’s field of vision is used to compile a complete map so that AMRs can autonomously work in fast-changing environments.”
The numerous AGV and AMR providers use different navigation systems, and each of them can take on specific logistics tasks—learn all about it at automatica. Both the choice of solutions and the market are huge. And that extends to the entire product range from grippers to cobots, and across all exhibition areas: AI is now ubiquitous and unlocks quantum leaps in terms of efficiency and economic potential.