automatica 2022: Balance of the trade fair

• 574 exhibitors from 35 countries
• Over 28,000 visitors from around 75 countries
• Exhibitors praise high visitor quality
• Next automatica from 27 to 30 June 2023

What role will automation and robotics play for industry in the future? Which developments and technologies will shape the work of tomorrow and how important will AI become? Answers to these questions as well as numerous innovations and trends were offered by automatica, which took place in Munich from June 21 to 24, 2022.

A total of 574 exhibitors from 35 countries and over 28,000 visitors from around 75 countries took part in this leading world trade fair for intelligent automation and robotics. The top ten exhibitor countries after Germany were Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Poland, UK and the USA. The proportion of international visitors was around 38 percent, with high participation from Eastern Europe in particular.

Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Managing Director of Messe München, was very positive in his assessment: "We have been able to experience the future of automation and robotics here. It is unbelievable how great the innovation density is in this industry and I am of course very pleased that automatica was once again chosen by numerous exhibitors as the platform where innovations are presented for the first time. This is the best prerequisite for automatica to build on this success as early as next year."

automatica - a driving force for the industry

For Frank Konrad, Managing Director of HAHN Automation and Chairman of the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association, one thing is certain after four days of the trade fair: "For years, automatica, as the leading trade fair, has offered an exclusive platform for exhibiting and recognizing industry trends and innovations and developing them further in the future. Many highly qualified interested parties and customers were on site and sought the opportunity for direct contact and open communication." Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer at KUKA, can only agree: "Automation, robotics and digitalization are growth drivers. Automatica is an important source of impetus for the industry in these challenging times. The trade fair days were characterized by valuable discussions with a wide-ranging audience." And Tobias Rietzler, CEO & Co-Founder at robominds, added: "Innovative solutions from robotics are moving into completely new industries and application areas. This makes it even more important to have a platform with automatica where technology, products and applications come together to create solutions. After a four-year break from automatica, the euphoria at robominds is great: "So far, we have been able to generate more inquiries than expected. We are already looking forward to next year!"

Personal interaction is irreplaceable

But personal exchange also plays a major role for companies after the Corona break and a digital automatica sprint, as Dr. Olaf Munkelt, Managing Director at MVTec Software, confirms: "You can tell that people want to go to the trade show again. Not surprising, since a face-to-face exchange has no equivalent in the virtual world." David Reger, CEO and founder of NEURA Robotics, also emphasizes the advantages of a face-to-face event: "Our cognitive robots have senses such as seeing, hearing, touching, thinking, making them unique in the industry. These capabilities are best understood by seeing them live in action. Industry events like automatica are an excellent platform for this. Seeing is believing. We are overwhelmed by the positive response and the quality of the trade show visitors."

Supporting program proves thematic leadership

In addition to the trade fair business, automatica 2022 once again offered a wide-ranging supporting program with more than 150 keynotes, panel discussions, presentations and live demonstrations. Patrick Schwarzkopf, Managing Director of VDMA Robotics + Automation, emphasizes that "this year, too, automatica has undoubtedly proven its thematic leadership in terms of the quality and diversity of the supporting program. What the participants get to see here is fantastic." This also applied to the other program items, such as the TestZone in the Future Robotics Hall, which was held for the first time, or - not to be forgotten - munich_i, consisting of the AI.Society with i_space, the Robothon, and the munich_i Hightech Summit.

The digital extension with more than 100 presentations and the automatica Daily is available on the automatica YouTube Channel at youtube.com/user/AUTOMATICAmunich

(Photo: Source automatica)

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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises on almost all issues related to robotics incl funding/subsidies. More about him can be found here.