Automatica unites all sectors of robotics and automation under one roof. The 2016 edition recorded sensational visitor growth at plus 30 per cent with record participation from foreign countries.v The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment. Thus predicted Warren G Bennis, the late American scholar, organisational consultant and author. Though this is yet to happen, scores of machines operating the night shift for certain tasks with just an overseer is nothing new. However, collaborative robots or Cobots, freed from their safety cages and working in tandem with their human colleagues is now a reality.

For several years now, Automatica has been the platform where industry specialists and decision makers in all branches of industry come together to share and gather information about the latest developments. Billed as the specialised event for automation and mechatronics, this is the perfect place to find out how one can further automate production processes to cut costs and improve quality.

The recently concluded Automatica 2016 (June 21 to 24) had on display the world’s largest range of robotics, integrated assembly solutions and machine-vision solutions, spread over six exhibition halls dedicated to the various main categories, covering everything from sensor technology and drive technology to supply technology and positioning systems. As a trade fair for automation, the event also featured a separate exhibition sector for the booming service robotics industry again this year.

With Digitalization, Workplace 4.0 and Service Robotics as the main topics, the event exceeded all expectations: around 45,000 visitors (+30 per cent) and 839 exhibitors from 47 countries (+16 per cent). One-third of the visitors came from foreign countries. Falk Senger, Managing Director, Messe München, said, “Automatica has reached a new dimension. It showed the future of production with deep insights into the possibilities of digitalisation, human-robot collaboration and professional service robotics.” Patrick Schwarzkopf, Managing Director of VDMA Robotik + Automation, added: “Automatica 2016 has broken all records. In particular, the number of international visitors has increased enormously. The increase was significantly above 50 per cent!”

Service robotics recorded a big increase at Automatica and provided a fascinating insight into the everyday life of tomorrow: the care car in a hospital or the inventory robot for department stores, service robots as driverless transport systems or assistants for people. Andra Keay, Managing Director at Silicon Valley Robotics, was impressed: “Automatica is a wonderful gathering of professionals from the field of robotics. I am very surprised by the great efforts in the area of service robotics and start-ups.” Omniroll, in collaboration with Swiss company F&P Personal Robotics, presented mobile service robots in the medical field. The company exhibited new omni directional vehicles (Omnitrax, Omnibase) with the patented Omniroll Mecanum Wheels, for use in logistics, warehouse management, robotics, rehabilitation, etc. These vehicles can drive forwards, backwards, diagonally and sideways, as well as being able to turn on the spot; they thus require approx 30% less manoeuvring space than comparable vehicles.

The robotics research project ECHORD++ (The European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development) had several exhibits that promoted interaction between robot manufacturers, researchers and users. It is the follow-up project of ECHORD (European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development, 2009-13), which was installed as an incubator to drive innovation by facilitating the cooperation between academia and industry. One of the exhibits was MODUL – Modular Drive Units for Legged Locomotion – a modular, four-legged, energy-efficient multi-purpose transporter, simple to operate, maintain and upgrade, with a high relative payload (50% of body weight) and speed.

Automation and IT are going to join forces in the future. IT2Industry – a show within the show and Open Conference provided a unique platform for this. Ms Ilse Aigner, Bavarian State Minister for Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology, during her visit to the trade fair, said: “We want to be a leading supplier and leading market for Industry 4.0. To this end, an international marketplace is critical to ascertain the current state of developments and establish international contacts at regular intervals. Consequently, I very much welcome the fact that Messe München provided the platform IT2Industry at Automatica and made digitalisation a focal topic with it. As a result, Automatica has great importance for the establishment of Germany as the leading Industry 4.0 nation.”

The Chinese automation boom is becoming increasingly noticeable at Automatica. A total of 13 delegations came just from China. Many Chinese companies were busy exploring collaboration opportunities to go global, seeking foreign partners to work with in the Chinese market. Song Xiaogang, General Secretary of the China Robotics Industry Alliance (CRIA): “Automatica is absolutely one of the leading trade fairs for automation and robotics, which gives very strong impression to the Chinese visitors and exhibitors. With plenty of cutting-edge technologies, robotics, machine vision and integrated assembly solutions, Automatica 2016 displays a diverse range of new possibilities. Through communication and exchange, CRIA delegation believe, there is a bright future of Sino-German cooperation in automation and robotics.”

‘Make, simulate, print your own robot and help create a new joint IoT production site in about 24 hours, compete in interdisciplinary teams and win a trip to Gran Canaria’ – was the exhortation of the first Automatica-Makeathon focused on Robotics, IoT and Automation. The idea was to bring together folks like developers, engineers, startups, students, schools, and individual participants to participate and hack, create and make prototypes. More than 140 participants, most of them students working in teams from the fields of computer science, robotics and mechatronics, developed functional hardware prototypes within 24 hours. The prototypes ranged from an automated shoe for senior citizens to a complete digital factory as a production line and all the way to the production of power bars that are adapted to the individual needs of consumers, e.g., weight or activity level.

Automatica is becoming the market place for start-ups. Newcomers from around the world exhibited on the Start-Up World area. Falk Senger is convinced: “The exchange between start-ups and established companies is a trend-setting development. Messe München supports and promotes this valuable communication platform.” French startup Terabee has developed TeraRanger Tower, the very first scanner to utilise multiple static sensors rather than conventional rotating or mechanical elements. The advantage of this approach is that it requires no motor, which makes the TeraRanger Tower both virtually silent and highly resistant to wear. This non-rotating simultaneous multi-axis scanner has a great deal of potential to replace common lidar scanners. It uses infrared time-of-flight (3D systems that measure distances using the transit time technique) that has low energy requirements and are 100% eye-safe. Weighing just 130 grams, the TeraRanger Tower is particularly suited to applications on lightweight and fast moving robots. Possible areas of use include simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and collision avoidance for robots of this type, including drones.

Work 4.0 was a main topic at Automatica. Man and machine will work together as a team in the future. People are the focus with their emotional intelligence, and robots assist them. Dr Horst Neumann, long time Group Head of Human Resources at Volkswagen AG and founder of the Institute for the History and Future of Work, explained: “Work in factories is becoming increasingly more demanding. As a result, workers need to become more qualified. We need to work on this. A trade fair such as Automatica can open people’s eyes in this process and thus make a contribution.”

So what happens to the dog? Well, humans have also designed robots to resemble dogs in appearance and behaviour, incorporating canine characteristics! The next Automatica will take place in Munich from June 19 to 22, 2018.

(Article based on information sourced from the official Automatica website)