With Alphabet’s Intrinsic another top-tier company on board

automatica—the leading international exhibition for smart automation and robotics—will open in Munich in just a few weeks. What highlights does the event offer from June 27 to 30, 2023? Anja Schneider, Exhibition Director, answers this question.

Ms. Schneider, automatica is held for the second time in just twelve months due to its schedule change. Is it reasonable to expect innovations this time around?

The topics covered at automatica are more relevant than ever! Be it climate protection, supply chain resilience, or lack of specialists. Robotics and automation play a key role in this context. For one thing is clear: It takes smart automation and digital networking to make production economical and sustainable—without entering into risky dependencies.

Also: As robots become easier to operate and return their initial investment faster, they are becoming an increasingly attractive option for SMEs and less automated industries as well. Thus, they are now deployed far beyond manufacturing. This motivates about 650 exhibitors from 35 countries to present sustainable solution approaches.

Apart from the well-known industry leaders, Intrinsic will have for the first time a large presence in Hall B4. Intrinsic is a software and AI company at Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The company is working to democratize access to robotics by developing an intelligent software and AI platform and will showcase its first developer product called Flowstate—an intuitive, web-based developer environment to build robotic applications from concept to deployment. At the booth, attendees will be able to get a demonstration of the developer experience and see the advanced capabilities that Intrinsic has developed for perception and sensor-based control. Also on display is a modular solution developed with industry partner Comau that enables assembly and disassembly of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle supermodule.

automatica is also characterized by live demonstrations as part of the supporting program. What is in store for visitors this year?

We have further developed the supporting program with a special focus on dialog and discussions. This program offers a total of nine showcases and a versatile stage program. It includes the munich_i Hightech Summit on June 28, 2023 with its 17 visionary presentations.

And then there are brand new formats with an application focus that we have developed together with our strong partner VDMA R+A. This includes Mobile Robots in Production, where a mixed fleet of AGVs is tested in a battery production logistics application context. It is an implementation of driverless transport vehicles and mobile robots from different manufacturers on shared travel paths based on the open communications interface VDA 5050.

Our Service Robot City is another example. It demonstrates robot use cases in hospitals, labs, production facilities, and even art galleries. The city also has a robot restaurant.

Our traditional “interoperability” topic is taken to a whole new level as well with a decentralized Umati demonstrator. It involves machines, robots, machine vision systems, and tightening systems distributed across five exhibition halls.

I am particularly excited about the automatica TestZone addressing small and medium enterprises with the slogan “Discover automation: hands-on.” It is a place where automation newcomers can try out several innovative robotics and automation applications for themselves.

AI.Society, our real-world application component of munich_i, is presented in cooperation with TUM and shows how robotics and AI will impact aspects of life such as work, health, mobility, and the environment in the future.

The lack of specialists and young talent currently affects almost all industry sectors. How does automatica 2023 address this aspect?

On the one hand, numerous exhibitors present innovative robotics solutions to provide the required workforce or perform strenuous physical tasks in order to compensate for the lack of specialists. On the other hand, qualified professionals are in great demand across the robotics and automation industry. That is why we offer various formats at automatica 2023 to address the lack of specialists and support young talent appropriately.

The career and recruiting platform career now is presented in cooperation with VDI Verlag and supports engineers looking to advance their careers by offering services such as a job board, career counseling, or resume photo shootings. At the same time, this environment provides an opportunity for companies to directly approach suitable candidates.

The Robothon® development competition is an opportunity for both graduates and students to prove their software and hardware skills in the presence of prospective employers. Here, 20 teams from places such as Europe, Dubai, Canada, and China rise up to an unsolved environmental protection challenge.

And last but not least: More than 30 international young companies present their visionary ideas and prototypes in the Start-up Arena. Special highlight: The Odense Investor Summit on June 29, 2023 promotes networking among innovators, industry representatives, and investors.