It isn’t a surprise to see so many European robotics experts at the world’s leading trade fair for smart automation and robotics when it is right on their doorstep in Munich. This year’s Automatica attracted plenty of familiar faces from the euRobotics community. In fact it may have surprised some euRobotics members at Automatica that three of those familiar faces came from the euRobotics Office team itself. 

This year euRobotics was represented at Automatica by members of our euRobotics Office team – secretary-general Reinhard Lafrenz, project manager Javier Luque and project officer Inge Rehorst – and 35 of our euRobotics members. This leading trade fair for smart automation and robotics, brings together all key technologies in the technology hub of Munich and provided the euRobotics team with excellent opportunities to meet new and familiar contacts, have interesting conversations with important players in the robotics community and offer an overview on current developments and innovations in the field.

Members of euRobotics’ Board of Directors and Office team in casual mode (above) and in session (below). The use of a hybrid solution enabled some BoD members to join remotely.

Javier and his new ‘pal’!

Why did we decide to go to Automatica? Javier explains: “We knew from the outset that if we were going to justify the outlay (time and cost of being at Automatica), we would need a clear-headed plan in order to maximise the benefits. So we sat down and created one, based on four key elements:  

1. Increase visibility: promote euRobotics in an international robotics environment, meet participating members, contribute to the social media strategy, promoting euRobotics related events (ERF, ERL, ERW) and the Topic Groups 

2. Obtain new members: we identified under-represented countries and high-potential growing markets for the euRobotics membership community, together with a focus on Italy as hosting country for the next European Robotics Forum in Rimini in 2024  

3. Gather feedback from our members to identify future improvements for euRobotics: identify missing euRobotics membership actors (programmers, integrators, start-ups, investors…etc.), identify potential new member benefits and review existing ones.   

4. Learn about trends and topics: traditional vs non-traditional robotic-related areas, new products, application areas, further developments and growing markets that can contribute to the definition of euRobotics’ future strategy. 

Summing up, Inge added: “Within the team, we deliberately set priorities for the way we presented our association and what we wanted to achieve from our visit and our presence at Automatica, to meet existing members, to get input on how euRobotics could improve, meet new people to grow our robotics community, promote euRobotics in an international environment and to have interesting conversations about how new developments could and should influence our association. 

“We’re satisfied with the results. In fact it’s no exaggeration that we’re proud to say our approach has been well received by our members and our board of directors and we’re convinced that it definitely will contribute to the association’s work. We’re using the time following Automatica to make an inventory of all the ideas, comments, contacts and actions we took from our work in Munich. And of course we’ll be updating our members on what we plan to do as a result of our visit.  

“Many thanks to everyone who we got to meet on our days at the fair and also for all the interesting and valuable conversations!”  

  • Automatica at-a-glance
    • 40,000 visitors from around 88 nations
    • 650 exhibitors from 34 countries
    • Top 10 countries represented (after Germany): Austria, Italy, Switzerland,  Czech Republic, South Korea, China, Poland, Netherlands, Slovenia and USA. 
    • Proportion of international visitors: 33%.
    • Trend topics: shortage of skilled workers, AI and climate protection

  • Benefits for euRobotics
    • Increased visibility: ERF, ERL, ERW, TGs promoted to over 45 organizations 
    • Engaged 20 organisations in discussions about euRobotics membership 
    • Enhanced co-operation agreed with VDMA, Holland Robotics, Odense Robotics and United Robotics and others 
    • Gathered ideas from 25 members on association-related improvements.  
    • Obtained new information on future trends and topics directly from exhibitors at the fair including statistical data showing the future trends of robotics.