Gearing up towards autonomous production

Visitors to automatica 2020 will find answers to the questions about how the topics of digital transformation, man and machine as well as how AI will affect the manufacturing world of tomorrow.

Falk Senger, Managing Director of Messe München, emphasised: “automatica is aimed at companies from all sectors of industry. The range of topics goes far beyond a traditional exhibition. The supporting programme provides a unique platform for dialog as well as access to innovations, knowledge and trends with high business relevance.”

To cover the enormous range, automatica will also occupy Hall C6, which will be called 'Future Robotics Hall' starting from 2020.

Robotics and automation will always be in great demand

The topic of automation plays an important role in the economy as a whole. Patrick Schwarzkopf, Managing Director of VDMA Robotics + Automation, explained: “Robotics and automation is the key technology for increased competitiveness, quality and sustainability.

"If you want to make the best use of intelligent automation and robotics as well as find out about all new trends, you will find answers at automatica in Munich. It is clearly the leader in this topic area.”

Key players and new exhibitors

The continued strong participation of exhibitors shows that automation solutions are in demand more than ever. The presence of important key players, in particular industry leaders in robotics such as ABB, FANUC, KUKA and YASKAWA, confirms automatica.

Many new exhibitors are also present, including Basler, Baumer, Hanwah, Nokia Solutions & Networks, Schaeffler Technologies and ZF Friedrichshafen. Demand is particularly strong in the field of collaborative mobile robotics, to which the 'Future Robot Hall' C6 is dedicated.

Seven months before the start of the trade fair, the growth in exhibition area from abroad is already 12% higher compared to the final result in 2018.

The vision of autonomous production

Topics such as digitalisation, big data and artificial intelligence provide enormous opportunities for manufacturing companies. But how can they benefit? To what extent can the factory of the future be automated? Are further steps toward autonomous production possible and sensible? What role will people play in the future?

There is no doubt that today's reality is still far from the vision of autonomous production. But the rapid pace of technological progress makes an open dialogue on opportunities and prospects urgently necessary, because tomorrow's production is moving away from sequential to matrix production.

This requires driverless transport systems to become more flexible, machines to solve complex tasks increasingly autonomously, and software to become even more networked and intelligent.

automatica, a meeting place for pioneers, visionaries, entrepreneurs and technology experts, provides a platform for professional exchange and further development of creative ideas for production of the future.

Further expansion: automation and IT

Digital transformation encompasses all areas of the economy and requires new thinking, new alliances, new processes and structures. With the IT2Industry exhibition area with approx. 80 expected exhibitors, the IIoT Forum and the Smart Maintenance Pavilion, automatica spans the spectrum from robotics and automation to information technology and all the way to cloud computing and big data.

VDMA Robotics + Automation will demonstrate a sustainable approach for standardised and vendor-independent data exchange with the OPC UA demonstrator. At the same time, the OPC Day Europe 2020 will again take place within the context of automatica.

NEW: IIoT Conference - powered by automatica and Heise

To bring the production and IT worlds closer to each other, automatica is developing a new format in cooperation with Heise Verlag. As part of the IIoT Conference, the classic automatica topics will be addressed with IT-related lectures.

The goal is to bridge the gap between automation engineers and software developers as well as IT professionals. The offer is aimed at a technical audience from the IT industry and consists of a conference day and a half-day workshop.

NEW: automatica expands the sensor technology area

Relevant data form the basis of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. Sensors are becoming an important part of the value chain and consequently for automatica. For the first time at automatica 2020: 'The Sensor Show', a component-oriented sensor exhibition area with lecture stages and supporting congress.

The aim of the expansion of the trade fair offer is to increase the focus on the already established topic of sensor, test and measurement technology to complete the value chain and cover areas for new visitor target groups.

Well-known companies such as the BMW Group, Deloitte, Tesla, Hugo Boss, MTC Aero, Dell EMC, General Motors and TATA Technologies have already confirmed their participation in 'The Sensor Show Congress' and the network forums of 'The Sensor Show'.

Orientation knowledge with high business relevance

With expert forums, international congresses, demo shows and use cases, a service robotics exhibition area as well as 'hands-on' formats such as the planned AI-Lab, automatica provides orientation knowledge and consequently concrete added value for visitors and exhibitors.

The trend topics of digital transformation, man and machine interfaces as well as artificial intelligence will be discussed with experts in all their practical scenarios that can be employed in industry.

The automatica forum provides valuable know-how transfer. The top topics of the lectures: Work 4.0, collaborative robotics in actual practice, mobile robotics in logistics, artificial intelligence in production, and data analytics.

The robotics conference International Symposium on Robotics (ISR) 2020 will take place from 17th-18th June within the context of automatica. More than 100 talks will provide insights into robotics technologies.

Automation for the next generation

The shortage of skilled workers is a central issue in the production world. With several initiatives, automatica aims to draw the attention of the young generation to potential in the automation industry. The highlights: the Start-up Arena, the extended Makeathon contest with up to 250 participants, the new format 'VDMA Robotics Challenge' and other attractive offers for university and high school students. Young people from different age groups will find opportunities for participating and trying things out at the fair as well as solid networking possibilities for professional development.