The world of work and society are facing a massive upheaval in the coming years. Automatica 2023 in Munich at the end of June demonstrated the solutions offered by intelligent automation and robotics in this context. After only a one-year break, the trade fair welcomed 40,000 visitors from around 88 nations. That was 12,000 more interested visitors than in the previous year. They exchanged information with 650 exhibitors from 34 countries. The parallelism with Laser World of Photonics and World of Quantum also proved to be a relevant added value for many participants.
The two Managing Directors of Messe München, Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel, draw a positive conclusion after four trade fair days: “automatica has once again proven its great innovative strength. The participating companies have showcased specific visionary solutions to challenges such as compensating the lack of specialists. In addition, the successful cooperation with the co-located events Laser World of Photonics and World of Quantum strengthens Munich’s role as a leading technology hub.”
While robots were often seen as a supposed threat to jobs in the past, they have now become a beacon of hope against the omnipresent shortage of skilled workers. One example of this is the baking robot at the Fanuc stand, which is designed to automate monotonous work steps in large bakeries or supermarkets. Marketing Manager Nils Terstegen affirms: “For us, Automatica is the most important robotics trade fair on both the European and global level. We regularly use automatica as an opportunity to present novelties.” And automation is also an important lever for reducing CO2 emissions in production. Assembly and handling technology has various approaches to recycling and the circular economy in this context. “Sustainable operations are among the most pressing challenges of our time. Software-based simulation helps us plan and optimize complex automation solutions efficiently prior to commissioning”, says Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer at Kuka. “Automatica has once again been the perfect opportunity for us to present our latest approaches to an attractive target group.”
Artificial Intelligence was another dominant topic during the four trade fair days. This is mainly due to the great speed of developments in this area, ushering in a new era of automation. Neura is a company that is both a newcomer and an Artificial Intelligence pioneer. Arne Nordmann, Head of Engineering, comments: “You could say that Automatica is the Champions League of robotics. It has all the currently relevant robotics exhibits. And we want to be a part of that, present our technology, keep in touch with all our partners, and learn where things are headed.”
On the exhibitor side, Automatica received an excellent overall rating. In the survey conducted by the opinion research institute Gelszus, 94 percent of exhibitors rated the trade fair as excellent to good. Particular praise was given to the quality of 91 percent of the visitors and the proportion of new customers, which rose to 85 percent. This opinion is also shared by Frank Konrad, Chairman of the VDMA Automation + Robotics Association and CEO at Hahn Automation: “For us as an automation company, Automatica has been the most important trade fair for 20 years. Following a somewhat restrained comeback after Covid last year, this year saw increased visitor numbers again, which was a positive indicator for us as exhibitors. We had lots of good conversations and opportunities to maintain our network.”
Kai Udo Modrich, Head of Inline Inspection & Metrology at Zeiss Industrial Quality Solutions, agrees with Frank Konrad: “This year's Automatica got to the heart of relevant topics for the smart factories of the future, thus living up to its claim of being the world's leading exhibition for robotics and automation.”
Apart from the established key players, Google’s subsidiary intrinsic was a first-time Automatica participant this year. Henrike Neulen, Account Executive, explains why the Alphabet company chose automatica to host the first trade fair participation in its history: “Our goal is to make robotics easier and more accessible for both providers and users. That makes Automatica the right environment for us to present both our company and products to a large international audience live for the first time.”
The top ten visitor countries after Germany were Austria, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, South Korea, China, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the USA. The proportion of international visitors was 33 percent. The visitors were enthusiastic about Automatica 2023. Thus, 98 percent of those surveyed rated the trade fair as "excellent" to "good". 65 percent of the visitors are optimistic about the future and assume that the importance of Automatica will increase even further. For his part, Joachim Stieler, Managing Director of Stieler Technologie- & Marketingberatung, said: "The best Automatica yet! Makes you want to see the future!"
The next Automatica will again be held in Munich from 24 to 27 June 2025, parallel to Laser World of Photonics and World of Quantum.
