The market for business robotics is on the verge of a significant transformation, as we observed during Vision, Robotics & Motion. Increasingly, innovation is not in the hardware anymore, but in the software, which is making robots significantly smarter. For instance, vision solutions are increasingly equipped with AI. In this video, Marco van der Hoeven discusses the trends, and Ron Nakken from ABB Robotics explains the robot showcased at the Rocking Robots booth.
The 21st edition of Vision, Robotics & Motion, with 40 speakers and 120 exhibitors, attracted 1,796 visitors last week. From cobots, autonomous forklifts, an exoskeleton, drones, an automated measurement cell, pick-and-place robots, drive technology solutions, vision systems, and various software solutions to a coffee-making and even a foosball-playing robot, all of this could be found on the exhibition floor on June 5 and 6.
onnections were made between companies across the entire chain at the fair. Both visitors and exhibitors met their partners, suppliers, and customers here. The strength of such an ecosystem is further emphasized by keynote speaker Dennis van Kleef from Schiphol: “We don’t have all the knowledge ourselves; we need to collaborate and strengthen each other.” During his keynote, Van Kleef gave an insight into the automation and robotization process of the baggage handling at the largest airport in the Netherlands.
Collaboration applies not only between humans but also between humans and robots, as well as humans and AI. The speakers and exhibitors at the fair all agree on this. For example, keynote speaker Guido van Gageldonk, AI program manager at the Brabant Entrepreneurs Society, emphasizes: “AI is a tool to make our work more efficient. I see it as a new bicycle. The bicycle gets you to your destination faster, so why would you walk with the bicycle in hand? We need to start cycling. And maybe we’ll fall once, but we’ll learn from that.”
