This past spring, more than 1,600 people from 34 countries gathered at RoboBusiness Europe 2016 in Odense, Denmark, to share ideas for building businesses in the fields of robotics and the Internet of Things. RoboBusiness Europe 2017 is scheduled to take place at RoboValley in the Netherlands.
While Europe has much to offer in the world of robotics, international visitors should find next April’s venue especially inspiring. Around the Dutch city of Delft, more than 170 robotics researchers are collaborating with other experts, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers in both the public and private sectors.
As a result, a unique network involving multiple fields and industries is thriving, with the Robotics Institute at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) at its heart. RoboValley is working to be a global leader in the development of the next generation of robotics.
RoboBusiness Europe is proud to be collaborating with RoboValley on the 2017 conference, and a delegation from Europe was present at last month’s RoboBusiness U.S. in San Jose, Calif.
A preview of TU Delft’s hall, venue for RoboBusiness 2017.
New venue, new agenda
RoboBusiness Europe 2017 is intended to inform and inspire the most successful robotics innovators of our time. Its purpose is to provide the education and connections you need to transform your business. During next year’s conference, there will be sessions around these five topics:
- Intralogistics, including service robots
- Intelligent vehicles
- Robots for inspection and maintenance
- Healthcare technologies
- Agriculture robotics
There will also be a special track on education and robotics. These unifying themes will be visible in both the conference program and throughout the exhibit hall.
In addition, the show will put the progress of our industry into perspective by taking a look at the technologies and companies available today and those expected to emerge in the near future. Sessions will also explore the most important research being done — as well as startups — in these five areas.
A speaker will introduce and lead each session. He or she will introduce the challenges each area faces, and discuss scenarios for how these markets might develop.
“Going to RoboBusiness Europe 2016 was like being a kid in a candy store,” said Antje Gerd Poulsen, a Danish reporter. “I had the opportunity to see state-of-the-art robotics and meet some of the best designers and companies, new inventors, and the world’s leading scientists in robotics. RoboBusiness Europe was a great opportunity to create a network of professional relationships.”
Five focus areas
“A lot is happening in these segments — from major new developments in academia to adoption by end-users,” said Marianne Andersen, CEO of RoboBusiness Europe. “The five themes all are significantly influenced by artificial intelligence, and they all have the human-robot interaction as part of the solution.”
“RoboBusiness Europe is not Automatica or Hannover Messe and will never be,” she added. “We focus on different segments, and we emphasize close networking and a more personalized, individual program.”
“RoboBusiness Europe was a great learning experience,” said Noriko Takiguchi, a Japanese journalist based in the U.S. “I appreciated the up-to-date and insightful topics at the conference, not to mention the energetic audience.”
Pitchfire training
As always, there will be a Pitchfire session where startup companies can present their elevator speech in two minutes each. As in 2016, we will offer training for the contestants because this has proved to be of great benefit to the participating and attending startups.
Jelle Sturkenboom, team manager of Project MARCH, said he learned a great deal from this year’s Pitchfire training. He and other TU Delft students have been working on an exoskeleton that is also participating in the Cybathlon 2016.
“The Pitchfire was a nice experience; it was our first time doing such a pitch in front of investors,” Sturkenboom said. “The feedback we received was quite useful, as well seeing the other companies doing their pitch and receiving their feedback.”
Pre-conference visits
RoboBusiness Europe 2017 will be held from April 20 to 21. There will also be a pre-conference program similar to the one in Odense, where participants had an opportunity to visit local robotics companies.
“Site visits to local robotics companies were particularly valuable, giving me opportunities to talk face-to-face with robotics executives and engineers,” said Takiguchi.
“The idea of taking a delegation to visit different robotics firms was brilliant,” said Aseem Prakash, chief robotics officer of Karma Robotics and a Robotics Business Review contributing writer. “I met a lot of interesting people that day, and we continued our conversations at the various gatherings in the convention center.”
One visit that will be fully booked will be to the Delft University of Technology. Not only does it offer several programs for robotics that are coordinated by the TU Delft Robotics Institute. But it is also lies at the heart of RoboValley, a major center of robotics commercialization in Europe.
RoboValley is ready to show off for the world, says Managing Director Arthur de Crook.
High expectations for RoboBusiness 2017
TU Delft will celebrate its 175th birthday next year.
“We have chosen to be the venue sponsor of RoboBusiness Europe 2017 because we want to show to the world that RoboValley is one of the leading technology hubs for robotics science, startups, and scale-ups,” said Arthur de Crook, managing director of RoboValley.
“RoboBusiness Europe brings together a community of influential people who are shaping the future of robotic technologies,” said Andersen. “In 2017, we expect more than 1,200 attendees. The typical attendee is a professional decision-maker working with, or interested in, robotics.”
She added that the attendees will also include investors, startup innovators, representatives from established robotics companies, and end users.
In addition, RoboBusiness Europe 2017 is a good way for companies to raise awareness of their offerings and to assess whether to relocate to RoboValley, Andersen said.
“Our audience will be solution seekers — people who want to do something with robotics and learn about how they can benefit from this in their daily business,” she said.
“We will try to provide answers,” says TU Delft Prof. Martijn Wisse of robotics solutions at RoboBusiness Europe 2017.
“Solution seekers are those that know a lot is going on in robotics, but who find it difficult to know where to start implementing it in their organization,” said Martijn Wisse, professor of biorobotics at TU Delft. “We will to try provide answers by focusing on a number of relevant fields of application and provide a narrative for short, middle, and long-term robotics solutions.”
“Short-term solutions are technologies available right now, while middle-term solutions are the innovative startups and products,” Wisse said. “The long-term covers academic research.”
Join us!
RoboBusiness Europe 2017 is truly global networking opportunity for movers and makers, engineers, CEOs, designers, and global leaders. What happens when you connect with one another? Unexpected encounters. Extraordinary insights. Powerful inspiration.
Be part of this extraordinary event, and help make some of these aspirations come true. For more information, visit http://robobusinesseurope.com/.
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- Top 5 Reasons Why European Robotics Thrives in Denmark
- Accenture to Invest €500,000 in RoboValley for Robotics Innovations
- Assistive Robots Showcased at RoboBusiness Europe
About RoboBusiness Europe 2017 and RoboValley
RoboBusiness Europe is a facilitator for connecting universities, investors, companies, and others interested in robotics and Internet of Things. The organization presents one major conference a year, held at different locations to expand attendees’ networking circles and to enable them to create new partnerships and learn about new markets. The event has been in Italy and Denmark twice each.
In RoboValley, more than 170 robotics researchers from a multitude of fields collaborate with other experts, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers. Thirty startups have already settled next to existing robotics companies around Delft.
RoboValley has predicted that it will create 15,000 to 25,000 jobs in the next 10 years and that these robotics companies will need between 250,000 and 360,000 square meters of lab and office space.
The Delft University of Technology is an integral part of the RoboValley community. It is the largest and oldest Dutch research institute.
