Let the business of robotics begin!

The second annual RoboBusiness Europe (2014) kicked off this week to a full house of exhibitors and attendees in Billund, Denmark. Last year in Genoa, this year in Billund, and next year in Milan, RoboBusiness Europe has quickly become a permanent fixture on the burgeoning EU robotics landscape.

Horizon 2020 is ramping up, with robotics high on the continent’s to-do list: Robotics 2020 Multi-Annual Roadmap for Robotics in Europe. From the business interest that it has generated and from the reception it has received over the past two years, the timing of RoboBusiness Europe’s arrival in the EU couldn’t have been more timely.

“The ambition is to grow the event to more than 1,000 attendees and 100 exhibitors,” said Claus Risager, chairmain of RoboBusiness Europe, during his opening keynote address. “Anyone who wants to be in the new technological wave of the future has to put their feet into robotics.”

Risager is also partner and director at Blue Ocean Robotics, the Danish company that produces RoboBusiness Europe. “The robotics industry will have a larger impact this century than the automobile industry had last century.”

The event completely sold out, including a program of 75 speakers, 60 sponsors, 40 exhibiting companies, as well as 60 organizations that competed in RoboMatch, which are prearranged 30-minute meetings, where companies research centers and universities pitch their visions to investors in an attempt to find national or international partners.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW: May 26-28, 2014

RoboBusiness Europe, in its second year in the EU, is a first-of-its-kind robotics event for the continent. The purpose of RoboBusiness Europe is to provide a platform for robotic developers and end-users to meet and, thus, to bridge the development within robotics with the end-user’s needs.

As it is with its parent organization, the 10-year-old RoboBusiness US, RoboBusiness Europe is now Europe’s must-attend industry event for bringing robotics to market: how-to tactics, financing, building partnerships, marketplace strategies and commercialization.

It’s all about how to create successful competitive advantages in robotics…and RoboBusiness Europe is the place to be! The event is directed specifically at the EU robotics marketplace and the Euro research ecosystem.

Hot topics

Hot industries this year include healthcare, automotive, energy, agriculture and industrial automation. Other hot topics include STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) education, play and learning, drones for civilian applications, and big science installations. That’s RoboBusiness Europe 2014!

RoboBusiness 2014 concludes on May 28th with a trip to the nearby Hans Christian Andersen Airport for the drone air show conducted by ISARRA (International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft).

Also on the 28th, there is a planned tour of the new manufacturing facility of Universal Robots, the new wunderkind of global robotics.

For all of those LEGOphiles at RoboBusiness, there’s also an insider’s tour of the local LEGO factory, where visitors will get a rare and unique sneak peek at the place where the iconic bricks are produced. Visitors will experience LEGO’s state-of-the-art, highly automated production line – and gain insights into the technology behind the millions of LEGO bricks turned out each day.

Welcome from the hosts of RoboBusiness

Hosts Claus Risager from Blue Ocean Robotics and Gianluigi Ferri from Innovability officially welcomed attendees and sponsors on Monday morning.

Three top-ranked robotic experts from USA, Germany and Japan followed with an introduction to “the world of robotics.” Spectacular developments and revolutionary innovation are waiting around the corner, and this opening plenary gave the audience an overview of “what is going on in robotics on a global scale” including the trends, focus areas, industry drivers and insights behind the robotics headlines.

Day 1 keynotes

Three top robotics experts, one each from the United States, Germany, and Japan opened the show with a look at global trends, focus areas and recent advances.

Remy Glaisner, co-founder of Myria Research, discussed trends in US robotics, including how “it’s very much a sensor game. Robots are trying to sense their environments as much as possible now.”

Vision systems are seemingly working their way into every sector of robotics, including autonomous vehicles and robotic farming, which we’ll touch upon later.

Glaisner also briefly touched upon asset management companies investing $200-$400 million in robotics, exploring share acquisitions of public robotics companies with short and mid-term ROI in mind, as well as Robotics as a Service (RAAS) as a differentiator and two major themes in healthcare:

• No real robotics solution for surgery in the US yet; based on talks with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Glaisner expects many hospitals will “see this coming in the next 5-7 years, with a single surgeon being able to monitor multiple surgeries;”
• Hospital automation and mobile solutions will be on the rise.

Dr. Rainer Bischoff, head of technology development at KUKA Robotics and VP of industry at euRobotics AISBL in Germany, gave the “European Robotics – Innovation Through Collaboration” portion of the opening session.

Bischoff emphasized all the key driver behind European robotics innovation is the automotive industry. Dr. Bischoff also reiterated Europe’s stance as the leader in agricultural robotics, including the 5,000 milking robots he says were sold in Europe the last two years.

Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, world-renowned humanoid roboticist and professor at Osaka University, wrapped up the opening session with a look at robotics in Asia, particularly efforts to increase the “humanlikeness” of humanoid robotics.

There are many objects in our daily lives that are made of soft materials, Ishiguro says, but robots are not on that list. He says current robots aren’t very soft, adding that if we want a more human robot, “we need it to be softer.”

To make a more humanlike robot, Dr. Ishiguro says, we must first “study humans more and incorporate that research into robots.” Dr. Ishiguro posed the following question: “What is the ideal material for humanlike robots?” Is it soft skin or hard shell?

He then referenced an artificial skin study investigating the development of “small direct-drive electromagnetic linear actuators for physical human-robot interaction” that could possibly mimic human muscle and lead to better robots.”

Ishiguro discussed how robots should be used for elderly care, referencing his popular Telenoid “hugging” robot that is used with dementia patients and the importance of communication in elderly care.

“Once we develop more humanlike robots, we need to think about ethics,” he said. “Different countries have different ethics. The target is to have robots in daily life, but I’m not sure we’re going to have this type of future.”