The North American show, Automate, which was due to take place next year, has been postponed until June 2022. It will be held in Detroit, USA.
In the meantime, Automate organisers, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), will hold a virtual conference and exhibition in 2021, called Automate Forward, from 22 to 26 March. The conference will feature more than 80 speakers on robotics, machine vision, motion control, artificial intelligence, and smart automation technologies. There will also be a virtual exhibit hall and networking centre.
In Germany, Messe München plans to run a condensed version of Automatica next year alongside Laser World of Photonics. Automatica Sprint will take place from 22 to 24 June 2021 in Munich, with the full Automatica event scheduled for 2022.
Falk Senger, managing director Messe München and responsible for Automatica Sprint, said: 'There is a great need for orientation and personal exchanges in the community right now.' He added: 'We have developed a new, compact format in collaboration with industry, adapted to the conditions of the Covid-19 era.'
Automatica Sprint will focus on robotics, assembly and handling technology, industrial machine vision, and digital solutions for the smart factory. There will be complementary digital offerings for those who cannot attend.
In addition, a new conference concentrating on robotics and artificial intelligence, Munich_I, will premier alongside Automatica Sprint. The event, launched by Automatica and the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich, will aim to answer questions such as: How can work become easier, safer, and more productive with the help of AI, and how can AI be used for challenges in the fields of health, mobility and work?
The key component of Munich_I is a high-tech summit on 22 June 2021, which will take place at the ICM congress centre.
Speaking about Automate, Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, said: 'Coming out of the pandemic, companies in every industry will be looking for automation products and solutions to help them become more successful in an increasingly automated world. Automate Forward and Automate 2022 will be critical to that growth.'
After 2022, Automate will return to its normal odd-year cycle with the next shows being held in Detroit on 22 to 25 May 2023 and 12 to 15 May 2025.
Automate Forward is the latest in a series of virtual events hosted by A3 since the pandemic shut down in-person trade shows. More than 20,000 people attended A3’s virtual events in 2020, which included RIA Robotics Week, AIA Vision Week, the International Robot Safety Conference, the Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference, the AI and Smart Automation Conference, and MCMA TechCon.
In addition to Automate Forward, A3 is planning a full calendar of virtual events in 2021.
Other upcoming events
MVTec Software will host its Innovation Day on 3 February. The focus will be on the latest technologies and trends in machine vision, including deep learning and 3D vision, with special emphasis on their practical application. MVTec experts will be showing trends, technologies, and solutions via numerous live streams that are primarily aimed at developers, programmers, and experienced machine vision users.
Framos is hosting its one-day virtual Technical Summit on 10 February, featuring experts from Sony, Prophesee, and Framos. Participants will have direct access to live presentations, demonstrations, and breakout training sessions, combined with the opportunity to discuss specific projects with the experts in one-to-one sessions to gain practical solution ideas for specific tasks. This virtual event is open to anyone interested in image sensors.
