It was two years ago that the Get Together for Robotics conference was first organized by PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International). Since then, it has become an established annual highlight in the industrial robot scene. Thanks to massive interest, the event is being extended by an additional day and will take place in Erlangen, Germany on October 23 and 24, 2024. “This provides more time for personal exchange,” said Xaver Schmidt, PI Chairman, with confidence. “There is still a massive amount of interest in the topic.” This year, more than 150 participants are expected in Erlangen, accompanied by a host of online participants. In addition to robot experts, users, PLC manufacturers and startups, participants from universities will also be represented.
While the focus of the conference was on the cross-organizational standardization of the SRCI (Standard Robot Command Interface) interface at the beginning of the event’s history, this year’s focus will be trends and innovations in robotics. “There’s no comparable international robotics event where such a wide variety of industry participants meet up and discusses current trends,” said Schmidt with confidence.
The two top-level round table discussions are being anticipated with excitement. At the “Trends in Robotics” executive round table, Reinhold Gross (CEO of KUKA Robotics), David Reger (CEO of Neura Robotics), Mladen Milicevic (CEO of Unchained Robotics) and Helmut Schmid (Chairman of the Board of the German Robotics Association) will discuss both the future potential and the challenges of robot technology.
At the second round table discussion, experts Bertus de Groot (Lead Application Engineer at YASKAWA Europe), Kasper Døring (Technology Officer, COBOT SW at Universal Robots), Günter Heinendirk (Manager of Digital Transformation at STÄUBLI TEC-SYSTEMS GMBH) and Wei Shao (CTO of Jaka Robotics Europe) will report on practical experience with the SRCI and its importance to both robot manufacturers and their customers. What is especially exciting is that all the robot manufacturers of this round table already support the SRCI, with which robot systems from different manufacturers can be programmed uniformly via the PLC.
Practical use of the SRCI will also be discussed in a host of user presentations at the conference. “We are looking forward to the presentations on experience with the new interface from the companies. It’s already clear that less detailed knowledge on the respective robot manufacturer, the robot itself and its handling and functional scope is required,” according to Schmidt. As a result, this will dramatically reduce the cost and time required for using robots. In the meantime, seven manufacturers have already launched products with the interface on the market and more companies have announced products for this year.
The Get Together for Robotics is being organized by PI, in whose hands the development, expansion and maintenance of the new interface standard for data and commands have been placed.
Register now at: Get Together for Robotics 2024 in Erlangen (PNO) – www.profibus.com