Exhibitions of industrial and service robots in 2014 — in Russia and around the globe 
But there you go – quite soon we will have a chance to see the state-of-the-art in robotic technology in our own country!
RUSSIAN EXHIBITIONS FOR ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES
RobotExpo'2014 — International Exhibition for Service Robots29–31 October, 2014, Moscow — All visitors of RobotExpo at Expocentre will be able to see the so-called service robots. These are designed to perform works demanding high precision and no-failure operation. Some of the models are man-operated, others are unmanned and work by implemented algorithms. Exhibition stands will present robots for household, business, education, science, government and public sector.
Apart from a curious robotics exposition, visitors will also be treaded with a spectacular robot show.
Robotics Expo 201427–29 November, 2014, Moscow — Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Centre will host the second Moscow exhibition for robotic technologies — ROBOTICS EXPO 2014. Last year this event made quite a splash in mas media.
It is worth mentioning that this year it displayed many exhibits not only from research establishments of world reputation, but also some amateur and students' developments. Robots sang, danced and communicated with visitors.
The exhibition organizers try to make robot exhibitions as open and interactive as possible. Their goal is to encourage average people to use them in their lives. This kind of events are targeted at our domestic 'do-it-himselfers'. For skillful scientific enthusiasts this is not only a chance to actually see foreign projects and learn about world trends in the market, but also to find an investor for their own ideas.
An important section of the exposition is devoted to robots compensating certain human abilities and improving the quality of life of disabled people. Like many other developed and developing countries, we are facing an acute problem of population aging. And so, it is becoming more and more common to use special equipment in both household and public or manufacturing establishments for patient rehabilitation, intensifying muscles and supporting other body systems. Such equipment can be very helpful for preventing injuries among the elderly and recovering from sport injuries.
Mashex 2014On roughly the same days, a large-scale industrial exhibition Mashex 2014 — at the international exhibition centre Crocus Expo — also offers a section devoted to some models of automated systems. This event is targeted rather at specialists and engineers since it is focused on technologies for developing such industrial systems for their further operation by specialists, and not for household application by untrained users.
Russia is abundant in talents. We have a great deal of remarkable federal and local design-engineering departments which come up with progressive ideas. However, the professionals occupied in them are often totally absorbed in their theories and spend very little time on promoting their creations and cooperating with colleagues from related industries. And so, one of the essential objectives of this exhibition for robotics is to build up this dialogue, strengthen partnership and implement conceptual developments into practical work flows of manufacturing companies, service enterprises and special-purpose services. The more our users learn about various applications of automated systems, the more likely it is that exhibitions of robots will no longer be seen as an exotic event, but will become part of our everyday life.
FOREIGN EXHIBITIONS FOR ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES
Robot World 201422–25 October, 2014, Seoul (South Korea) — One of three major global specialized exhibitions on robots in 2014 will take place in Seoul at KINTEX exhibition centre. This event is supported by Korea Association of Robot Industry. In 2013, expositions of 160 companies at ROBOT WORLD were visited by 83,000 people. 6,400 business meetings were held during the event and the amount of signed contracts totals $42 mln.
IREX 2015 — INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION IN JAPANJapan is famous for its robot cult. You can see them all around: in films, cartoons, comic-strips, computer games and in road map plans of leading companies in every industry.
No wonder that Japanese robot exhibition iRex is the biggest in the world. This biennial event takes place in Tokyo beating its own records for the number of visitors every time. In 2013, as many as 334 leading companies in the industry displayed their expositions at the exhibition. The growth is significant compared to the previous year's number — 272 participants, including FANUC, Nachi, Kawasaki, Yaskawa Electric, ABB, Kawada, and Kuka.
The next iRex exhibition is planned for 2015, but the exact date has not been chosen yet.
iRex mainly displays developments by scientists of Tokyo University. They are striving to to create and improve android robots (that is anthropomorphic, man-like models). Every year, visitors of the exhibition get surprised at how well these droids can express emotions. With each year it is getting more and more difficult to distinguish them from genuine feelings. Not only can these robots move steadily and reliably, they can also express various feelings with their faces, speak, sing, dance. Some stands present manipulators imitating hand movements of robot. Improving small movement skills is one of the most complicated tasks for robotics. It broadens the scope of robot application for various works.
Can a robot replace a human? In many areas it is already happening — as progress demands automation of many processes. Keen interest to such innovation projects is much more than idle curiosity — it is a reasonable attempt to stay abreast with technology. And to achieve this goal it is important to understand how robots work and what they can be used for.
In 2015 we also recommend to visit:
- CeBIT Hannover — Exhibition & Conference for IT & Digital Business
- Intec — Trade Fair for Manufacturing, Tool and Special-Purpose Machine Construction
- Hannover Messe — Innovations for Integrated Industry
- Vision Russia – specialized machine vision event in Russia
- NANO TECH – exhibition of the latest achievements and breakthroughs in nanotechnologies
