LASER WORLD OF PHOTONICS Munich mightier than ever


The co-located Laser World of Photonics and Automatica made a strong comeback this year, with a record- breaking 40,000 visitors flooding the exhibition halls in search of the latest emerging tech


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waiting the staggering number of attendees at this year’s Laser World of Photonics, which celebrated its 50th


anniversary this year, were more than 1,300 exhibitors and 3,600 scientific presentations. Te show’s organisers called it a “tremendous success” with both visitors and exhibitors expressing more satisfaction this year than ever before, according to Messe München’s trade fair survey. “Tanks to the successful combination


with the parallel events World of Photonics Congress, World of Quantum and Automatica, Munich once again strengthens its position as a leading technology location,” said Dr Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel, both CEOs of Messe München. About 55% of the 40,000 visitors and 66% of


exhibitors came from outside Germany this year, with the top 10 visitor countries being the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Japan, China, Austria, Spain and South Korea. “Laser is finally back to the size and format where it was left before the pandemic,” said


A record-breaking 40,000 attendees flooded the halls of this year’s show, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Laser World of Photonics


Dr Wilhelm Kaenders, Chairman of the Exhibitor Advisory Board and CEO of Toptica Photonics. “New technical approaches and start-ups are competing with more established industries for attention in a very lively marketplace. We all love and missed this atmosphere for too long.”


Co-located Automatica sees equal success With Automatica being co-located with this year’s Laser World of Photonics, the trade fair for smart automation and robotics also celebrated a strong comeback in Munich. Automatica also had 40,000 visitors, as


well as 650 exhibitors (with about 130 of these having machine vision in their product portfolio). In a survey conducted by the Gelszus market research institute, 94% of exhibitors and 98% of visitors gave the trade fair an excellent to good rating. Pfeiffer and Rummel said: “Automatica has


once again proven its great innovative strength. Te participating companies have showcased specific visionary solutions to challenges such as compensating the lack of specialists. In addition, the successful cooperation with the co-located events Laser World of Photonics and World of Quantum strengthens Munich’s role as a leading technology hub.” Frank Konrad, Chairman of the Board


The photonics and vision industries were keen to return to Munich this year to learn of the latest technologies emerging from photonics, vision and automation firms


at VDMA Robotics + Automation and CEO of Hahn Automation, said: “Following a somewhat restrained comeback after Covid last year, this year saw increased visitor numbers again, which was a positive indicator for us as exhibitors.”


4 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023 Using robots to tackle skill shortages and


to enhance energy-efficient production processes were key focuses of the trade fair, as was the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) in industry.


Obstacles currently slowing adoption of Vision AI Attendees heard there are five principal obstacles slowing the adoption of AI-powered machine vision (Vision AI): • Image data acquisition proving harder than expected


• Machine integration requiring high expertise


• Te visibility gap between computer vision and machine vision


• AI technology and knowledge lacking good accessibility


• Systems requiring experts for maintenance. Te list was shared by Matthias Bachmaier, Application Scientist AI at Senswork’s Innovation Lab, a German firm working to help overcome these challenges. Attendees heard that many organisations struggle with all five obstacles. “Since AI can solve many imaging issues,


the slow growth in applications remains a problem,” said Bachmaier. “Vision AI as a technology is still relatively inaccessible for the majority of technical users.” While the background theory and methods


of Vision AI are well understood in academic research and by increasing numbers of graduates, it is often misunderstood as a ‘magic’ technology that is not applied


@imveurope | www.imveurope.com


Messe München


Messe München


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