The VDMA Machine Vision Association believes that the reason for the boom is that machine vision technology 'made in Germany' is not only increasingly in demand in the global automation of traditional industries, but is also gaining a foothold in new sectors. Growth is expected to continue in 2018 with an increase in turnover of 7% to 2.8 billion euros.

This development is also being felt by Messe Stuttgart as the organizer of 'Vision'. The image processing event, which takes place every two years, has been expanding continuously for years and this year - from November 6 to 8 - will also exceed the figures of the previous event: The rented exhibition space, which covered over 11,000^m2 for the first time in 2016, will grow to over 12,000^m2 in 2018.

For the first time, the gallery in the L-Bank Forum (Hall 1) will also be occupied with stands. At the same time, the number of exhibitors will increase to 460; in 2016, 440 companies exhibited at 'Vision'. Around 25% of exhibitors are taking part in the machine vision trade fair for the first time in 2018.

The trade fair is also growing internationally: 57% of exhibitors in 2016 came from abroad, and this year the proportion will be over 60%. The latest VDMA figures confirm a continuing trend towards internationalization: While the industry recorded an 8% increase in sales in the German market in 2017, exports grew by 23%. The two most important export countries remained China and North America, which together account for 26% of the German machine vision industry's total turnover.

The 'Industrial Vision Days' organized by VDMA Machine Vision are part of the 'Vision' supporting programme. Topics of this lecture forum for machine vision include camera technologies, optics and lighting, vision processing (embedded vision, IPC, GPU) as well as deep learning and prospects in research & innovation.

This year, for the 23rd time, the 'Vision Award', endowed with 5000 euros, will be presented for an outstanding image processing innovation.