The majority of visitors came from Europe this year. The top 10 nations from abroad were Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland, the UK and Sweden. Despite travel restrictions and quarantine regulations, some representatives from the USA, Korea, Japan and Taiwan even attended the industry meeting.

VDMA Machine Vision, as the conceptual sponsor, confirmed the positive mood in the industry during the opening of the trade fair. The machine vision industry's order books are well filled and the demand for components and systems is constantly high. Looking back on 2020, sales in the European machine vision industry fell by 4% compared to 2019. For 2021, the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association expects sales in the European machine vision industry to grow by 7% again.

Mark Williamson, Chairman of the Executive Board of the VDMA Machine Vision Division

© Stuttgart Trade Fair Center

According to Mark Williamson, Chairman of the Executive Board of the VDMA Machine Vision Division, this optimism was reflected in the mood at VISION 2021. However, the persistent global chip shortage is a downer in terms of sales development: "Camera manufacturers and system integrators alike - there is virtually no company that is not suffering from the chip shortage. Although this is not causing the market to decline, it is dampening growth prospects," says Mark Williamson. Nevertheless, VDMA Machine Vision is expecting further growth of 7% in the coming year.

Vision Award 2021

Prophesee's participation in Vision was particularly worthwhile. The company was one of the four nominees to receive the Vision Award on the second day of the trade fair.

Luca Verre, co-founder and CEO at Prophesee, winner of the Vision Award 2021

© Stuttgart Trade Fair Center

Prophesee's Event-Based Vision sensor technology is inspired by the human retina. Combined with AI-based processing, it carries out the recording process of a scene faster and more efficiently than conventional sensors.

For co-founder and CEO Luca Verre, winning the Vision Award 2021 is a special honor: "In an industry that has been working with conventional, image-based processing technology for many years, we want to make a new contribution. The great validation we have received by winning the Vision Award 2021 is a great honor and recognition for the hard work we have put into our new technology."

The next edition of Vision will take place from October 4 to 6, 2022 - parallel to the Motek trade fair. In the meantime, the presentations from the Industrial VISION Days are available on demand via the VISION website.