As great as all the future scenarios of Industry 4.0 are - do we also have a handle on their impact on people?" Bernd Liepert raises a critical point with the audience at the start of the event. The Chief Innovation Officer of Kuka AG is certain that robotics and automation will permeate our lives over the next 40 years. However, Liepert continued in his keynote speech: "Can we steer future scenarios to the benefit of people? As with child labor, we need to impose self-regulation, define a value system and establish a robotics manifesto; we need robotics governance," the expert is certain!

Liepert underpins the urgency of this task with the megatrends of our time, first and foremost of which is demographic change, which is ultimately fueling the trend towards robotics. The massive impact on people can no longer be ignored when cognitive, sensitive and safe robotics-based automation solutions become established thanks to cloud-based technologies.

Conference chair Prof. Michael ten Hommel also addresses the topic in his introductory remarks: "Will there be machine responsibility? How will responsibility be shared between humans and autonomous machines? These are urgent questions. Ten Hommel therefore calls for the creation of a 'social networked industry' model, which must be characterized by the will to use digital technologies in a socially responsible way - also in connection with the fourth industrial revolution.

Despite all the thought-provoking aspects: It is impossible to imagine industrial production without digital technologies, is the conviction of VDI President Prof. Udo Ungeheuer. The results of the current 'Modernization of Production' survey, which the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) evaluated together with Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences on behalf of the VDI, speak a clear language: "Digitalization increases competitiveness and value creation in Germany as a production location," Ungeheuer summarizes the results. The projections showed that the use of digital technologies in production has a positive effect in the context of Industry 4.0. Ungeheuer therefore calls on small and medium-sized companies in particular to invest more and faster in digitalization. The study shows that all industrial companies - large and small - would benefit enormously from digitalization technologies. Larger companies use digital technologies up to three times more than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If companies use the technologies, it always means a considerable investment for them. "For SMEs, a focused approach to the introduction of technology could be appropriate in order to avoid overstretching themselves initially," recommends Prof. Dr. Steffen Kinkel from Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. Data exchange with customers and suppliers is still comparatively weak among SMEs. This is precisely where there is hidden potential that can be leveraged by Industry 4.0. According to Kinkel, 1282 companies of different sizes based in Germany took part in the largest study in the German manufacturing industry. The participants indicated which digital technologies they use. The study was categorized into three technology fields:

• 'Digital management systems',
• 'Wireless human-machine communication'
• and 'Networked systems'.

Robot tax off the table

There have been repeated calls recently - most recently from Bill Gates - for robots to be taxed. The EU Parliament has now clearly rejected this, which is a relief for the VDMA: "European companies need modern technologies to be able to compete internationally. That is why their use must not be made more difficult. It is a nonsensical idea that employees should be protected from robots by politicians," says Patrick Schwarzkopf, Executive Director Robotics + Automation at VDMA.