Kuka has been presenting the Innovation Award to young teams for innovative robotics concepts for ten years. This year, everything revolved around the topic of how robotics and automation can contribute to the transformation of skilled trades and SMEs and help to solve challenges such as the shortage of skilled workers and rising costs.

"Today, the skilled trades and SMEs are still very sparsely automated sectors. The shortage of skilled workers and demographic change are affecting these companies. This is where the use of robotics can help. The concepts of our finalists show the great potential of robotics for these industries," said Volker Schmirgel, Head of the Kuka Technology and Innovation Center and member of the Innovation Award jury.

The three finalist teams of the Innovation Award presented their ideas and solutions for collaborative robotics for the skilled trades and small and medium-sized enterprises at the Hannover Messe. The research teams used the 'LBR iisy' cobot and the 'iiQKA' robot operating and ecosystem for their concepts. An international jury selected the winning team on the penultimate day of the trade fair:

'Ricobb' is a mobile cobot assistant designed to enable small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe to bring back manufacturing processes that would otherwise be located in low-wage countries. This is the ambitious goal of the Belgian research group LVD Robotic Solutions and Acro. At the heart of the concept is a user-friendly cobot application platform that is specifically used for a bending process. The intelligent robot programming is embedded in the control system of the bending press and, thanks to simple modules, is easily accessible and adaptable to the bending process, including processes and modules for product families. The application also offers the option of being used for other related tasks such as sorting or deburring. The jury was particularly impressed by the simple operation of the application and the sophisticated concept. In addition, the team convincingly addressed the issue of skills shortages and demographic change with this idea.