The first chairman of the association is Helmut Schmid. His two deputies are Olaf Gehrels and Christoph Ryll. In addition to their enthusiasm for automation technology in general, the founders are primarily driven by the idea of keeping Germany and Europe attractive as a business location and making them fit for the future through the use of simple robot solutions.

Helmut Schmid, who set up the German branch of cobot supplier Universal Robots until July 2020 and managed the Western and Northern Europe region, says of the association's founding: "The heart of German industry is small companies, many of which are ready to secure their future and that of the location with the help of robots." Individual production, batch size 1 and short throughput times are already commonplace for these companies with ten, 20 or 30 employees, but are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain with the growing shortage of skilled workers. The most promising solution is therefore the use of industrial robots of all kinds, especially innovative technologies such as lightweight robots and cobots.
Olaf Gehrels, spokesperson for the association and former head of Germany and Europe at robot supplier Fanuc, has extensive knowledge of the industry and decades of experience with classic industrial robots. Christoph Ryll is regarded as one of the leading German experts in safety issues relating to robotics. As a safety consultant and certified expert in the field of machine safety and for robots and handling systems in the Bundesverband Deutscher Sachverständiger und Fachgutachter e.V., Ryll has supported numerous SMEs over the past 15 years in all matters relating to the normative and machine directive-compliant design of robots and robot systems.

Neutral advice is part of the association's self-image. The website 'robotikverband.de', which provides an overview of the current focal points, is intended to contribute to this.

Manufacturers and users are expressly encouraged to become members in order to make experience from an operator's perspective available within the network. Schmid: "The size of the company does not matter, only the interest in proactively participating in the network."