I should have posted to see if anyone was in town and wanted to get some coffee or tour the show together. Show is over, I think it was phenomenal. Every manufacturer was there. Some things I picked up that may be common knowledge for others:
1.) Chinese robots are not trusted because of how much data they are trying to steal. This type of thinking is new to me as I have been in china many times and didn't see it on cyber espionage. I always felt they are way behind in software development. China robot manufacturers are insisting to disconnect their robots from the lan network.
2.) AI robots are the future and everyone will be replaced. Humans are just like the horses that were replaced by cars at the turn of last century.
3.) Humanoid robots are too inefficient. I had a nice meeting with the founder of brooks and this was one topic I brought up. He convinced me they are not the future. He brought up an old failed honda robot and how it needs 2kwh to function and honda gave up. 100 watts/h is better. I don't see Tesla installing them at homes in near future.
4.) Surprising to me that the largest market for robots in 2024 is in the electronics field but I really didn't find any robots that catered to my needs. I like small, light and fast and I prefer cheap cobots (means industrial robots with light curtains/cameras). Electronic manufacturing is on microlevels. Epson has something in the works but I feel their robots are still too big for what I want. I stopped by Mecademia's booth and liked their robots but too expensive for my taste, double epsons prices.
5.) Everyone has 6 dof cobot on the market right now and they all look alike. I have a hard time imagining such large arms being used in day to day environments (coffee shops, mcdonalds, ice cream parlors, etc). No one is distinguishing their robot arms from others. I think there is plenty of room to make lighter cobots.
6.) I learned about harmonic drive and liked their simple robot design but too expensive. I think I am the only one purporting cheap industrial robots, under $5k. I feel like epson's t3 should be under $4k by now after selling a few hundred thousand units. I am having to design my robot from scratch as I am not finding ultra lightweight robots (under 10 lbs). I haven't been able to check if the harmonic motors are cheaper in china.
7.) Everyone was very respectful and helpful that I ran into at the show. Alot of good will. Somehow show is 4 days but feels very short. Too many people to meet. I had atleast 20 manufacturers to visit.
8.) I did learn the reason controllers are not built into robot has to do with power/speed. Higher voltage has to have thicker gauge wire which requires external box.
9.) I stopped by a booth regarding bin picking/3d vision and saw how a cheap elephant robotics mycobot (which I liked for its ultra compact nature) failed within 3 days of the show. No longer on my watch list. If the robot had worked it was a nice tabletop companion.
Next year is in detroit, I am thinking to go, mostly to learn/absorb Robots/automation. Show felt similar to years past, many companies were debuting new robots. I liked the robot dogs/pets running around at the show. Needs more of it to liven up the atmosphere. We need some r2d2's and other robot helpers.