The Russian Robotics Week took place from November 18 to 22, 2024. The event has been held annually in St.Petersburg since 2019. The co-organizersare the Cluster of High Technologies and Engineering”Creonomyca”and the University of St. Petersburg SUAI.

The programme of the Russian Robotics Week 2024 included: the VIth International Robotics Forum (an exhibition of robotic innovations and an extensive business programme), competitions in the Robotics Skills format, excursions and the workshop.

The key topic of the VIth International Robotics Forum “How Russia will reach the 25th place in the world in terms of robotics density by 2030” was timed to coincide with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin “On National development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and for the future up to 2036” dated May 7, 2024, according to which 100,000 robots are to be introduced at industrial enterprises in Russia in the next 6 years. The Forum was attended by about 1,200 people from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Brazil, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Argentina, Turkey, Armenia, Uzbekistan, India, Israel. Among them there were CEOs, chief engineers and technical specialists of industrial enterprises, automation and digital transformation managers, system integrators, software manufacturers for programming and controlling robots, technology parks and business incubators, representatives of government authorities, major research institutes, investors.

The General partners of the Forum were Concern R-Pro  and the Zelenograd Development Corporation, a subordinate organization of the Moscow Government.

The Robotics Forum traditionally hosts an exhibition of robotics innovations and a business programme with the participation of leading industry experts. The key attention at the exhibition was paid to the achievements of Russian roboticists and the demonstration of their projects at the stands. The event was opened by a Solemn Tour of the exhibition on November 20, during which the participants of the exhibition presented their developments to the official delegation and guests of the Forum.

In total, 25 enterprises took part in the exhibition, which occupied the entire first floor of the PetroCongress Convention Center. At the stand of the General Partner of the Forum, the R-Pro Concern, a group of companies supplying high-tech products and services in the fields of robotics, digitalization and engineering, industrial and collaborative robots, Rational production software and cyberphysical motion capture systems were presented to the guests of the Event.

The stand of another General Partner, the Zelenograd Development Corporation, brought together 6 Moscow innovative enterprises that demonstrated their developments. For example, there was a robotic operator of CNC machines at the stand of company TECHNORAD. A robot dog with a 3D laser scanner for examining hard-to-reach and dangerous places was presented by Geomatica. The exhibition featured a mobile robotic welding complex and a 3D construction printer from Arkon Construction, a robotic thermal spraying cell from Intelligent Robot Systems. The Starkit company showed such developments as the Athlete Robot and the Walker Robot. The new standard of AZARRUS dismantling equipment was presented by company called DEMOROBOT.

The Applied Robotics company brought a robotic palletizing cell and a mobile platform to the exhibition. A company with a 30-year history DiKom Automation presented a robotic complex that ensures the continuity of operation of milling, turning, laser and other machines, as well as a mobile robot for moving workpieces and finished products from machines to storage locations.

The companies EliteMatic and ProTechnologies showed a joint solution for the use of a welding collaborative robot and the maintenance of a robocell with the help of such robots. The attention of the Forum guests was also attracted by a humanoid Robot used in the field of research, development, entertainment, presented by Robosobaka, and three robot dogs, which aroused great interest among the Forum participants.

The participants were able to test massage chairs, hand and foot massagers and other innovative sports equipment from Yamaguchi, which presented the world’s first massage chair with artificial intelligence at the Forum. The Modern Technological Lines company showed portable physiotherapy devices, technologies for rehabilitation after operations and improvement of health by microcurrents at its stand.

Companies such as KUKA|Industrial robotics, Suprotec, Bim Association, Institute of Innovative Technologies in Business – IITB and others also presented their projects and services at the exhibition. The Forum’s book partner was the INFRA-M Scientific and Publishing Center, and the company Waters of Health provided clean drinking water to participants and guests of the Forum.

During the Opening ceremony of the Forum, welcoming words were addressed to the participants and guests: Anatoly Kotov, Special Representative of the Governor of St. Petersburg for Economic Development; Vladimir Zaitsev, General Director of the Zelenograd Development Corporation; Sergey Solenyi, Vice-Rector for Educational Technologies and Innovation of SUAI; Alexey Korablev, President of Concern R-Pro. The moderator of the Solemn Tour of the exposition and the Opening ceremony of the Forum was Olga Kalimullina, Acting Head of the Department of Data Economics of SPbSUT, CTT SPbSUT

During the Plenary discussion, the invited experts expressed their opinions on topical issues of robotics in Russia and tried to answer the main questions within the framework of the given topic of the Forum. Alexey Korablev, President of Concern R-Pro, made a presentation on the Concern’s solutions to help Russian enterprises in effective robotics, and also spoke about the company’s developments that have already been implemented in production. Sergey Solenyi, Vice-Rector for Educational Technologies and Innovation at SUAI, shared his thoughts and ideas on cooperation between universities and industry in the context of training highly qualified personnel and implementing robotics projects, the necessary steps for preparing students. Petr Smolentsev, CEO of KUKA|Industrial robotics, talked about what will allow achieving the tasks set by the president, as well as ways to increase the number of integrators in Russia. Sergey Seleznev, Head of the Department of Industrialization Systems of Avtovaz JSC, talked about industrial robots in Russian factories, the challenges of modern times, and touched upon the topic of automation of production in the automotive industry. Marina Lipetskaya, Director of the North-West Center for Strategic Research Foundation, continued her discussion on the challenges of robotization of the Russian industry, focused on examples of some sectors, and also proposed solutions to current and potential problems. The Plenary session was moderated by Olga Mudrova, Executive Director of the National Association of Robotics Market Participants.

The experts discussed ways to achieve the tasks set by the president, the urgent problems of the new time for the robotization of Russian industry, the training of highly qualified personnel for the development of robotics sectors.

For 3 days, the guests and participants of the Forum attended the discussion sections of the rich Business Programme, which took place on the second floor of the PetroCongress in two streams. Within the framework of the sections, issues related to the following areas were raised:

The Forum participants showed great interest in the discussion section “Robotics in mechanical engineering”, which brought together ten speakers. Within the framework of it, Mikhail Perevozchikov, Deputy Director for Business Development of Intellectual Robot Systems, spoke about robotic technological solutions for critical segments of the industry, gave examples of implemented cases on import substitution of foreign equipment with robotic complexes at customer facilities in the field of petrochemistry, automotive, aerospace and others. Andrey Dorokhin, Director of Development at Wild Automation, raised the topic of the concept of future depopulated, continuous production, on what principle they will be arranged. Sergey Kartashov, head of the commercial support group of MS Metroloji, highlighted the problem of staff shortage in his speech.

Interesting reports on the experience of their companies were presented by Alexey Evstigneev, Head of the Bureau, head of projects on robotics, Directorate of Automobile Technology of AVTOVAZ JSC, Roman Malkov, Head of Sales Department of ElitMatic LLC, Petr Smolentsev, General Director of KUKA|Industrial Robotics, Sergey Zverev, Head of the technical department of SAMOS, Nikita Kugaevskiy, Lead engineer of the Automated Process Control System, Chelyabinsk Forging and Pressing Plant.

The section “Science and education in the field of robotics” was also particularly popular among speakers and visitors, in which the audience heard eight interesting reports. The section began with a speech by Georgy Bardin, the leading business development manager of the R-Pro Concern, about the company’s educational robotics and digital solutions. Then Elena Logunova, Head of the methodological department of Applied Robotics LLC, talked about industrial control systems in the educational process for universities and secondary vocational education. Alexey Yemanov, Head of the development direction of INFRA-M Scientific Publishing Center LLC, shared information about the resources of INFRA-M publishing holding for science in the field of robotics. Presentations on projects related to robots and technologies based on educational institutions were made by Azer Babayev, founder of STARKIT LLC, Honorary Professor at MIPT; Olga Kozhukhovskaya, Head of the Central Research Institute of CTT SPbSUT. Yana Shvets, Director of the SUAI Engineering School; Nikolay Shalobyta, Vice-Rector for Research at Brest State Technical University, spoke about the possibilities of creating a Robotics Competence Center at SUAI and BrSTU, respectively.

The section “Robotization in food production and agriculture” became extremely relevant for the Forum participants. Robotization in the pharmaceutical industry and medicine”. Valery Taberko, Director of Production Automation at JSC Savushkin Product, Republic of Belarus, shared successful cases of automation and robotization in his production. Alexey Buneev, CEO of ElitMatic LLC, spoke about the possibilities of using collaborative robots in the food industry. Anna Shavaleeva, Executive Director of Meridian Automation, shared the key steps towards the successful implementation of automation and robotics in this industry. Andrey Grigoriev, KUKA|Industrial Robotics Development Director, spoke about the cases of using robots in food production and the results of implementation from end users.

The section “Robotization in warehouse logistics” became one of the most visited at the Forum. Sergey Muravlev, Director of Engineering at Semargl LLC, spoke at it, revealing the topic of prospects for the development of warehouse logistics. Andrey Kuprienko, head of the technical department of LLC ElitMatic LLC, spoke about the use of mobile robots and unmanned forklifts at the enterprise. In continuation of the topic, Petr Smolentsev, CEO of KUKA|Industrial Robotics, shared his successful experience on the introduction of mobile robots in warehouse logistics. Anton Galaktionov, Head of Commerce at Yandex Robotics, supplemented his report with an interesting topic “How robots change the rules of the game in logistics.” The topic of the section was revealed from different sides, including thanks to a speech by Egor Fomin, founder and CEO of Simple Processes LLC, who spoke about team management technologies through KPIs in warehouse logistics robotization projects. Nikolay Mostakov, Project Manager of Applied Robotics LLC, concluded the discussion by sharing his experience in the development and application of robotic systems within the Motion Core (Robot Management System) platform.

A unique event of the Forum was the meeting of the Consortium “Digitalization of the construction industry”. The co-organizers were the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU) and the Cluster of High Technologies and Engineering of the Northwestern Federal District “Creonomika”. The section was moderated by the vice-rector of MGSU Vera Galishnikova. Maxim Bezrukov, CEO of Arkon Construction LLC, Ruslan Daukaev, Project Manager of Applied Robotics LLC, Alexandra Nikultseva, President of the BIM Association, and others shared the experience of their companies.

Also, as part of the business programme, Ruslan Estebesov, ECC Market Project Manager, Denis Zorin, Deputy Director for Development of RIAT JSC, shared interesting cases from productions.

Russian Robotics Week 2024 on the eve of the Forum, Robotics Skills youth competitions were held in four competencies: Industrial Robotics, Robotic Welding, Digital Manufacturing, and Mobile Robotics. The competition was organized by the Cluster “Creonomica” and SUAI. The winners and participants were solemnly awarded with prizes and gifts on the last day of the International Robotics Forum.

On the final day of the Forum, participants learned how to develop feasibility studies and business plans for the introduction of robotics at a special workshop by Maxim Korablev, Director of Business Development at Concern R-Pro.

The Organizing Committee of the VIth International Robotics Forum thanks the partners and sponsors of the event for their support and active participation in its promotion.

The partners of the Forum were also:

• «Waters of Health» is a Russian manufacturer of high–quality mineral water, which is a regular partner of our event.
• Hilton Club 4* Hotel, which annually provides preferential accommodation conditions for Forum participants during its holding.
• Сoffee shop «Velocofee», which brewed coffee with love for Forum visitors for 3 days of the Forum