Valuable Lessons Learned at Automate

More than 42,000 people registered to attend Automate 2024, the largest robotics and automation conference in North America.

Among the attendees at the event were students from Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Robotics (MSR) program, who learned from and networked with more than 800 exhibitors at the event

The conference was held in Chicago's McCormick Place, easily accessible from the Northwestern campus. 

"Automate was massive," Shail Dalal (MSR '24) said. "The show spans an entire week, which is still not enough time to check out every company attending. It's a sprawling event with participants and exhibitors from around the globe." 

Dalal wanted to see how robotics are being used across industries and get a sense for the types of problems robotics are being used to solve. He was surprised to see how many different companies are working on similar types of projects. 

"Despite the variety in their products, many companies are tackling the same problems in their own proprietary ways," he said. "This provided a fascinating insight into the diversity of approaches within the industry." 

One of Dalal's favorite experiences was attending a networking event to meet industry professionals who work with the Robot Operating System (ROS), an open-source set of tools and libraries that students rely on extensively during their time in MSR.  

Event attendees ranged from people who started using ROS within the previous month to a veteran ROS development team member.  

"The inclusiveness of the event was definitely a highlight," Dalal said.  

Beyond his knowledge of ROS, Dalal often found himself referring to different classes and projects from MSR. His experience working with a Franka arm prepared him to talk about its capabilities and functionalities with arm manufacturers. The time spent learning about simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) gave him something to discuss with company representatives focused on navigation and planning. 

His knowledge of computer vision helped him engage with companies that specialized in using cameras for data processing.  

"The hands-on experience from MSR enabled me to engage with almost everyone at the event," Dalal said. "The projects I worked on provided me with valuable insights that I could leverage during discussions." 

That was one of the biggest lessons Dalal took away from Automate. Beyond seeing what others were working on and what problems robotics could be used to solve, he witnessed the power of networking.  

"This event attracted people from all over the world, allowing me to gain diverse perspectives and insights that I might not have encountered otherwise," he said. "Automate provided insights into numerous industrial use cases and ideas for building innovative projects. These insights have been crucial in helping me choose my learning goals and determine what I want to achieve during my time in MSR."