Collaborative robotics at the Automate and ProMat trade shows

Six to ten years ago, exhibitors at Automate were promoting bin-picking in many, many booths. Bin picking wasn't mentioned this year because it is an available option these days. For the last six years vendors have been promoting human-robot collaboration in manufacturing. Here's what I saw this year at the big Automate and ProMat trade shows held last month in Chicago. Chicago's huge McCormick Place Conference Center was once again home to the Automate and ProMat trade shows: Automate for robotics; ProMat for material handling solutions.