Open Platform Challenge: The KUKA Innovation Award 2023 breaks new ground

Many tasks in small and medium-sized enterprises are not yet automated. How can engineering, setup and programming be simplified? This is the topic addressed by the KUKA Innovation Award 2023.

Creative minds from the robotics community are invited to submit their ideas and concepts under the banner of an “Open Platform Challenge”. The goal is for end users to be able to automate tasks quickly and safely without being experts in the field of automation themselves.

“With our new iiQKA operating and ecosystem, robotics becomes intuitive and available to all,” says Dr. Kristina Wagner, Vice President Technology and Innovation Center & Director iiQKA. “As a result, more people than ever before are in a position to take advantage of the enormous benefits of automation. iiQKA provides the perfect basis for implementing entirely new and highly flexible ideas for production – and is therefore ideally suited for our Innovation Award.”

iiQKA offers open interfaces, intuitive operation and makes it much easier than before for users to implement their own hardware and software expansions on a KUKA robot. 

To help them turn their ideas into reality, KUKA is providing the finalists with the sensitive LBR iisy cobot free of charge for the duration of the competition, including free training and coaching during the contest. 

The final will take place at an industry trade fair in 2023, where the finalists will present their concepts to a wide-ranging expert audience and have an opportunity to make contacts and exchange ideas.