Generative AI was just one trend on display at The Robotics Summit & Expo 2025.
There’s no doubt about it. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is here. But developers are still figuring out how to use it.
Generative AI was just one trend that emerged from The Robotics Summit & Expo 2025 from WTWH Media’s robotics team.
Gene Demaitre, the team’s editorial director, chatted with The Downtime podcast about the Super Bowl of robotics events.
“I’m tired, but I’m still on that adrenaline high,” Demaitre said. “For me, there’s nothing better than being surrounded by really smart people and robots, of course. For us, we’ve been preparing for this for quite a while, as you can imagine. To finally have that pay off, getting to the goalpost to continue the metaphor, it was really great.”
Summit is in its sixth year
The Robotics Summit & Expo is celebrating its sixth year. It was founded in 2019 by Steve Crowe, the editor of The Robot Report, and Dan Kara. Despite going virtual in 2020 due to the pandemic, the summit has been growing ever since.
The first Robotics Summit & Expo had 1,200 attendees. In 2024, there were 3,500 attendees, and this year’s summit saw more than 4,500 attendees.
“Despite all the economic troubles you might hear about, we were fortunate to have a fantastic turnout. There were a lot of activities on the floor, a lot of humanoid robots. A lot of business was done at the show, a lot of it in the hallways, a lot of conversations throughout the event,” Demaitre said.
Generative AI is here
A big theme of the summit was generative AI.
“There’s a consensus forming that generative AI here, but people are still learning how to use it,” Demaitre said. “And they’re still deciding what kinds of data to use with it and where to get that data.”
As robots become more complex, it’s not as simple as slapping ChatGPT into a robot and calling it a day. Data is playing a bigger role, as are things like large language models. But the technology is evolving.
Haptics is making waves
Another theme seen at the expo this year was haptics.
PSYONIC displayed its touch-sensing bionic hand, the first of its kind, which can be used for both humans and robots. It gives amputees the ability to feel through the bionic hand and sense another object or person’s hand.
Applications for robots also allow them to sense an object’s weight and mass.
Beyond the bionic hand, Ubiros demonstrated a gripper robot, crafted from silicone, that can pick and place delicate objects like fruit.
At the summit, the robotic arm fitted with the gripper was manipulating apples without bruising or crushing the fruit.
“We’re still a little ways off from humanoid robots,” Demaitre said, noting the big innovations in haptics with the bionic hand and grippers. “There were a few humanoid robots on the floor, but most are not ready for prime time when it comes to commercial applications.”
Opportunities for engineers
The summit also included a career fair that attracted more than 350 people.
“There are opportunities out there for people who are engineers, designing and developing these systems,” Demaitre said. “If you’re a young engineer, there’s so many opportunities in robotics. Meeting young people on the show floor, it gives me hope for the future.”
