Automate 2025 took place in Detroit, Michigan, USA, and brought together the forefront of innovation in machine vision, robotics, and AI-powered quality control. With over 800 exhibitors, the event proved to be a vital gathering for those exploring or expanding their use of automation technologies. From first-time adopters across diverse industries to businesses pursuing system upgrades or phase-two rollouts, attendees engaged deeply with live demonstrations, expert-led discussions, hands-on workshops, and inspirational talks. The event served as both a launchpad for new ideas and a showcase of the latest advancements, offering valuable insights tailored to a broad range of experience levels.
Key Highlights:
Vision-Guided Robotics: Featuring companies like Photoneo and FANUC, demonstrating 3D inspection and AI-driven vision systems.
Real-Time Quality Control: In-line quality checks using AI-enhanced vision to detect defects, deformations, and irregularities directly on the production floor.
Modular Robotics: Flexible, plug-and-play robotic systems that integrate machine vision for adaptable production lines.
Notable Exhibitors:
Photoneo & Senswork: Live demos of automated 3D inspection for in-line quality control.
FANUC: Vision-assisted robotic solutions for inspection and welding.
Canon: Imaging systems for manufacturing inspection and process control.
Metaphase Lighting: LED lighting optimized for machine vision environments.
Emerging Trends in Machine Vision:
AI Integration: Combining machine learning and vision systems for smarter, predictive maintenance and quality control.
Ethical Automation: Growing interest in responsible AI governance in machine vision technologies.
Product Launch Radar
Here are some of the standout new machine-vision products unveiled at Automate 2025:
Teledyne IIS Bumblebee X Stereo Vision Camera (Booth #3239) An IP67-rated, industrial-grade stereo camera with dual-path processing (FPGA-based for real-time or host-based deep-learning) for high-speed, high-accuracy 3D vision.
Basler Stereo Visard with ItemPickAI (Booth #2120) Combines real-time 3D perception with AI-powered object recognition and gripping-point detection. Ideal for efficient bin-picking and logistics workflows.
Nick Anderson from Lucid Vision
LUCID 3D ToF & Event-Based Camera Suite (Booth #4844) A new lineup of time-of-flight sensors, high-speed GigE cameras, and event-based vision systems for advanced perception in automation made of:
MVTec HALCON 25.05 (Booth #5207) The latest machine-vision software release featuring Deep 3D Matching for robust bin picking, enhanced OCR on curved surfaces, and smarter camera-integration tools, launching May 27!
Photoneo + senswork 3D Inspection Robot (Booth #641) A live demo of a collaborative-robot cell that fuses Photoneo’s high-res 3D scanning with senswork’s AI vision for real-time defect detection and GD&T-compliant metrology, making its official debut at Automate Detroit.
Helios2 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras A family of IP67-rated, sub-millimeter-precision depth sensors (including the new Helios2 Narrow and Helios2+ models) designed for robotics, 3D inspection, logistics, and pick-and-place applications .
Triton2 EVS event-based cameras LUCID’s 2.5 GigE event-based vision cameras (powered by Sony IMX636/IMX637 sensors and supported by Arena®/Prophesee Metavision® SDKs) for high-speed motion analysis, object tracking, and vibration monitoring
UnitX Labs – FleX & GenX (Booth #6702)
UnitX Labs is debuting two breakthrough AI-powered inspection platforms. FleX is billed as the world’s most accurate inline visual inspection system, combining generative-AI defect synthesis, software-defined multi-channel imaging, and industrial-grade edge computing to deliver 100 % defect detection with full deployment in under one week
Its companion, GenX, is a generative-AI engine that creates high-fidelity synthetic defect images from as few as three real samples—accelerating model training and boosting inspection accuracy up to 9× for high-mix manufacturing environments. This dual offering underscores UnitX’s leadership in solving data scarcity and integration hurdles in modern vision-guided automation.
Our takeaways
A word from Alex Sullivan, CEO of MVPRO Media:
“A showcase of cutting-edge technologies driving innovation in Machine Vision, Automation and Robotics. Attendees witnessed the future unfold with groundbreaking demonstrations, products and inspiring talks shaping the industry ahead…
One thing is clear from the days I spent in Detroit, talking to many great companies such as Zebra, Exaktera, Balluff, MVTec, Saber 1, MidOpt, Cognex, Zivid, Excelitas and Opto Engineering (thanks for the great coffee!): AI is one increasingly important theme in the machine vision industry. It is revolutionizing the way machines see and interpret visual data. AI-powered algorithms and deep learning technologies are enabling machines to detect patterns, objects, and anomalies with high accuracy and speed. This advancement is transforming various sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, automotive, agriculture, and more. As AI continues to evolve, its role in machine vision will only become more significant, driving innovations and improvements in various applications and industries.
And finally a huge shoutout and congratulations to Alex Shikany and all at A3 for putting on an amazing show!
