KUKA highlighted artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and its largest-ever robot, at
Automatica 2025 held last month in Munich, Germany. The company demonstrated under the slogan, ‘making automation easier’, how simple solutions to complex challenges in the automation industry can be.
Reinhold Gross, CEO of KUKA's robotics division, said: “For us, ‘making automation easier’ means far more than just simplifying technologies. It describes the way we interact with our customers — every contact, every product and every service should simplify our customers’ work and unlock new areas of application’. Specifically, this means comprehensive and intelligent software solutions, a reliable and broad hardware portfolio, simple and unrestricted availability of information, a
self-explanatory purchasing process and KUKA’s worldwide service.
KUKA prioritises ease-of-use when it comes to the use of AI. Roland Ritter, head of software portfolio management at KUKA, said: “We integrate AI into our products in a targeted manner in order to create added value for our customers and simplify access to robotics.”
One example of this is the company’s AI assistant developed in collaboration with Microsoft for easier programming of KUKA robots. Mr Ritter continued: “With the iiQWorks.Copilot, our customers can enter prompts, such as questions in everyday language, directly into the AI which then creates the code to program the robot for the respective task.”
A first version of iiQWorks.Copilot will be rolled out to customers by the end of the year. In addition, KUKA intends to offer software and hardware for all robots in the future. The new KUKA robot operating system iiQKA.OS2, the associated engineering suite iiQWorks and the new KR C5 controller for iiQKA.OS2 form the basis for this.
The rise of Autonomous Mobile RobotsAlongside AI, mobile robotics was one of the leading themes at
Automatica 2025. Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) have become an integral part of intralogistics, and KUKA presented its entire hardware and software portfolio. Clemens Lauble, head of AMR knowledge management and transfer at KUKA, said: “For our customers, ease of use and integration of our mobile robots are extremely important. With our intuitive KUKA.AMR Fleet software, it is possible to configure AMR fleets, define tasks and plan routes – all without any traditional programming knowledge.”
Standardised hardware and software, as well as openness to agnostic fleet management systems, enable customers in battery production, for example, to use the vehicles in areas that were previously difficult or impossible to automate. At KUKA, not only the software portfolio is growing, but the hardware offering is also being continuously developed — new to the portfolio is the KR TITAN ultra, with a payload of up to 1,500kg.
Erich Schober, chief sales officer of KUKA's robotics division, said: “The robot is strongly market-oriented and tailored to the needs of our automotive and Tier One customers. It is a prime example of how we approach the development of our hardware.”
This includes application-optimised load capacity, which allows the robot to lift a complete battery box, for example. He concluded: “We place particular emphasis on being close to our customers in a wide variety of markets, with robots and solutions that are tailored to local needs, as well as global quality and service standards.”