The Robotics Award 2025, one of the most coveted awards in the international robotics community, was presented to Canadian company Maple Advanced Robotics on 19 February 2025 at the Hannover Messe Press Preview.
On occasion of Hannover Messe, Deutsche Messe presents the annual Robotics Award that honours robot-based automation and logistics solutions. This year’s winning project, MARI AARS, is an AI-driven robotics platform for fast and code-free programming. This is made possible by advanced 3D scanning, automatic robot path generation, and an intuitive graphical flowchart interface that eliminates the need for coding and CAD files. In addition, the MARI AARS platform includes features that compensate for deviations, ensuring a consistent level of quality.
In her laudation, jury member Dr. Annika Raatz from Leibniz University praised the outstanding innovation of this robotic platform: “With its autonomous path planning, MARI solves one of the biggest challenges of high-mix production, namely constant reprogramming and setup. This opens new opportunities –especially for small and medium-sized companies– that will also help to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.”
Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board, Deutsche Messe AG, added, “Maple Advanced Robotics is a company from Canada that represents the tremendous innovative strength of our partner country. Canada has long established itself as a leader in robotics with a strong research community and a culture of creativity and collaboration. The exhibiting companies from Canada will demonstrate this at Hannover Messe 2025.”
The prize includes a promotion package consisting of exhibition space at the Application Park at Hannover Messe, a presentation slot at the Robotics Forum and an interview in the Robotics Podcast.
The Robotics Award honours robotic automation and logistics solutions. Companies and institutions from Germany and abroad are eligible to enter, regardless of whether they are exhibitors at Hannover Messe 2025. The solutions are judged on their level of technical innovation, marketability and economic viability.
The other finalists were:
Leverage Robotics GmbH, Munich, Germany. The nominated RoboHive robot programming system is based on the combination of an AI-driven user interface in natural language and a time-based visual drag-and-drop workflow for multi-robot applications. The user can describe tasks in a general way without needing to specify each individual step involved. The RoboHive system translates these tasks into detailed robot programs, thereby expediting the development of complex tasks. Besides this, RoboHive has a time-based drag-and-drop interface that enables a transparent visualization of complex workflows. This combination makes for greater agility and efficiency in production while cutting labor costs.
Mantis Robotics BV, Leuven, Belgium. This nomination for the award features the world’s first high-speed industrial robot with intrinsic 3D spatial perception.
This characteristic enables the Mantis robot to detect obstacles and humans in its direct environment, and thus plan and navigate accordingly to avoid collision. This physical intelligence allows the robot to interact safely and seamlessly with humans while combining the advantages of both stationary robot arms and collaborative robots. A code-free and digital twin setup means the industrial robot can be deployed within just a few hours, costs far less than comparable devices, and is significantly more productive than cobots.
