Hannover. Besides the HERMES AWARD, submissions are also being invited again for the HERMES Startup Award. Every year, Deutsche Messe honors a company with the HERMES AWARD in recognition of a product or solution that exhibits a particularly high degree of technological innovation. Only technology solutions which have already proven themselves in industrial practice are considered.

An independent jury chaired by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, will nominate three products each for the HERMES AWARD and for the HERMES Startup AWARD from among the submissions, and determine the respective winners from those nominees. The degree of technological innovation, benefits for industry, the environment and society, as well as cost-effectiveness and readiness for practical implementation are key criteria in assessing which entry merits the award.

The HERMES AWARD 2024 went to Schunk in recognition of the company's 2D Grasping Kit project. This application kit comprises a camera with lens, an industrial PC, AI software and an application-specific gripper. The innovative nature of this project lies in the generic, AI-based modeling of component variants and the transfer to a smaller training data set, which cuts learning times for recognition. Even under changing light, color, or background conditions, the intuitive user interface enables reliable picking and handling of randomly arranged and non-positioned parts from an inlet conveyor belt, tray or preparation table. This allows repetitive sorting or logistics tasks to be automated with little outlay.

HANNOVER MESSE

HANNOVER MESSE is the world's leading trade fair for industry. Companies from the engineering, electrical and digital industries, as well as the energy sector, come together under the main theme of "Industrial Transformation" to present solutions for production and energy supply, today and tomorrow. The main exhibiting areas for 2025 will be Smart Manufacturing, Digital Ecosystems, Energy for Industry, Compressed Air & Vacuum Technology, Engineered Parts & Solutions, Future Hub and International Trade & Investment. A conference program with around 1,600 speakers complements the program. This trade fair will be held next in Hanover from March 31 to April 4, 2025. The partner country is Canada.