The robotics industry has changed so much over the past decade, and few events illustrate that transformation better than Automate.

In 2015, Automate was co-located with ProMat and featured just a few hundred exhibitors, by  2026, it had grown into the largest Automate in history, with more over 1,000 exhibitors.

But the real story wasn’t size; it was sophistication. In 2015, exhibitors mostly showed individual components and proof-of-concept demos. But, in 2026, exhibitors showed complete, production-ready systems integrating robotics, AI, vision and AMRs  to solve real problems in manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and warehousing. Cobots, once an emerging category, are now standard across just about every industry on the floor. Humanoid robots were barely at the show in 2015, but in 2026 they had their own dedicated pavilion.

This same decade of growth is mirrored closely at MassRobotics. Back in 2015, MassRobotics was just getting off the ground and it didn’t welcome its first official resident startup until 2017. Today, MassRobotics supports nearly 100 resident companies, and this year we were proud to bring five of them to exhibit at Automate: Ras Labs, Resix, Ava Robotics, TP7, and Algorized. Seeing these startups showcase real, deployable technology on the same floor where the industry once talked mostly in “what if” says a lot about how far the robotics startup ecosystem has come.

At the end of the day, the biggest takeaway from Automate 2026 is how the conversation has evolved. A decade ago, it focused on what robotics could accomplish. Today, it’s all about deployment, scalability, and solving real customer challenges. Automate continues to provide a valuable snapshot of where robotics stands and MassRobotics’ growth, from an innovation concept to the leading independent robotics hub supporting over 250 startups who have raised over 2.3 Billion in venture capital investment.