A conversation with robot royalty Joe Gemma

This week’s guest on Control Intelligence is robot royalty. Joe Gemma was the 2024 winner of the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership, but that was just a touchstone along a career that continues to move robotics and automation forward.

Gemma serves on the board of directors for the Association for Advancing Automation, A3, which hosts the annual Automate Show, this year taking place in Detroit the week of May 12. He’s also past president and board member of the International Federation of Robotics. He’s been the CEO of KUKA Robotics Americas and CEO of Staubli North America, and this month he was named CEO of Wauseon Machine, which specializes in automation, endforming equipment and precision machining, where he’s been since 2022.