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.
He serves on the board of directors for the Association for Advancing Automation, A3, which hosts the annual Automate Show. 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 in May he was named CEO of Wauseon Machine, which specializes in automation, endforming equipment and precision machining, where he’s been since 2022.
Since its inception in 1977, almost 50 years ago, the Engelberger Award has been received by fewer than 150 individuals. Typical of Gemma, he accepted his award on behalf of all the people he’s worked with along the way.
The Engelberger Award is an accolade received by few, but Gemma is a worthy recipient. “It certainly is an incredible honor,” he says. “It’s something that’s coveted in terms of recognition globally. I’m honored and certainly humbled, but it’s really an award of recognition of all the people that I’ve had the opportunity to work with together in this industry.”
It’s not just manufacturing, explains Gemma. “It’s automation; it’s the passion that we have and what we’re trying to do to help mankind. Robotics has helped us in so many ways, and pretty much everything you touch on a daily basis has some connection somewhere down to automation, so it’s that recognition of that passion, that effort—what we’ve done through the years.”
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His interest in robotics and automation happened almost by accident, admits Gemma. “I worked for a company right after school, designing piping systems for power plants,” he recalls. “I worked in what was then the nuclear division of that company. There was a family-owned company, three different divisions, and they were expanding from material-handling solutions to more automation technology, and they were looking for some people to add on to the team, more like a project-management type role, project engineering, dealing with the public or customers but also have an understanding of technology.”
Gemma knew somebody that worked part of that business and thought he could be part of the growth. He believed he had the type of talent they were looking for. “I met with the owners,” he explains. “I didn’t really know a lot about what they wanted to do, but he shared that with me and convinced me that this could have a bright future. It was certainly the early stages of automation. I saw the light, so to speak, and I was really lucky to get into the space at that point because it was a burgeoning industry.”
At first, the job focused on the engineering side, but then eventually it developed into more customer interfacing, project management, sales and other roles. “I was in the right place at the right time,” he says. “It’s worked out pretty well.”
It’s doubtful Gemma envisioned recent robotics advancements such as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), 3D vision and advanced sensors. But the possibility of capable, adaptable AI-driven humanoid robots spark excitement for Gemma. “It’s fascinating—Isaac and an open humanoid robot foundation model,” he notes. “As a person growing up with the Jetsons, it’s an exciting development. It signals a significant step toward creating general-purpose humanoids. It can learn and perform a wide range of tasks.”
