Beginning of 2025, IFR conducted elections to the General Assembly, following changes to the IFR constitution. The General Assembly is the main governing body of our association. Each membership group elected their representatives in a direct election. Another novelty is the inclusion of service robotics representatives in this important body.

In January and February 2025, conducted elections to the General Assembly, following changes made to the constitution by the IFR General Assembly in October 2024. These changes introduced a new composition of the General Assembly, the main governing body of our association.

While previously most General Assembly representatives where delegated from the national association members, from 2025 onwards, each membership group elects their representatives in a direct election. Another novelty is the inclusion of service robotics representatives in this important body. 

This results in the following new composition of IFR's General Assembly:

National Associations' representatives:

• Lei Lei, CRIA, China
• Hiroshi Fujiwara, JARA, Japan
• Jeff Burnstein, A3, USA
• Johnny Kim, KAR, Korea
• Patrick Schwarzkopf, VDMA, Germany
• Urko Esnaola,  AER (Tecnalia), Spain
• Mike Wilson, BARA (MTC), UK
• Kathrine Viskum Rasmussen, DIRA, Denmark
• Kou-I Szu, TAIROA (Hiwin), Chinese Taipei

Industrial Robot manufacturer representatives:

• Michael Scheuter (Chair Robot Suppliers' Committee), KUKA, Germany
• Marina Bill (Vice Chair Robot Suppliers' Committee), ABB, Switzerland
• Ennio Chiatante, SIRI / Comau, Italy
• Yasuhiro Kojina, Daihen, Japan
• Wei You, EFORT, China
• Gerald Mies, Estun Robotics, Switzerland
• Takayuki Ito (IFR President), FANUC, Japan
• Mikihiko Makita, Kawasaki Robotics, Japan
• Erich Schober, KUKA, Germany
• Michael Klos, Yaskawa, Germany

Representing component suppliers and integrators:

• Carl Doeksen, 3M, USA
• Ying Wu, Mech-Mind Robotics, Germany
• Frantisek Takac, Photoneo, Slovakia
• Anna Salvetti, Roboteco, Italy
• Marco Nover, RRC Power Solutions, Germany
• Milton Guerry (Chair Marcom Committee), Schunk, USA

Service Robot manufacturer representatives:

• Francesco Ferro (Chair Service Robot Committee), PAL Robotics, Spain
• Nicola Tomatis, Bluebotics, Switzerland
• Roger Kaiser, Cleanfix, Switzerland
• Owen Teoh, Fourier Intelligence, Singapore
• Jane Heffner (IFR Vice-President), MiR, USA

Research Organizations' representatives:

• Alexander Verl (Chair Research Committee), Uni Stuttgart, Germany
• Jong-Oh Park (Vice-Chair Research Committee), Chonnam University, Korea
• Werner Kraus (Vice Chair Service Robot Committee), Fraunhofer IPA, Germany
• Bernd Kuhlenkötter, MHI, Germany
• Jerry Towler, SWRI, USA
• Miguel Solìs, UNAB, Chile

Congratulations to all newly elected General Assembly members. We are looking forward to an active General Assembly in June 2025 during automatica in Munich.