Robots will be the focus of two upcoming events in Chicago -- the "Automate" show at McCormick Place convention center and the Illinois FIRST Robotic Competition for high-school teams at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The Jan. 21-24 McCormick Place show highlights how robots are playing increasingly important roles in helping businesses save money, and how they are becoming more sophisticated in working side-by-side with humans.

The Jan. 5 robot competition at IIT is expected to attract nearly 800 people from 40 Chicago-area teams of 9th through 12th graders. The teams will spend the coming months designing, programming and testing their robots to compete in the Midwest Regional Competition in April.