I started small years ago with a Viking MegaQuilter 9", added PCQ robotics which was a waste of my time and money to me. Tried a friend's system and at the time she had moved over to a stretched Juki 18" with a retrofitted PCQ/MQR. Once I tried her system I went home and ordered one of each for myself. Finally got my Juki about a year after I put my name on the list which was fine by me as I was in the process of selling my home and moving to another state. Everything worked perfectly for me and once I got all moved in, etc. I installed the retrofitted MQR to the PCQ carriage. Then I went to my 1st quilt show and one of the ladies mentioned the machine she had, an Innova but she was using the same MQR robotics I had but the upgraded version. Fell in love with the Innova. Went home with stars in my eyes for a new machine in the near future. Mother was living with me at the time and wanted her quilt finished sooner more so than later so she sprung for the new machine plus upgraded robotics. How lucky could I get and yes, her quilt was the 1st one off the new system. Only fair........right? Anyway, I have the APQS right in my very town and I checked on their machines, compared them with the Innova and between price, options and customer service I chose the Innova over the APQS. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the APQS but once I tried my hand on the Innova it just felt right for me. Also, the MQR can be built to fit most any quilt machine so that was another added point for my side. I know this robotics works on an APQS as they have/had one at there shop when I went down to have mine upgraded and get some added lessons on it. Plus the price of MQR is for the most part about half of what you'd pay for some of the other robotic systems out there. Of course there are always some pros and cons to adding a 3rd party robotics system but you'd have to weight them for yourself. I chose to stick with the MQR as I already knew how to run it and the price for upgrading was perfect for me. It also comes with the ProQ Designer program to help with laying out your patterns, editing the patterns as well as some digitizing new patterns. If you already have this program, they normally discount the price of the program when ordering the robotics.
Best advice you'll receive from most of those with machines is to go try them all out and find which one feels right for you and also has all the options you want on the machine plus of course the most important part is what is their customer service like.