When you see a slick robot – say for instance the new Aldebaran Pepper robot – you can easily be distracted by the design, the gestures, the interaction, the cuteness. But AUTOMATICA reminds you that there’s a whole lot of “stuff” going on inside that robot.

#1 Robots and robotics are fascinatingly complex

Whether humanoid, industrial or service, robots are complex pieces of machinery with hundreds of components – all with special needs. For example, you can’t just use regular cables because of the number of movements, range and repetition of motion the robot is likely to make. Cables, wires, belts, connectors, housings, fasteners and skins all need to handle that kind of motion. And this level of special needs is true for most of the parts, devices, components and sensors making up the robot. And then there’s the software, controllers, connectors, batteries, actuators, microcontrollers, servos, motors, wheels, sensors, structural materials, grippers, etc. Not to mention the research, libraries and algorithms that make up the motion control of those robots. Consequently #1 on my list of take-aways from this year’s AUTOMATICA is what amazing and complex machines robots are and how many different companies contribute to the finished product.

#2 – The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

Recently there have been a few moves to acquaint the West with Russian robotics. Certainly they have expertise in the sciences of various types of robotics (space, military, etc.) and recently they’ve had a few expos and conferences in Moscow with multiple goals: (1) to acquaint the West with what Russia has to offer; (2) to keep Russian innovation in-country; and (3) to gather investors and strategic partnerships to build a robotics industry in Russia. Russia doesn’t have many robots at work in their factories nor do they have many robot manufacturers. What they have is scientists and software engineers waiting to be put to use. Consequently it was no surprise that there was a large booth representing Russian robotic science and seeking investors and partners. Russia already has an outpost in Silicon Valley to provide venture support for Russian entrepreneurs selling their products and talent to the West. Now, with government encouragement, Russia wants to foster innovations that can be produced in Russia instead of the West. Their booth was called Moscow City and served really tasty Russian appetizers – but had little traffic.

#3 – China is in the market for robots

China’s new China Robotics Industry Alliance (CRIA) made its presence known for the first time at AUTOMATICA in a very small out-of-the-way booth. They were handing out their new 31-member list and promoting their website, publications and events such as the forthcoming China International Robot Show and conference being held July 9-11 in Shanghai.

At an International Federation of Robotics (IFR) press conference held at AUTOMATICA it was announced that in 2013 China became the largest buyer of industrial robots; that their purchases from 2009 to 2013 increased at a rate of 36% annually; and that it was expected that that pace would continue for the rest of the decade, at least.

Further, the Chinese government has made robotics a target for in-country production and is providing loans and research grants to help stimulate growth. But in the meantime, they have become the biggest buyer of robots – some of which are made or assembled in China by German, Swiss, Japanese and Korean vendors.

#4 – Shoulder-to-shoulder: A new generation of collaborative robots

At almost every robot manufacturer’s booth was either a demo robot able to work alongside a human, or advertising materials and videos showing collaboration of one type or another between human workers and their robots. Much of it was hype, but it is true that co-bots are coming.

In the Stäubli booth they were playing a video showing a child interacting with a robot and saying that their robots worked with speed, precision, safety… and with man.

Human-robot interaction is happening for sure, but not at the pace the advertising materials suggest and the salesmen are selling. The bigger companies are very concerned about safety, proceeding very slowly, and letting new companies lead the way. For example, VW and BMW – formerly the exclusive turf of the big four of robotics (KUKA, Yaskawa, ABB and Fanuc) are experimenting with Universal Robots co-bots in two of their car-manufacturing plants, to collaborate with human workers and do the ergonomically challenging tasks that humans have heretofore had to do.

We appear to be in the hype phase of collaborative robotics where the vision is there but the timing and cost metrics haven’t really been calculated just yet. The two upstart co-bot companies, Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots

#5 – Many new co-bot and robot vendor start-ups

One roboticist commented after making the rounds that he was surprised at the quantity of start-up companies making robotic arms. He thought there would soon be a shake-out because not that many could exist. There did appear to be a lot of new arm, software, gripper and other start-up companies. More than I remember from previous shows – and many focused on the SME and industrial marketplaces instead of academia, service or healthcare. Human-machine collaboration may be in it’s beginning phase – see the slide from an IFR presentation, but it was talked about and demonstrated everywhere at AUTOMATICA.

In one section of one Hall (there were five Halls at the show), RG Mechatronics’ GomTek arm was displayed; Bionic Robotics demo’d their BioRob arm; Autonox24 had a new 5-axis parallel robot; F&P showed their new arm; KUKA’s new LBR iiwa arm had it’s own huge booth; and this was just in a small section of one of the five halls at AUTOMATICA. Other new arms were shown in other halls – some quite notable such as the new Mabi lightweight arm from Swiss MABI Robotic.

#6 – Bin-picking, box moving and mobility

Someday soon mobility solutions will combine with bin picking systems so that extensive space and costly conveyor and material handling systems will no longer be necessary to go from one phase of the manufacturing process to another. Every robot vendor displayed bin picking in their booth. Many described the gripping, vision and collision avoidance software involved – “challenging” is the word many used when responding to the question as to why bin picking isn’t more widely adapted.

At the Fraunhofer IPA booth, where they work on innovating new and fine-tuning and improving various aspects of industrial robotics, they were showing a new automated bin picking software system using a robot with two arms. The system is capable of detecting and localizing objects, computing the appropriate grasping points and planning how to remove the part from the bin without collision with other parts or the walls of the bin. The two-armed robot can alternately pick components from the bin and, if necessary, even grip and put them down accurately with its second arm.

#7 – SMErobotics and Fraunhofer IPA

SMErobotics, the EU public-private-partnership to provide robotic solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, has defined the need for software improvements such as those achieved by Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots and suggested that it was time to incorporate “smart” and “intuitive” technologies into the robot programming process. The big pitch that SMErobotics makes is that the robot must be plug and play AND easy to program AND safe. The contention is that the SME will know what needs to be done and won’t need an integrator to help them set it up and get it running.

SMErobotics had a booth at AUTOMATICA and, along with the Fraunhofer IPA, displayed their work-in-process toward such a new training and robot instruction methodology. It was a slick presentation and very comprehensive albeit that it took a personal guide to actually see and understand all that they were showing.

SMErobotics’ approach is to provide software components that help plan what is needed — it determines and develops the necessary robot sequences and grasp methods either from CAD data or from physical training of the robot — and then generates and graphically displays robot programs to implement those motions and sequences. The software incorporated many new innovations: a tablet interface; sensors and the robot instructed from the same interface; the PC-based control system works on any robot and sensor setup; and the system learns normal robot behavior and detects unexpected deviations. But as slick as it was, it was still on the drawing board and not yet being deployed in the field.

#8 – “Robots at Work” series from the Financial Times

Financial Times reporters made the rounds at AUTOMATICA 2014 and crafted a series of 18 stories on the subject of robots and robotics:

(1) Co-workers who toil 24 hours a day; (2) Baxter takes on dull, repetitive tasks; (3) Japan’s robot makers under threat; (4) Robots take over Korean operating tables; (5) Managers wanted – must understand robots; (6) Robot makers aim at tech industry; (7) Rockwell reaps big data robotics rewards; (8) Silicon Valley seeks to embrace robotics; (9) Robots: rise of the machines; (10) New robot army in the work place; (11) Festo takes a leap with its robot kangaroo; (12) Softbank offers robots with a human side; (13) How to raise a personable robot; (14) Robot makers told by EU to calm job fears; (15) China overtakes Japan as top robot buyer; (16) BMW robots un-caged and put to work beside staff; (17) South Korean robots lead the world; (18) BMW’s Mini plant armed with future proof robots. All 18 stories can be secured via this one link.

#9 – Industry 4.0 gets big push and billions of Euros

On the first day of AUTOMATICA it was announced that The Partnership for Robotics in Europe (SPARC) – a public-private partnership (PPP) of 180 companies and research organizations – is the EU’s policy effort to strengthen Europe’s global robotics market with the goal of increasing Europe’s share of that market to 42% (a boost of €4 billion per year). As part of the project, the EU will invest €700 million and the PPP will invest €2.1 billion.

Application areas emphasized by SPARC include manufacturing, healthcare, home care, agriculture, security, cleaning waste, water and air, transport and entertainment.

SPARC provides €100 million in funding per year for 7 years. By comparison, in the U.S., the National Robotics Initiative program is a one-time grant of $50 million (about 37% of the EU annual funding).

#10 – Schunk is everywhere

Every show I visit, every conference I attend, in every lab that I go to, Schunk is almost always there (as they were at AUTOMATICA 2014) – sometimes as an exhibitor, other times as a silent participant as their modular arms and grippers are used by others. Their smooth shiny silver and powder blue modular arms with contrasting black and silver grippers can be see everywhere. This family-owned company has solid products and also gives back to the robotics community. Their annual International Expert Days Service Robotics conference held each year at their factory in Lauffen, Germany is an example.

34,500 visitors from more than 100 countries came to Munich this June to visit AUTOMATICA 2014 and examine the robotics-related wares of 731 exhibitors from over 42 countries.

But why was Esben Østergaard, CTO of Danish Universal Robots smiling? Perhaps it was because his company was one of the showpieces of AUTOMATICA’s focus this year on Service Robots? Or that the software and programming tablet he’s holding were of the caliber that causes disruption in the industry?

Teaching a robot to do the jobs robots do requires two kinds of software: an operating system under which programs run, and a method of entering programs describing what needs to be done. The major robot manufacturers use proprietary software and teach pendants for those two tasks. Their operating software, because it is old, requires legacy software engineering talent which is hard to find these days because most young people coming out of tech and grad schools have spent their college years using ROS or similar open source robotic operating systems. ROS, particularly ROS-Industrial, is a comprehensive system with libraries that cover and enable programming and simulating all the devices that are likely to be added onto a robot system such as different types of grippers, vision systems, sensors, etc.

Universal Robots reinvented the teach pendant to be tablet-based, simple to operate, and intuitive to use. Since UR only has one product in two sizes, their UR Control software and PolyScope tablet system don’t have to provide all the bells and whistles programmed into older style robots.

“Our base product is simple to program for simple applications. I think this is how you get the maximum productivity out of our robots, that is, by making sure that the projects are kept simple. However, we do see lots of highly complex applications with our robots too, and that is also interesting. So our robots can do both,” said UR’s Østergaard.

Universal is not the only company providing new methods of instructing a robot to do their set of tasks. But they’ve been in the marketplace for the last four years and have 3,000 robots at work in over 50 countries around the world. Thus they have a lot of experience with users using their software and tablets, and are far ahead of any competitor at this time.

“There’s no PC-based language for the Universal Robot system,” said Ed Mullen, UR USA Sales Manager, in a recent interview by Tanya Anandan for the Robotic Industries Association. “By pressing buttons on the tablet, you can jog each individual axis to make the robot go into position. Or you can press a button on the back of the teach tablet that back-drives all the servomotors. Then you can physically grab the robot by its wrist and move it into position, and it will learn that point. You don’t have to be a degreed engineer to interface with this robot,” adds Mullen. “Anybody can be trained to use this robot in 15 minutes.”

KUKA, ABB and Yaskawa Motoman

KUKA promoted their new lightweight arm, LBR iiwa, in a separate very large booth with brochure copy saying the LBR “feels you, is sensitive, flexible and safe.” Nevertheless, the same teach pendant that KUKA has used for years is used for the new robot although they have added a teach-by-demo capability. Their LBR robot is well designed and appears to function alongside humans – but their cost is 3 times that of Universal Robot’s. Yaskawa Motoman’s Dexter Bot fits into this category of six-figure 7-axis arms safe to work alongside. The benefit KUKA and Yaskawa offer over start-ups Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots is speed and precision; their downside is the same old software and teaching methods, high cost and higher cost of installation and training. ABB’s FRIDA, a stylish 2-armed robot, was shown doing an inane task alongside a human worker, a young woman. There was no interaction between the two – the robot snapped two pieces together and placed the result in front of the girl and she picked it up and added another piece and placed the finished component in a tray. I felt sorry for her. It was an unreal and unflattering situation. ABB’s FRIDA isn’t offered for sale just yet although it has been many years in testing and demos.

gomTec

A new company, gomTec, displayed their new lightweight arm named Roberta in a spectacular booth. They had an army of Roberta’s on display (and a salesperson for each robot) but no software or teaching method. That was coming they said. Their price point and funding were all in place to compete with Universal. A spinoff from the DLR’s Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics with a history dating from 2005, gomTec already has a significant marketing arm into the automotive industry for their other products and has funding to pursue an aggressive marketing plan later this year when Roberta is ready for sale.

SMErobotics and the Fraunhofer Institute

SMErobotics, is a joint EU project which aims at investigating and developing robotic solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. The project has defined the need for software improvements such as using CAD information and like those achieved by Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots and suggested that it was time to incorporate “smart” and “intuitive” technologies into the robot programming process, particularly when dealing with more advanced processes such as welding, assembly and machining. The big pitch that SMErobotics makes is that the robot must be plug and play AND easy to program AND safe. The thesis is that the SME will know what needs to be done and won’t need an integrator to help them set it up and get it running.

SMErobotics had a booth at AUTOMATICA and, along with the Fraunhofer IPA, displayed their work-in-process toward such a new training methodology. It was a slick presentation and very comprehensive. SMErobotics’ approach is to provide software components that help plan what is needed — it determines and develops the necessary robot sequences and grasp methods either from CAD data or from physical training of the robot — and then generates robot programs to implement those motions and sequences. The software incorporated many new innovations: a tablet interface; sensors and the robot instructed from the same interface; the PC-based control system works on any robot and sensor setup; and the system learns normal robot behavior and detects unexpected deviations. But as slick as it was, it was still on the drawing board and not yet being deployed in the field. Nevertheless, the video they produced is very descriptive, informative and worth watching.

Conclusion

Buzz to me is excitement and activity. At AUTOMATICA, I measured the buzz by the size and noise of the crowd around a booth. Festo is a global supplier of pneumatic and electrical automation technology with a flair for advertising their wares through the use of glitzy and attention-getting animal robots (elephant, kangaroo, seagull, etc.). Their booth was always crowded and noisy. KUKA’s LBR iiwa and gomTec’s Roberta booths also had big crowds. As did the Universal Robots booth.

Trade shows such as AUTOMATICA often offer hype instead of substance for new products. At this AUTOMATICA the hype theme was definitely collaborative robotics — our robots can work alongside your human workers safely.

A hyped-up press release from AUTOMATICA proclaimed:

“Robotics and automation are reaching a new dimension with man-machine cooperation. Robots are handling work in the place of people that is monotonous, injurious to health and requires no special job skills. This makes workplaces more productive, flexible and ergonomic. AUTOMATICA also showed the enormous potential for small- and medium-sized firms in numerous examples.”

In the Stäubli booth they were playing a video showing a child interacting with a robot and saying that their robots worked with speed, precision, safety… and with man.

To both I’d say, “Not yet – but soon.” Universal Robots and Rethink Robotics are quietly leading the way into a marketplace that is breaking down the cages that have surrounded robots for 50 years. Rethink Robotics’ Rodney Brooks has defined the need and helped users understand what can be done. And he has inspired customer demand for this type of collaborative robot. Human-robot interaction is happening for sure; but not at the pace the hype suggests.

In a crowded back room at AUTOMATICA 2014 in Munich, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) sponsored a panel of prominent robot users explaining their needs to a panel of executives representing all the prominent robot manufacturers.

The panel was moderated by Ken Fouhy of VDI Nachrichten, a German newspaper and web portal for technology news in the EU. The two robot users were Stefan Baginski representing BMW and Dr. Chia Day from Foxconn; the robot executives were Manfred Gundel from KUKA, Olaf Kramm from Fanuc, Stefan Lampa from ABB, Manfred Stern from Yaskawa and Jiegao Wang, from Estun Robotics.

The dialogue was spirited, direct, and kept on point by the moderator. It was particularly informative on three topics:

• Foxconn’s Dr. Day explained his company’s “million robot deployment” in context.
• BMW’s Baginski described situations that could add significant numbers to BMW’s robot population.
• The newly formed Chinese Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA) had a booth at AUTOMATICA and an executive from a Chinese robot manufacturer was on the user/maker panel, confirming that China is now the largest buyer of robots and their government is stimulating an in-country robotics industry.

FOXCONN AND THE MILLION ROBOTS

Dr. Day, VP and GM of Foxconn’s Shenzhen facilities, described in careful detail where robots are needed in their factories, what tasks they need to do, what hurdles there are, and, to some extent, what they are doing in-house. Their most immediate need is in core tasks associated with electronics assembly such as machining, polishing, painting, laser welding, die casting, palletizing and inspections. Automated assembly will come later he said. He described the major difference between an auto company and a consumer product manufacturer: the length of time production “lines” stay in play; car company lines often last for 7 years while most electronic production lines change yearly or more often. Hence the need for flexibility in deployment, cost efficiency, and ease of programming and re-programming.

Dr Day said that Foxconn has grown to 1.2 million workers and the logistics, turnover and ancillary problems and activities involved with that massive workforce had prompted Foxconn’s Chairman Terry Gou to say that Foxconn would deploy 1 million robots to help reduce and control the numbers, manage the problems better while increasing quality, and eliminate the dull, dirty and dangerous tasks that contributed to labor problems in the past.

He suggested that the media was more interested in the few instances of labor troubles than in the amazing technologies, capabilities and components the company provided and offered; that the media often incorrectly reported non-stories. For example, the flurry of stories about Google and Foxconn having an “agreement to cooperate” was unknown to him. He read more about it in the press than he heard about it from within Foxconn.

When queried about the fact that Foxconn has a line of robots that it manufactures, he explained that Foxbots were for internal use only and for material handling, for tool and die making, and for integrating from more costly purchased systems. They decided to make Foxbots solely for economic reasons. He also said that right now Foxconn utilized about 50,000 “traditional” robots, had an additional 50,000 automation devices that might be called robots, and about 500,000 not-robotic but intelligent automation devices mostly of its own creation. “Surprisingly forthright comments from a very interesting proponent of automated manufacturing,” said moderator Ken Fouhy.

BMW MAY INCREASE THEIR ROBOT POPULATION IF…

BMW’s Stefan Baginski talked about BMW’s experimenting with collaborative robots, particularly the ones from Universal Robots, for assembly and other tasks not previously robotized but that are ergonomically challenging for their employees. Thus far the human-robot interaction at their Spartanburg plant in South Carolina, and resulting productivity enhancement, has been successful and, if it continues, Baginski can foresee increasing BMW’s present robot population of 7,500 by a third to 10,000 within the next 3 years.

All the robot makers talked of co-robots and the issues involved but few had actual products for sale such as the ones from Universal Robots, particularly at Universal’s low price point ($30,000).

One fascinating question was whether the makers used human-robot-interaction robotics in their own manufacturing process. They all use robots to make robots. ABB said that they used their 2-armed FRIDA robot internally but for experimental purposes only; Olaf Kramm from Fanuc said:

“We have three times more robots in our production than humans. That’s the difference – we are able to provide high-quality sophisticated robots beyond automotive and general industry for the same price level that the others do when they produce in China,”

CHINA, CRIA AND CHINA-MADE ROBOTS

China has become the largest buyer of robotics buying one in five robots sold in 2013, a total of 36,560, according to the IFR. Rising wages, government stimulus, and growing competition from other emerging economies have been the drivers and 60% of the demand has come from the auto industry. There’s lots of room for this growth to continue: China had just 23 robots for every 10,000 people employed in manufacturing compared with 396 in Korea, 332 in Japan and 273 in Germany. Their brochure showing members of CRIA (China Robot Industry Alliance) was a hot take-away from their booth at AUTOMATICA.

Wang Jiegao, from China’s Estun Robotics, said:

“Labour costs are rising [in China] so there are a large number of enterprises that need automation. The challenge is to do that for small and medium-sized enterprises . . . as they have limited money for investment.”

HUMAN-ROBOT COLLABORATION

Hence the reason why robot manufacturers all over the world are focused on making their newer robots easier to program, operate, maintain, and that they be able to collaborate with humans. This slide from the presentation describes it well:

Four researchers from Davide Scaramuzza’s Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, have won the prestigious KUKA Innovation Award (20.000 EUR) for their project “Collaboration of Flying and Ground Robots for Search-And-Rescue Missions” at the AUTOMATICA trade fair in Munich.

The ongoing project is part of the “Rescue Scenario” of NCCR Robotics, where researchers across Switzerland work together to develop robots that can be used to make disaster relief efforts safer and more efficient. This specific element of the Rescue Scenario involves teams of flying robots working together with ground robots. The idea behind the project is that, in a cluttered environment after a disaster, it may be too dangerous for human rescuers to enter a building, and so robots may be utilized. However, in such environments both flying and ground robots suffer from limitations: by working together, the flying robots can be used as the eye for the ground robot.

For the competition last week, the team presented the collaboration of a quadrotor and a KUKA youBot in a mock-up disaster scenario. The quadrotor is first sent to make a map of the scene, i.e., detecting obstacles and people who need help. Then, it commands the youBot to these people to deliver a first-aid package. From the air, it can tell the youBot where to go and which obstacles to remove on the way.

Have a look at the demo showed at AUTOMATICA!

Several robotics funding announcements have been made recently, the biggest of which was announced at AUTOMATICA 2014. The Partnership for Robotics in Europe launched SPARC – a €2.8 billion public-private program to increase Europe’s share of the global robotics market. Two smaller fundings in the Service Robotics space also occurred.

Medrobotics Corp, a Raynham, MA-based start-up, closed an “E” preferred stock funding of $26 million. Funds will be used for regulatory preparations and for commercial launches in Europe and the US. of Medrobotics’ Flex System, a flexible endoscopic platform for use during minimally invasive surgeries. “It extends the capability of surgeons to look and reach around corners and operate in hard-to-reach and confined spaces.” The system recently received the European CE mark and is applying for FDA approval in the US.

Orbotix, a Boulder, CO start-up, closed a $15.5 million “D” equity funding. Funds will be used to expand the connected play aspect of their two toy products Sphero and Ollie.

“Connected play lives at the intersection between a physical toy, an immersive game experience, and a greater, more meaningful social context,” said Orbotix CEO Paul Berberian.

UPDATED June 12, 2014: The Intel Capital Fund invested an unknown amount in ZMP Inc., a Japanese robotics technology company working in robotics, autonomous vehicles, automotive technology, sensing technology, and related areas. They have developed a platform for car robotics and sensor system, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System). With this investment Intel wants “to accelerate the development of autonomous and assisted driving technologies.”

7 YEAR €2.1 BILLION SPARC PROJECT

The Partnership for Robotics in Europe (SPARC) – a public-private partnership of 180 companies and research organizations – is the EU’s policy effort to strengthen Europe’s global robotics market with the goal of increasing Europe’s share of that market to 42% (a boost of €4 billion per year). As part of the project, the EU will invest €700 million and the PPP will invest €2.1 billion.

Application areas emphasized by SPARC include manufacturing, healthcare, home care, agriculture, security, cleaning waste, water and air, transport and entertainment.

The EU initiative provides €100 million in funding per year for 7 years. By comparison, in the US, the National Robotics Initiative program is $50 million (about 37% of the EU funding).

“America’s Advanced Manufacturing Program (AMP) is pumping money into the manufacturing sector. However industrial robotics is not considered as part of AMP. What we miss is a way to provide better support for service start ups and more assistance in the transition of technology from universities to industry. I do not see the service industry that much stronger in the EU, but I see them as much better at selling it. We need more people in the U.S., in decision positions, that have taken the journey from innovation to profit making. We need stronger ties between university labs and real world applications,” said Professor Henrik Christensen of GA Tech and ED of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

At a press conference this morning at AUTOMATICA 2014 in Munich, International Federation of Robotics (IFR) President Arturo Baroncelli announced that 179,000 industrial robots were sold in 2013, a 12% jump from 2012 and the highest number of units sold ever.

Further, he said that “Incoming orders in the first four months of 2014 increased remarkably and requests from customers are on the rise. Therefore, we expect that in 2014 growth of unit sales will continue with the same paces as in 2013.”

The IFR detailed those 179,000 robots and showed that almost 100,000 were installed in Asia/Australia and China was the biggest buyer with almost 36,560. Of those, about 9,000 units were provided by Chinese vendors; the remainder from Japanese, German and Swiss providers. Robot sales to China have increased yearly from 2009 to 2013 averaging 36% annually.

Japan was the number two buyer with 26,015, down 9% from 2012 because of reduced investments and the tsunami and Fukushima disasters.

The U.S. was the third largest buy with 23,679, up 6% from 2012.

Baroncelli cited five reasons that the trend towards automation is accelerating:

• The need to increase energy efficiency and the use of new materials.
• Global competiveness and the need for increased productivity and quality.
• Growing global consumer markets are creating the need for greater production capacities.
• Shorter life-cycles of products and an increasing variety of products.
• A growing awareness that robots improve the quality of work by taking over dull, dirty and dangerous jobs.

An IFR chart estimated that for 2014 the number will be 200,000 units, a 12% gain from 2013. You can download the IFR charts here.

Stay tuned for more from AUTOMATICA 2014 in the following days and weeks.

The European Commission and 180 companies and research organisations (under the umbrella of euRobotics) have launched the world’s largest civilian research and innovation programme in robotics. Covering manufacturing, agriculture, health, transport, civil security and households, the initiative – called SPARC – is the EU’s industrial policy effort to strengthen Europe’s position in the global robotics market (€60 billion a year by 2020). The EC further describes how robots can contribute to a range of applications in a memo here.   This initiative is expected to create over 240,000 jobs in Europe, and increase Europe’s share of the global market to 42% (a boost of €4 billion per year). The European Commission will invest €700 million and euRobotics will invest €2.1 billion.

European Commission Vice President @NeelieKroesEU, says: “Europe needs to be a producer and not merely a consumer of robots. Robots do much more than replace humans – they often do things humans can’t or won’t do and that improves everything from our quality of life to our safety. Integrating robots into European industry helps us create and keep jobs in Europe.” (SPEECH/14/421)

President of euRobotics Bernd Liepert says: “SPARC will ensure the competitiveness of European robotics industries. Robot-based automation solutions are essential to overcome today’s most pressing societal challenges – from demographic change to mobility to sustainable production”.

Robotics enables companies to continue manufacturing in Europe, where they might otherwise move operations to lower-cost countries. But the potential of robotics goes far beyond the factory: from helping nurses in hospitals to inspecting dangerous power plants and tedious farm work. Autonomous cars and drones are other examples of robots.

Background

The project is launched at the AUTOMATICA 2014 conference in Munich.

SPARC is open to all European companies and research institutions. The partnership launched today is based on a contract signed with euRobotics aisbl on 17 December 2013 (press release).

The first call for proposals related to SPARC are run under the pillar LEIT – Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies of the new EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.

The next funding call will be published in October 2014 with an April 2015 deadline. Stay tuned via @RoboticsEU – find out more about EU support to robotics and examples of funded projects.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• Swiss to invest almost CHF30 million in digital fabrication research over next 4 years
• China takes long view in funding robotics, innovation
• Robot tourism coming soon to Korea: Masan Robot Land project finally breaks ground
• Russia looks inward and outward at Moscow’s 2013 Open Innovations Forum

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