Collaborative Robot Market on the Rise

Indus­tri­al robots move with great force and can eas­i­ly injure a work­er if he/​she enters a work space dur­ing oper­a­tion. For this rea­son, robots are con­tained behind cur­tains, fenc­ing, or oth­er bar­ri­ers for the safe­ty and pro­tec­tion of human work­ers. This is great for some oper­a­tions, but oth­er automa­tion busi­ness­es need just a lit­tle more flexibility. 

For­tu­nate­ly, inge­nu­ity is preva­lent in the automa­tion mar­ket and man­u­fac­tur­ers such as Fanuc, Motoman, KUKA, and ABB, are tak­ing advan­tage of the new col­lab­o­ra­tive tech­nolo­gies that enable humans and robots to safe­ly work together. 

The col­lab­o­ra­tive robot was designed with mul­ti­ple advanced sen­sors, soft­ware, and EOATs that work togeth­er to help avoid injuries/​damages. These robots also no longer require safe­ty cages or bar­ri­ers; human work­ers and col­lab­o­ra­tive machines can safe­ly and effec­tive­ly work togeth­er in an uncaged envi­ron­ment. This idea is quick­ly catch­ing on and the col­lab­o­ra­tive robots are now expect­ed to grow at expo­nen­tial rates from 2015 – 2020, with an expect­ed ten­fold increase. 

The proof is in the num­bers which reflect just how quick­ly the col­lab­o­ra­tive idea is gain­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty. Col­lab­o­ra­tive robots are expect­ed to become 34% of sales by 2025.

There are three large mar­kets that are fuel­ing this fast growth: elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers and elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ing ser­vices com­pa­nies, small-to-medi­um man­u­fac­tur­ers, and man­u­fac­tur­ers seek­ing robot­ic solu­tions opti­mized to sup­port agile pro­duc­tion methodologies.

The growth will be con­tin­ued to be fueled by three key mar­kets: elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ers and elec­tron­ics man­u­fac­tur­ing ser­vices com­pa­nies, small-to-medi­um man­u­fac­tur­ers, and man­u­fac­tur­ers seek­ing robot­ic solu­tions opti­mized to sup­port agile pro­duc­tion methodologies.

The fol­low­ing are exam­ples and proof of just how dynam­ic and cre­ative the man­u­fac­tur­ers are to add to the col­lab­o­ra­tive sector:

1. ABB​’s YuMi

2. KUKA​’s LBR iiwa, and

3. Fanuc​’s Col­lab­o­ra­tive Family

The automa­tion mar­ket con­tin­ues to boom with this amaz­ing part­ner­ship of flesh and machine, enabling each to bring unique tal­ents to the table to cre­ate the per­fect col­lab­o­ra­tive team. Col­lab­o­ra­tive robots seem to be one of the biggest ROIs to come. They offer huge eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits to pro­duc­tion lines by eas­ing dif­fi­cult human tasks while also enabling work­ers to focus and bring the com­pa­ny their 100%, undi­vid­ed, indi­vid­ual skill set. It is safe to say that man and machine are seam­less­ly unit­ing and work­ing side by side with­out any bar­ri­ers or risks, cre­at­ing a faster, safer, and more effec­tive workplace.

Over­all, the col­lab­o­ra­tive robot­ics move­ment means that humans and robots are going to be able to work togeth­er with­out all of the safe­ty guards and bar­ri­ers, which will improve appli­ca­tion func­tion­al­i­ty, while also cut­ting down on the amount of space nec­es­sary for a robot­ic unit.

While col­lab­o­ra­tive robots are new to the mar­ket and quick­ly gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty, the entire automa­tion indus­try is set­ting records as robots are becom­ing more afford­able and avail­able to com­pa­nies of all sizes. These com­pa­nies real­ize the advan­tage of using automa­tion on their pro­duc­tion line and mak­ing them more pro­duc­tive and com­pet­i­tive in the glob­al mar­ket than ever before.

Jeff Burn­stein, pres­i­dent of RIA said, ​“As the tech­nol­o­gy behind robots is evolv­ing, the num­ber of tasks they are able to per­form is increas­ing. Today more than ever, robots can han­dle com­plex tasks at fast speeds, lead­ing to high pro­duc­tiv­i­ty for cus­tomers. Dis­rup­tive inno­va­tions like col­lab­o­ra­tive robots are help­ing to dri­ve adop­tion of robot­ics in new and excit­ing ways, and that is promis­ing for the future of our industry.”

So cheers to the automa­tion indus­try for its suc­cess now, and in the many years to come. If you have ques­tions about any automa­tion sys­tems, con­tact Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881. Our rep­re­sen­ta­tives are eager to lis­ten to your needs and help you get the best ROI yet!