trends

The future of robotics is intelligent machines, working together with and augmenting the skills of humans. Marco van der Hoeven reports on the trends at ERF 2023, which is hosted this week at Odense , Denmark.

The stock of operational robots around the globe hit a new record of about 3.5 million units – the value of installations reached an estimated 15.7 billion USD. The International Federation of Robotics analyzes the top 5 trends shaping robotics and automation in 2023.

Gartner highlighted the top trends that will impact technology providers through 2025. These trends reflect three overarching themes: businesses increasing their reliance on technology, new opportunities emerging through technology and the impact of external macro forces.

A YouGov poll found that consumers are embracing the use of AI and favour its use in entertainment (54%), shopping (51%), healthcare (48%), and advertising (44%). According to ‘AI-led’ marketing agency Neural Edge, 2023 is set to be the year AI comes to the mainstream as more businesses invest in AI tech.

CIOs must take time to consider “what if” scenarios to avoid being blindsided by social, behavioural and technological disruptions, according to Gartner. “Disruptions are fundamental shifts that create lasting change, and successful organisations will be those that are prepared to address them,” said David Yockelson, VP analyst at Gartner. “We need to keep asking “what if” to remain open to opportunities presented by disruptions.”

At the European Robotics Forum (ERF), which kicked off yesterday in Rotterdam, a broad range of topics related to robotics was discussed by representatives of science, business and public sector. In this interview with Rocking robots Bernd Liepert, president of euRobotics, discusses trends in robotics, the world class robotics start-up ecosystem in Europe and the crucial role of SMB.

‘We are at the beginning of a big explosion of robotics’, says Melonee Wise of Zebra Technologies in this report from Automatica in Munich. This week she received the  ‘Nobel Prize’ of robotics, the 2022 Engelberger Award for her contributions to robotics technology. The award is bestowed by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

Yesterday Universal Robots unveiled their newest cobot, the UR20, at Automatica 2022.  Afterwards Rocking Robots talked to president Kim Povlsen on the challenges this cobot is addressing, and his vision on the rapidly growing cobotmarket.

With demand for robots growing as companies in multiple sectors look for new ways to enhance their productivity and competitiveness post-pandemic, ABB has compiled a set of growth predictions, looking at key trends driving demand for robots in the coming year.

From 28 to 30 June, the thirteenth edition of the European Robotics Forum (ERF) will take place in Rotterdam. With about a thousand visitors, this will be the largest robotics event in Europe, where a diverse group of participants, from industry and science to government and end users, will exchange views on a wide range of topics.