According to the latest report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the use of robots in factories has accelerated rapidly in recent years. In the case of industrial robots, The report puts the new average global density of robots in manufacturing industries at 126 robots per 10,000 employees, a figure that almost doubles the figure reached five years ago (66 units in 2015).
The report also offers a ranking of the regions and countries with the highest robotics density in the world. The region Asian/Austrian leads the classification with 134 units, followed by Europe with 123 units and America with 111 units. The five most automated countries in the world are: South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Germany and Sweden.
Spain is the tenth world market for robots and the fifteenth if we talk about density (203 units). Installations in our country fell by 15% (3,387 units) in 2020 due to the pandemic, after having reached their maximum two years earlier (5,266 units in 2018).
The ‘cobots’, a rising market
Forecasts for the collaborative robot market are entirely favorable as the collaborative robot has grown from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $10.5 billion in 2027 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 43.4% in this periodaccording to data from the Collaborative robot market study by MarketsandMarkets.
This growth will be driven by the very benefits that cobots offer: high return on investment, increased production and improved product quality, ease of programming. Enrico Krog IversenCEO of OnRobot, a collaborative robotic solutions company, comments: “These factors are facilitating the rapid expansion of cobots and adoption by companies of all sizes. In the coming years we will see how people will work hand in hand with cobots in a safe, fast and efficient way, allowing human talent to dedicate themselves to higher value tasks.”
The sectors in which the greatest demand will be registered will be the health industry, furniture and equipment. During covid-19 Automation has increased in the medical sector. With a broad and multidisciplinary approach, we have seen automated robotic units from disinfecting operating rooms and rooms to performing medical tests.
On the other hand, the furniture and equipment industry relies on large-scale cobots to manufacture wooden furniture and sculpt stones in an automated way. As the same MarketandMarket study indicates, collaborative robots can be used in many aspects of the production of materials: gluing, placing, mixing, packaging, all kinds of welding, palletizing, packaging, sanding, polishing and finish.
