Drives and Controls January 2023

26 n ROBOTICS January 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com Robots: a hedge against recession? R obotics and automation have revolutionised how people live and work in many sectors. With the increasing likelihood of a global economic recession in 2023, many industries are struggling with rising manufacturing costs, including labour and raw material costs, while trying to maintain their profit margins. The robotics and automation sector can mitigate the issue by cutting operating costs and increasing production efficiencies. While industrial robots have been popular for many years, they bring some socio- economic problems, such as concerns over the replacement of manual labour and high upfront costs. Collaborative robots (cobots) have been introduced, in part, to solve these problems. There are three main factors driving the growth of the cobot market: n their low capital costs and rapid return on investment; n reshoring and the need for SMEs to raise their productivity; and n calls to bring humans back to factories and to create human-centric working environments. Unlike traditional industrial robots that are physically separated from human operators, cobots are designed to work side-by-side with humans in a “co-working” space. They are typically smaller, slower and cheaper than industrial robots and are designed to ensure a high level of safety. Thanks to these features, many SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) with limited budgets have started to adopt cobots. The low upfront costs can also lead to short payback times – less than a year in some applications. Ever since the arrival of Covid, the disruption of global supply chains has been a massive problem across the globe. It has made many large companies aware of weaknesses in the business models where manufacturing is outsourced and there is a reliance on global logistics. To mitigate these issues, many companies have started to seek local suppliers. However, one issue with this is that local suppliers are often small with limited manufacturing capacities that do not meet the demands of large companies. Many of these suppliers have therefore turned to factory automation to help boost their productivity. In 2020, the European Commission proposed its Industry 5.0 plan that focuses more on human-robot collaboration and bringing people back to production lines. In Industry 4.0, human operators have to adapt to machines, and the interaction between robots and operators is limited. In Industry 5.0, the situation is reversed. One of the fundamental concepts of Industry 5.0 is a human-centric working environment where machines adapt to human operators. Cobots are still in their formative stage and represent less than 10% of the industrial market at present. We believe that the market will start to take off within two years thanks to smart factory proposals by automotive manufacturers such as Audi. By 2030, Industry 5.0 is expected to add more momentum to the cobot industry. IDTechEx predicts that the cobot market will exceed $100bn by 2042. This also presents significant opportunities for manufacturers of items such as safety sensors as cobots need a variety of sensors to enhance their safety. Mobile robots Demand for mobile robots for use in warehousing has grown quickly in recent years, spurred on by advances in robotics, autonomous navigation and AI. These machines may efficiently and cost-effectively alleviate the labour shortages currently threatening the global logistics industry. The most common mobile robots in warehouses and manufacturing facilities are AGVs (automated guided vehicles), AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), grid-based AGCs (automated guided carts) and mobile case- picking robots. Between 2019 and 2021, the markets for AGVs, AMRs and grid-based AGCs grew by 21%, 42%, and 70%, respectively. The transition to a post-pandemic world means many companies have started to adopt mobile robots in their warehouses. This is being driven by the flexibility and scalability that these technologies provide, and by labour shortages. Independent autonomy will be a crucial factor affecting the market because it determines the flexibility and scalability of mobile robots. According to our research, According to the market researcher IDTechEx, robots are increasingly being adopted as a hedge against the upcoming recession. Yulin Wang, a technology analyst with the company, looks in particular at the potential for collaborative, mobile and social robots. Together, these technologies are expected to generate business worth more than $90bn by 2032. Human centricity, business resilience, and sustainable developments are driving the adoption of collaborative robots Source: IDTechEx