Page 14 - Industrial Technology EXTRA 1st Febraury 2021

ROBOTICS...

Collaboration and mobility

According to a 2020 survey by Mckinsey Global, COVID-19 has caused companies to
accelerate the digitalisation of their internal operations by three to four years. The
surge in digital uptake will propel the robotics industry forwards, shaping its
contribution to businesses in 2021. Here, Stewart Goulding, managing director at
precision drive system supplier EMS, explores the robotics trends for this year

ith the pandemic causing every workforce. Collaborative robots, or cobots, can
human interaction to carry a health supplement the work of human employees,
risk, businesses have formed a performing monotonous and heavy-lifting tasks to
Wgreater reliance on digital give human workers more time to complete
equipment. To support social distancing intellectually complex tasks that require creative
requirements, automation has become an even thinking, decision making or problem solving. They
greater business necessity. Robots can withstand can also ensure that separation and boundaries on
thorough cleaning at high temperatures and with manual handling are put into place to reduce health
harsh chemicals, minimising contamination points. risks, without jeopardising productivity.
While Covid-19 has highlighted the hygiene It's for these reasons that the collaborative robot
benefits of robot workers, they offer a number of market is predicted to grow at a compound annual
other advantages that prove them to be a valuable growth rate (CAPR) of 50.4 per cent from now to
investment throughout the pandemic and beyond. 2026. A number of new cobots are expected to be
Increasingly, robots that can work alongside released in 2021, such as Shibaura Machine’s first
human workers are being deployed into the cobots. The two new cobots are duo arm, with one

February 2021 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p14