Cobots

COBOT OVERVIEW

  • In the last few years, the concept of robot safety and guarding has changed with the rapidly growing popularity of collaborative robots, also known as “cobots”
    • Cobots include mechanical compliance or force feedback detection to stop the motion of the robot when contact is made with a person or object. This allows cobots to safely operate in the same workspace as humans
  • In 2012, there were only two notable cobot manufacturers—Universal Robots and Rethink Robotics–and neither was a major robot supplier
  • In 2014, cobots represented just 5% of the industrial robots in use
  • Today the majority of industrial robot suppliers have created products for the cobot market space
    • Many different shapes, sizes, and capacities of cobots now exist to choose from depending on the application, as depicted in the pictures on this page and the next

ROBOTIC ARM SCHEMATICS

GLOBAL COBOT MARKET SIZE 2018 – 2023

  • The global cobot market was about $1.5 billion in 2018
    • Growth expectations to 2023 vary by region, but by 2023 an estimated 300-400K cobots will be shipped each year, equating to a ~$9.5 billion market
      • This equates to 45% CAGR 2018-2023
      • Key demand drivers are human collaboration, lower costs and functional flexibility
    • Manufacturing industry has been the largest adopter of cobots so far
      • Used in applications like as CNC machining, injection molding and other pick-and-place applications

  INDUSTRY STRUCTURE

  • The industry structure includes:
    • Hardware, software and applications companies, as described on the next page
    • An increasing number of companies (as described on the following pages) involved in:
      • Producing cobots
      • Producing components for cobots & robotics
      • Robotic systems integration
    • The manufacturing industry (automotive, electronics, etc.) has been the largest adopter of cobots
    • Pick & place, assembly and material handling processes are the most common applications for cobots
    • Europe (including Germany in particular), Asia (including Japan and China in particular) and United States are the largest markets and sources of technology for cobots

ADVANCED ROBOTICS VALUE CHAIN

SELECT COBOT PRODUCERS

SELECT COBOT COMPARISON CHART

  • Cobots compared by payload, reach, weight & accuracy according to Cobots.guide.com

SELECT PRODUCERS OF COMPONENTS FOR COBOTS & ROBOTICS

SELECT ROBOTIC COMPONENT PARTS

SELECT ROBOTIC SYSTEM INTEGRATORS