Cobots or collaborative robots are designed to work alongside humans. Unlike industrial robots that are separated from physical human contact, cobots are safe for humans to interact with. Built with rounded edges and lightweight materials, collaborative robots have a limited force and human-friendly behavior. Cobots are used as service robots to provide the public with information and are utilized in logistics and manufacturing.
There are different levels of collaboration between humans and cobots. They may or may not share the same workspace, work simultaneously. Some robots have the ability to respond in real-time to a person’s movements. The first cobots appeared in the mid-1990s as a result of cooperation between researchers at the University of California Berkeley, Northwestern University, and General Motors (GM).
At present, cobots see a remarkable spike in popularity because they are more affordable, flexible, and meet enhanced safety requirements. According to Markets&Markets’ report, the market of collaborative robots will grow from $981 mln in 2020 to $7,972 mln by 2026, at a CAGR of 41.8%. The analysts believe that cobots are able to provide faster ROI than industrial robots, which sometimes can be as low as half a year. Affordability, fast ROI, and ease of programming are the main drivers behind the cobot market growth.
Throughout the forecast period, cobots with a payload of up to 5 kg will account for the largest share of the market because of their lower price (some models cost under $45,000) and space-saving properties. The more lightweight the robot, the fewer sensors it contains, which in turn lowers the product’s cost. Within the next 3 years, cobots with a payload less than 10 kg will account for the majority of sales and have a total of 80% revenue share. However, Fortune Business Insights expects that cobots with a payload of 11 kg and above will show an “exponential growth in the upcoming years.” The reason is that such robots will be increasingly used for assembling in the automotive industry.
That said, the market size varies by region. While the cobot market is now dominated by Europe, Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region and is expected to surpass Europe this year. The reason is a great number of manufacturing industries in the Asia-Pacific region, including electronics and automotive ones. The largest end-user segment is the automotive industry that accounts for a 27% share of the cobot market, followed by the electronics and semiconductor segment that has 22% of the market.
The key players of the global cobot market are the following: Danish private company Universal Robots, Taiwanese private company Techman Robot, Japanese public company Fanuc Corporation (FANUY), and South Korean Doosan Robotics founded by the private company Doosan Group. Other major companies include American private company AUBO Robotics, Swiss public company ABB Ltd (NYSE:ABB), Japanese public company YASKAWA Electric Corporation (YASKY), the US-based private company Precise Automation, and the German Rethink Robotics, which originally was an American company. Some emerging manufacturers, like the British Automata (private company) and the American Productive Robotics (private company), are also worth mentioning. In China, there are a number of companies making low-cost cobots, such as the private company Elephant Robotics and the public company Siasun Robot & Automation Co. Ltd. (300024.SZ) — one of China’s largest robotics manufacturers that belongs to the China Academy of Sciences.
BIS Research study shows that as of 2021, Universal Robots holds 44 – 47% market share while other companies have less than a 10% share of the cobot market. In particular, Techman Robotics and Fanuc each have around 9% of the market share, Rethink Robotics has 6%, AUBO Robotics 5%, and ABB 4% of the collaborative robot market. In total, there are approximately 50 manufacturers of cobots all over the world.
Experts from Interact Analysis note that the market growth can be slowed down by three factors: the COVID-19 pandemic, a slower rise in installation of collaborative robots in non-industrial environments, and competition from SCARA robots. The latter ones are small and high-speed industrial robots designed to perform repetitive tasks and used in assembly applications. Nevertheless, there is a large potential market size for cobots and there are two strategies to open up new areas: innovating and broadening the scope of application.
Apart from hardware, top manufacturers of collaborative robots offer programming software. For example, Universal Robots has developed the URCaps programming environment while Techman Robot has TM Manager and TM Palletizing Operator software for collaborative robots. On March 30, Siemens unveiled that Universal Robots has developed an interface for its TIA portal, through which users will be able to teach cobots different tasks. Some companies offer software packages that work via online platforms.
Universal Robots — Cobot Market Leader
Universal Robots has been the market leader for collaborative robots for several years with a revenue of $219 mln in 2020. In February 2020, the company launched the construction of the world’s largest hub for collaborative robots in the Danish city of Odense with a total investment of $36 mln. The world’s major “cobot capital” will have an area of 50,000 m2, which will be shared by two Danish manufacturers, Mobile Industrial Robots (private company) and Universal Robots. The cobot hub will be located near the Universal Robots’ headquarters.
“Denmark has a significant lead in the global market for cobots. Investing ambitiously in building the world’s largest cobot hub right here in Odense makes a lot of sense,” noted Thomas Visti, CEO of Mobile Industrial Robots.
The robotics industry is booming in Denmark, with around 8,500 people working for Danish robotics companies and half of them working in and around Odense. The project will be financially supported by Teradyne, a joint parent company of Mobile Industrial Robots and Universal Robots. As a reference, Teradyne has invested a total of half a billion in both companies, which are now growing fast.
Universal Robots was set up in Odense in 2005 by three Danish engineers: Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, and Kristian Kassow from the Syddansk Universitet Odense. They decided to develop user-friendly and flexible robots suitable for small and medium-sized businesses as an alternative to heavy and pricey industrial robots dominating the market. In 2008, the company launched its first collaborative robot, the 5kg payload UR5, this is when it began to rapidly grow. Four years later, the second robot named UR10 was introduced to the market. The robot has a payload of up to 10 kg and is intended for machine packaging and palletizing. In 2015, the company created the tabletop cobot UR3 with a payload of just 3 kg designed for light assembly tasks. The UR16e, which is the most heavyweight and powerful cobot developed by the company, was launched in 2019. Ideal for material handling and removal, the machine delivers 16 kg of payload.
Today, Universal Robots has offices all over the world including the U.S, Germany, France, China, Turkey, Russia, India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Universal Robots has sold over 50,000 robots by now. That said, while Universal Robots dominates the cobot market, its market share has decreased in 2017 from 55% to 46% due to the emergence of new competitors. Primarily, the company faces competition from Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers who offer similar products at a lower price.
In 2015, Universal Robots was taken over by Teradyne for $285 mln. The acquisition strengthened Universal Robots’ position in Denmark and allowed the company to further develop its leading position. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER) is an American public company with institutional investors holding as many as 98% of shares. The largest shareholder is the American investment advisor The Vanguard Group, Inc. that owns 11% of shares. Teradyne is a leader in the industry of semiconductor test equipment. The company’s customers include Samsung, IBM, Qualcomm, and Intel. Over the past 5 years, Teradyne’s shares have been generally on the rise, especially in 2020 when the share price has doubled. At the beginning of 2021, the company’s shares continue their growth, apart from some short-term downfalls in January and March, and now are traded at $128.
Mark Jagiela has been Teradyne’s CEO since 2014 and President since 2013. A son of factory workers, he received a BSEE from the University of Michigan. He joined Teradyne in 1982 as a design engineer and was tasked to develop image sensor test systems. Jagiela was then appointed to head the company’s Semiconductor Test Division. Analysts describe him as a “world-class strategist” who can take risks and is able to deliver growth. Indeed, since Jagiela became CEO of Teradyne six years ago, the company’s shares have skyrocketed by over 500%. Also, Jagiela takes a special approach to acquisitions. Instead of assimilating the companies, as Teradyne used to do in the past, it now allows the acquired companies, including Universal Robotics, to operate autonomously. Jagiela believes that cobots will become the largest part of the company in just a decade. As of today, this type of product accounts for 15% of annual revenue. When hiring people, Jagiela looks for curious people who ask questions but in general, prefers to promote from within the company. The estimated net worth of Mark Jagiela is around $126 mln.
On February 16, 2021, Teradyne, Inc. announced the appointment of 38-year-old Kim Povlsen as a new President of Universal Robots. “With Kim’s leadership, we can accelerate the growth in new applications and market growth for cobots,” said Greg Smith, President of Teradyne’s Industrial Automation group includes Universal Robots, Mobile Industrial Robots, and AutoGuide Mobile Robots. Kim Povlsen in turn said that Universal Robots “not only pioneered the category of collaborative robots, created an ecosystem of partner technology solutions and a vast global distribution network” but it also has “the potential to fundamentally reshape automation across the global economy.”
Born in Denmark, Povlsen obtained a master’s degree in Computer Science from the Syddansk Universitet. Prior to joining Universal Robots, he held various executive positions at Schneider Electric SE, a French multinational company that focuses on energy management and automation systems.
“I spent my career in large global organizations, managing complex innovation processes. This has imprinted in me how imperative it is to keep asking the “Why?” question. We need to truly understand why we are doing what we are doing and letting that guide us. May seem obvious, but in my experience, this question is often too easily overlooked,” Povlsen said in a recent interview.
Techman Robot: A Fresh Look at User Interface
With 9% of the market share, Techman Robot is considered to be the second-largest brand of collaborative robots. The company was founded in 2016 and is the only Taiwan-based cobot producer. Techman Robot has established a network of over a hundred distributors in Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia as well as numerous overseas sales offices. The company has a strong research-and-development team. The company has obtained patents not only in Taiwan but also in the U.S. and China. Recognized with prestigious awards, Techman Robot’s cobots come with embedded vision systems and software.
What separates Techman Robot from other cobot manufacturers is the unique user interface, which works like a smartphone application. This reduces the whole process of integration to just 5 minutes and allows for operating the robot via a smartphone. Also, Techman Robot’s cobots have built-in visual recognition functions, whereas competitors use special software for this purpose.
Techman Robot’s parent company is Quanta Storage (6188.TWO, public company), which is a subsidiary of the Taiwanese Quanta Computer (2382.TW, public company), the world’s largest notebook manufacturer. Quanta Computer is one of the Global Fortune 500 Companies and manufactures products for tech giants. In particular, it has been assembling the Apple Watch and some models of MacBook Pros.
Barry Lam is the current Chairman and Founder of Quanta Computer. Born in China, he holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University and has been globally acknowledged for his achievements in making the company the largest notebook manufacturer in the world. Lam, whose net worth is estimated at $5,7 bln, is a well-known patron of the arts in Taiwan. He owns a collection of about 1,000 works of art, including Chinese paintings and calligraphy. A new favorite of Barry Lam is a robot that moves on its own and serves tea to guests. Made by Techman Robot Inc., this device is placed in Lam’s reception room.
Quanta Storage was set up by the current Techman Robot CEO Chen Haw and Chairman Ho Shi-chi. It was Quanta Storage that created the world’s first thin CD-ROM drive. When the company went public, Lam came to congratulate Ho and Chen and noted: “CD-ROM drives will one day disappear.” And this is when they switched from CD-ROM drives to robots. In fact, this decision brought Ho and Chen back to their educational roots: Ho Shi-chi received his Ph.D. from Imperial College London in medical robotics, while Chen Haw studied robotics at National Chiao Tung University. In 2011, Quanta Storage began to develop its robots, collaborating with the Industrial Technology Research Institute. When Chen Haw saw one of the cobots designed by Universal Robots, he was impressed by its mobility and saw great potential for development there. “It was difficult to make a breakthrough on the design of the appearance [of the robots]. We hoped to differentiate ourselves from others through the user interface,” Haw said.
Fanuc Corporation: A Greater Choice of Cobot Models
Headquartered in the Japanese village of Oshino-mura, Fanuc Corporation is the world’s third-largest producer of cobots, along with being one of the leading manufacturers of numerical control systems. In the early 1980s, Fanuc and General Motors set up a joint venture, GMFanuc Robotics Corporation, to manufacture robots and sell them in the U.S. At present, Fanuc has more than 200 subsidiaries, offices, and joint ventures all over the world. Fanuc was founded by Seiuemon Inaba more than 60 years ago and in 1972, it became independent from Fujitsu. His son, Yoshiharu Inaba, became the company's President in 2003 and CEO in 2016.
In 2019, the 70-year-old Yoshiharu Inaba stepped down as CEO and handed the reins of the company to President Kenji Yamaguchi, who is twenty years younger. A graduate of the University of Tokyo, Yamaguchi has been engaged in robot development since 1993 when he joined the company. He then was appointed as the general manager of the Production Engineering Department, where he was dealing with CNCs and amplifiers.
“At that time, I thought that my understanding about robots was quite good; but on the other hand, I did not know about anything except robots,” Yamaguchi said in an interview with Seisanzai Japan. But he soon learned to work with the department’s specialists. “I had to understand and support what they wanted to say, and what they wanted to do, in order to make up for my lack of expertise. I was keenly aware of the fact that organizations cannot function without cooperation,” he added.
The major competitive advantage of Fanuc collaborative robots is a large assortment. Customers can choose from 8 different cobot models, ranging from 4 to 35 kilograms in a payload and 550 to 1813 mm in reach. Fanuc cooperative robots automatically stop after coming in contact with a human worker and may be equipped with intelligent features, such as 3D vision and force sensors. At the beginning of this year, FANUC America launched an e-learning website to educate the users about its new CRX collaborative robots with 10kg payloads.