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Kawasaki Heavy Industries' collaborative robot
stacks rice balls at Delicious Cook & Co's food factory in Narashino,
Japan, April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
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A two-armed robot in a Japanese factory carefully
stacks rice balls in a box, which a worker carries off for shipment to
convenience stores. At another food-packaging plant, a robot shakes pepper and
powdered cheese over pasta that a person has just arranged in a container.
In a country known for bringing large-scale
industrial robots to the factory floor, such relatively dainty machines have
until recently been dismissed as niche and low-margin. But as workforces age in Japan and elsewhere,
collaborative robots - or “cobots” - are seen as a key way to help keep all
types of assembly lines moving without replacing humans.
Japan’s Fanuc and Yaskawa Electric, two of the
world’s largest robot manufacturers, didn’t see the shift coming. Now they are
trying to catch up. “We didn’t expect large manufacturers would want
to use such robots, because those robots can lift only a light weight and have
limited capabilities,” said Kazuo Hariki, an executive director at Fanuc.
Although still a small portion of a US$40 billion
industrial robot market, the cobots segment is set to grow over the next decade
to more than US$10 billion, by some estimates - several dozen times its current
size.
The concept of a robot co-worker is relatively
new. Danish company Universal Robots, founded in 2005, introduced cobots for
industrial applications in late 2008, closely working with major German
automakers such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE).
At first, “a lot of people misunderstood what the
cobot is,” said Universal Robots’ chief executive, Juergen von Hollen. But the
machines quickly became popular in Europe because of their safety, simplicity
and ability to directly assist human workers, he said.
Supported by Berlin’s “Industrie 4.0” strategy to
promote smart factories, the likes of Kuka and Robert Bosch followed Universal
Robots into the market in the early 2010s.
Relatively inexpensive and easy to operate,
cobots are now used by companies of all sizes for small-batch manufacturing and
simple processes. In Japan, food maker Nippon Flour Mills uses a
cobot made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for seasoning packaged food sold at
convenience stores. “Labour costs are rising, with more intense
competition to hire workers,” said Atsushi Honda, technology team manager at
Nippon Flour’s plant engineering group.
Automating some tasks with machines that didn’t
need to be separated from human employees helped the company solve that labor
issue, he said.
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| REUTERS/Toru Hanai |
A Slow Start
Industry analysts say Japanese robot makers, in
addition to underestimating the appeal of cobots, were held back in their home
market by government safety regulations. Heavy industrial robots had to be fenced off from
human contact. Robots that worked in closer proximity to people were limited in
how powerful they could be.
The restrictions on cobots were relaxed in late
2013 to match international standards. Japanese robotmakers remained cautious
at first, but are now trying to dash into the market.
Fanuc in February bought Life Robotics Inc, whose
clients include Toyota Motor Corp and Omron Corp, for an undisclosed amount. It
was the first acquisition in 15 years for Fanuc, known among investors for its
huge cash pile. Rival Yaskawa Electric released its first cobot last year.
Both, however, lag far behind Universal Robots,
which still has roughly 60 percent of the global market and is now owned by
Teradyne, according to analysis firm BIS Research. Fanuc has 6 to 10% market share, and Yaskawa’s share is even smaller.
Yaskawa’s head of robotics, Masahiro Ogawa, said
he was confident the company could grow as customers looked for more
sophisticated models. “As users get used to handling cobots, they will
have more advanced and diverse demands. We have the capacity to better meet
such demands,” Ogawa said.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp plans to launch a cobot
early next year aimed at users such as electronics makers and logistics
companies, said Katsutoshi Urabe, senior manager in charge of the company’s
robot sales.
Kawasaki Heavy, another engineering giant that
entered the market in 2015, tied up with Swiss rival ABB last year. The two
companies plan to standardize cobot programming, said Tomonori Sanada, who is
in charge of Kawasaki’s robot marketing and sales planning.
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| REUTERS/Toru Hanai |
But Universal Robots’ von Hollen was unfazed by
the interest of such heavyweights, saying the market would grow to accommodate
new competitors. His company, which reported a 72%jump in revenue
to US$170 million last year, expects to grow at least 50%in 2018.
“Probably only 10% of our target market really knows about collaborative robots,” he said. “So there is 90% potential that is gone untapped.”
Originally published on REUTERS
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