Engineering turns robotic science fiction into industrial reality

The 2025 robotics landscape is changing. Ease of programmability, innovative integration applications, data connectivity, collaborative functionality, coordinated orchestration of robots from multiple manufacturers—what was once science fiction is now just can-do engineering.

The rise of artificial intelligence and the push toward humanizing robots has prompted a surge in implementations globally. But safety remains a huge concern, given the payloads that even the smaller robotic configurations can pack.

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Universal Robots, for example, has built an ecosystem that includes innovative products from its partners. It will showcase many of these at the nation’s largest cobot conference and tradeshow, Collaborate North America 2025, which will take place in Novi, Michigan, on January 28. The one-day, in-person event is free and will bring together more than 500 manufacturing professionals from across North America, automation specialists, educators and industry thought leaders from institutions and companies such as MIT, Siemens and the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

“Whether you’re exploring cobots for the first time or looking to expand your automation capabilities, this event will provide the inspiration, tools and connections needed to succeed,” said Jonathan Sbert, vice president of sales, Americas, Universal Robots.

Figure 1: Stacey Moser, Universal Robots

The opening keynote will be delivered by Universal Robots Chief Commercial Officer Stacey Moser (Figure 1). She is joined by voices in robotics and automation, including a few surprise speakers from automotive and AI chip making technology companies delivering insights on industry trends and practical applications.

Additional speakers include Ben Armstrong, executive director and research scientist, MIT; Alex Shikany, vice president, membership & market intelligence, A3; and Bernd Raithel, director, factory automation, Siemens.

The event will include hands-on demonstrations where attendees can explore more than 30 different cobot-powered applications such as welding, quality inspection, material handling, machine tending, assembly, painting and palletizing. The hands-on demos are presented by UR and its UR+ ecosystem partners including A.I Automation, Schmalz, Magswitch, PIAB, Zimmer, Schunk, Flexline Automation, Acumino AI and Sick.

Safeguarding a collaborative application has improved with the contactless safety product for robot end effectors and workpieces using Sick’s End-of-Arm-Safeguard (EOAS). Designed to facilitate interaction with the robot, the EOAS offers safeguarding in conjunction with UR collaborative robots. End-of-arm sensing adds to functional safety of robot/human collaboration.

The EOAS is designed to enable safe interaction with automatic restart. It can create more freedom for human and machine with a protective field around the end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT). The protective field moves with the robot and is always where needed.

The EOAS generates a protective field around gripper and workpiece to prevent the robot from hitting any object outside of its normal operation. The local protective field moves with the robot arm and reacts dynamically depending on the current position. There is a muting mode for faster working areas of the robot if needed.

The EOAS can be configured via a URCap with a three-step process:

Determine "process points" so the normal environment can be taught to the sensor.
Mount the sensor directly on the robot flange.
Connect via two cables with M12.

The EOAS is designed to provide contactless and reliable time-of-flight (ToF) technology.

What’s ahead for robots?

Derik Pridmore, co-founder and CEO of Osaro, a provider of AI-powered robotics systems for industrial automation, brings a unique perspective to the industry, combining his understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics with more than a decade of investment experience at firms such as Founders Fund and Arda Capital Management, where he invested in pioneering companies like DeepMind and Clarifai (Figure 2).

Osaro, a global machine-learning company with offices in San Francisco and Japan, specializes in AI software for industrial automation. Since 2015, Osaro has been developing hardware-agnostic AI software that enables robots to function in a variety of environments and perform diverse tasks, from automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRSs) and auto manufacturing to food prep and ecommerce. Its integrated perception and control software, coupled with a cloud-based data and GPU infrastructure, powers intelligent picking systems.

In 2022, the team at Osaro met the Zenni, an online eyeglass retailer, to make recommendations to boost throughput and reduce its messed-up order (MUO) rate.

Pridmore offered these four predictions for the robotics industry in 2025:

1. The shift toward automation accelerates: With the changes in the U.S. political landscape, warehouse operators, ecommerce platforms and manufacturers are rushing to bolster their automation plans to prepare for continued shortages in labor hiring for warehouses.

2. AI-powered robots prove their worth: Production deployments of AI-powered robots have demonstrated high ROI, production reliability and modularity that integrates with existing automation, such as conveyors, ASRS and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Many csompanies are moving into a multi-facility scale-up phase. Growth in robotic warehouse automation will continue, especially for mixed palletizing and depalletizing, and mixed-SKU piece picking and packing. Next up will be truck and van unloading.

3. The rise of adaptable AI models: The investor appetite for robotics continues alongside advances in hardware platforms like humanoids, as well as model innovations such as large language models (LLMs)/transformer augmented-perception models. Production systems will continue to require model and data platforms that can adapt a wide variety of model architectures to customer data and applications.

4. Humanoids face reality: Humanoid pilots will continue at a small scale, and the number of humanoid units produced by companies will likely remain at single-digit growth. Significant technical barriers persist, including battery life, heat dissipation, payload, sensing, including force sensing, safety and a significant hardware/software learning loop. Cost optimization for mass manufacturing is still more than five years away.

Pridmore believes 2025 will be a pivotal year for the robotics industry, with a focus on practical, scalable solutions that deliver real-world value.