It's that time of year again: National Cobot Awareness Month. Again this year, Universal Robots (UR) is encouraging manufacturers to discover collaborative robots (cobots) as a solution to their workforce and production challenges.
“We want to give businesses a head-start by sharing these inspiring ‘aha moments’ on how cobots can help them solve business challenges, offering them the opportunity to find a local UR partner and try a cobot firsthand,” says Joe Campbell, senior manager of applications development and strategic marketing at UR.
The cobot market has been growing steadily for the past several years, and shows no signs of slowing. In fact, Interact Analysis predicts the market for cobots will continue to grow strongly through 2026, with annual growth rates sitting at just above 20%.
Further supporting the market's growth, UR reports that sales of its cobots for integration in OEM solutions grew about 50% in 2022. The company says it's entering 2023 with more than 80 OEM partners integrating UR cobots in turnkey systems, and more than 300 UR+ partners launching application kits and components certified to work seamlessly with the UR cobots, like Festo's multi-axis cobot system that launched last year.
The company is highlighting a handful of trends that will continue driving the growth of the cobot market.
UR reports that turnkey robotic solutions, complete with all hardware, software, sensors and interfaces, will be powerful automation drivers in 2023. “In 2023, cobot automation will become more sophisticated yet more straightforward to use,” Campbell says. “We are going to continue seeing phenomenal growth within complete robotic systems for applications such as welding, palletizing and machine tending, propelled by UR partners creating full solutions powered by our collaborative robot arms.”
A significant share of new cobot-powered turnkey systems will handle welding applications, according to UR. It says its welding channel grew more than 80% in 2022 as new cobot welders hit factory floors. Among those who implemented these solutions was Greg LeFevre, CEO of Ohio sheet metal manufacturer Raymath. LeFevre visited THG Automation, a local UR partner offering cobot welding solutions, and was convinced of the benefit almost immediately.
“Within the four hours that I was there, we programmed 20 weld points,” LeFevre says. “I was actually practicing and sampling on the parts that I was going to make. It proved to me that if I can program this in four hours and actually have my parts running, there’s no doubt this can work in our shop. I wrote the purchase order that same night.”
Raymath deployed four UR cobot-powered welders, that now handle hard-to-staff processes with half the number of operators, welding at twice the speed, resulting in four-times the productivity.
UR reports it also predicts cobots capable to handle heavier payloads will also be in demand this year. The company plans to answer this with its new UR20 cobot, built for 20kg payloads, with faster speeds and superior motion control all within a lightweight, small footprint system.
“The 20 kg payload capacity will transform industries such as palletizing, while its 1750 mm reach is eagerly anticipated for use in welding and machine tending,” Campbell says. “Modular automation is another key trend in 2023, I expect us to see more reconfigurable robotic work cells than ever before.”
The company recently reorganized its product creation teams to focus heavily on understanding the problems customers are facing before designing solutions, and reports that customer-centric innovation will also be a driver for cobots.
“Customers understand their own needs better than anyone else, and we will increasingly involve end-users in product development,” says Campbell. “Ultimately these collaborations allow customers to directly influence the product they are buying, while at the same time delivering valuable feedback – meaning we will be able to launch a product to the benefit of the whole market.”
