Despite a high compound annual growth rate of 40%, collaborative robots, which currently account for only 6% of industrial robots, are far from being a breakout industry.
What exactly is hindering the development of collaborative robots and flexible manufacturing?
The 3C electronics industry has always been inseparable from robots. As a major application scenario alongside the automotive parts industry, robot manufacturers have provided many unique solutions for the 3C electronics industry over the past year. Robot technology is also playing an increasingly important role in the 3C electronics field, helping the industry transform and upgrade.
It needs to be simpler before the outbreak.
After collaborative robots are purchased, they often need to go through several steps before they can be applied to the production line:
(1) Targeted process development. Due to the large number of hardware combinations, the integration and application needs of enterprise users face high usage thresholds and professional barriers;
(2) Component selection. A collaborative robot work unit often includes grippers, process equipment, sensors, etc. There are dozens or even hundreds of brands to choose from for each component. Each end customer has its own preferred brand. The numerous choices of integration and combination exacerbate the "non-standard" nature of collaborative robot applications. For enterprise users, this is a series of complex processes from procurement to development, which greatly prolongs the deployment time.
Therefore, integrators still play a crucial role in the field of automation, especially in the collaborative robot business, bridging the gap between upstream and downstream processes.
For system integrators, after purchasing the aforementioned components, including robotic arms, they still need to complete the adaptation and system integration. This means that the person who actually pays the bill is spending huge resources to repeatedly reinvent the wheel.
Purchasing collaborative robots is intended to make production more convenient and simpler, but the procurement and development of parts have made it more difficult. This is a hurdle that must be overcome before the technology can take off, and it is also the key factor that prevents it from becoming a "heavyweight player".
How can we solve the above problems? How can we make complex applications simple to implement?
Platform-based products and ecosystem-based implementation are the healthy and positive way to develop the collaborative robot market, and can better address the current pain points in the industry. Doosan Robotics hopes to start from the "key node" of manufacturers, create a platform-level product, become a stage for developers, and collaborate with upstream and downstream partners—for example, to deeply integrate and develop with grippers and vision systems, to provide customers with plug-and-play solutions, fully leverage the unique advantages of collaborative robots, and make robot applications truly worry-free and labor-saving.
Platformization makes applications simpler
Under this product platform concept, Doosan Robotics believes that, given the fact that platformization brings simpler applications, improving the future application of robots will be the key to market success, rather than differentiating individual products and technologies.
How can the market trigger a breakout?
With these simplified applications and a platform-based product and ecosystem-based implementation philosophy, Doosan Robotics sold nearly 1,000 collaborative robots in 2020.
The six-joint collaborative robot initially focused on the concept of "human-machine collaboration" and "sharing operating space with humans without the need for safety fences." However, it was only after combining local usage characteristics and user needs that it stood out with features such as "flexible and easy to use," "compact space," and "reusable deployment." This more down-to-earth and practical approach to solving needs allowed collaborative robots to further discover many differentiated advantages in manufacturing.
However, a breakthrough still requires accumulation, because from a product perspective, most collaborative robots currently have a lot of room for improvement in terms of production line stability, motion smoothness, safety settings, safety response mechanisms, underlying openness, ease of secondary development, hardware and software performance, and end effector compatibility.
From a market perspective, end users are hesitant to invest in robots. There are still many uncertainties in the external environment. The impact of small-batch, mechanized orders is not significant. Many manufacturing companies still hope to improve their production lines in a low-cost and controllable way.
Let machines do what they do best, and let humans do what humans do best. Through a more scientific division of labor in the production and manufacturing process, platform-based and flexible robots can empower production and thus leverage the multiplier effect of automation.
