Robots have been in the news recently — walking robots, dancing
robots, even cycling robots — and it has to be admitted that the images of small humanoid robots performing mundane tasks makes good and easy content for the newspapers and TV. Which is one of the reasons why Japanese companies, such as Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda, have generously funded the research labs that have built and designed them, after all, robots are a good way of promoting technology companies.But there are other much more serious reasons why companies in Japan are investing so much in robot technology and why they are, according to some observers, now a decade ahead of any other country in robotics research.
Robotics has long been used by industry as a means of improving factory quality, performance and efficiency, particularly in countries like Japan. For at least three decades robots have been a key technology in engineering industries, especially the automotive and electronics industries, and have been responsible for both increasing industrial productivity and making manufacturing more competitive, flexible and responsive to changing markets.
A part of everyday life
Now after decades of media hype and subsequent disappointment, robots
are at last moving out of the factory and into the wider world. A move
that promises to dramatically expand the size of the robotics industry
and at the same time bring social and economic benefits to a much
greater number of peoples' lives. "In the same way that mobile phones
and laptops have changed our daily lives, robots are poised to become,
within the next decade, a part of everyday life," says Geoff Pegman of
UK based robotics company R.U.Robots.
"Machines incorporating robot technology are increasingly finding their
way into our homes, into hospitals and other public spaces, in the form
of self-navigating vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, window washers, toys,
or surgical robots."
Advances in robot technology mean that robots will soon be capable of performing more challenging tasks though, in professional markets, in the home or at leisure. They will be operating in field areas, for example forestry, agriculture, cleaning, mining, freight transport and demolition. New robot systems will also enable a greater proportion of the population to live independently in their homes by providing personal assistance to the elderly and the infirm and adding further convenience to our daily life by helping to carrying out everyday chores.
These new types of robots are known as 'service robots'. The market for such robots is barely five years old and the devices being sold today are still simple and rudimentary, yet the demand for them is currently growing at over 400 percent each year. In Europe alone some 220 companies, over 70 percent of which are new start-ups, now develop, make and distribute service robots — companies that are forming the basis of a new innovation driven, high value-added industry.
Service robots can assist around the home
Service robots
By end of 2003 some 21,000 service robots
were used in professional applications worldwide, but on top of this
there were more than 1.3 million service robots sold for personal and
private use. These included such diverse devices as lawnmowers,
autonomous vacuum cleaners, and robot toys. Autonomous vacuum cleaners
alone account for sales of more than 600,000 units per annum.
Both manufacturers and customers increasingly see service robots as a way in which people in the developed world can maximize...
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