Robotics is one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing fields in technology at the moment. It holds tremendous potential for benefiting both industrial customers and private users in their day-to-day routine. Widely deployed in factories and homes, smart and collaborative robots have already become an indispensable part of our everyday lives, and this trend looks set to continue in the future almost indefinitely.
Industrial Robots vs. Consumer Robots
The main area of robotics applications in the last few decades has been industrial manufacturing. Industrial robots have replaced people for simple routine tasks and activities that require extra accuracy or have a high risk of injury.
Using robots in manufacturing increases productivity and provides additional flexibility. Production optimization is a key factor for the competitive growth of an enterprise and guarantees a higher level of quality, safety, and durability for products.
Every year, the industrial robotics market grows. Research by the International Federation of Robotics states that in 2014, 225,000 robots were sold, which is 27% more than in 2013. According to preliminary estimates, the growth continued in 2015 and amounted to 15%.
Experts forecast that by 2018, the annual sales of industrial robots will amount to 400,000 units, which is almost twice as much as right now.
In 2014, the European Union launched the world’s largest robotics program, SPARC, aimed at creating over 240,000 new jobs in Europe and strengthening the EU’s leadership positions in the area of the development and manufacturing of industrial robots.
SPARC’s analysts estimate that the robotics market volume today amounts to $22 bn, and by 2020 sales profits will reach $50–62 bn.
However, the cumulative growth of the robotics industry is linked not only to the manufacturing of automation and industrial robots, but to the ever-increasing frequency robotics is used in the healthcare, education, and entertainment segments.
Many experts see the robotics breakthrough in the more aggressive development of consumer robots that can be used for daily routine tasks. These are robots that can be “employed” as nannies, teachers, guards, household helpers etc.
The report “Consumer Robotics” from the consulting company Tractica states that in the next five years, we will see significant growth in this segment, from 6.6 million units in 2015 to 31.2 million in 2020. In total, almost 100 million consumer robots will be sold over these five years.
This upsurge in interest in consumer robotics is connected to the common trend of technological personalization. To attract consumers, companies strive to create the most user-friendly solutions that can solve users’ individual tasks, adjusting to their needs, habits, and interests.
Thanks to the rapid development of AI and the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is now possible to use smart connected devices with various sensors (or without them) to extend the physical environment of the user.
Combining the Internet of Things and robotics will allow the implementation of the most unique possibilities of human-to-devices interaction.
Auriga and Robotics Projects
Auriga’s engineers have significant experience in the development of robotic systems. In particular, in a project for one of our clients, Auriga’s team participated in the development of an automated warehouse system. Auriga performed all the steps, including the design and architecture, development of algorithms, system logic implementation, manual and automated testing, and customization of specific solutions for the customer.
The product is an automated warehouse system consisting of robotic equipment and powerful control software to provide a complete order fulfillment solution: Storing, moving and sorting inventory etc.
From a technical point of view, the project represented a combination of embedded experience, extensive Java expertise, the programming of sophisticated algorithms applied to moving objects, and the delivery of complex solutions with advanced business logic.
Elena Baranova, Auriga’s Director of Engineering, says,
Robotics can easily become the next big thing. The necessary foundation is already there. At this stage, it is important not to make a mistake in choosing a partner for the development. This is a very specific area that requires a certain set of skills. One of Auriga’s advantages is expertise in embedded mobile software development, as well as interoperability. Besides, our engineers have great experience in the development of solutions with sophisticated business logic and smart connected devices that are part of the Internet of Things system.
This allows us to provide high-quality services for projects related to software development for healthcare robotics, robotics for smart cars, consumer robots, and other similar devices.
