In late 2018, TM Robotics authored a report investigating which nations are leading the way in the race for automated production. Statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) show that the number of industrial robots used in production activities is increasing rapidly. However, three-quarters of total robot sales are currently attributed to just five countries — China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States, and Germany.
Asia has long remained the strongest market for robotics. Of the record-breaking 380,550 robot units sold globally in 2017, a significant percentage of these are deployed to Asian factories. In fact, the region has reported record-breaking robot sales for the past four years in a row, rising by 19% in 2017. Asia has pulled out all the stops to remain at the forefront in this area. In 2015, for instance, the Chinese government announced Made in China 2025 (MiC2015), a national initiative that aims to reboot the country’s manufacturing sector, with the objective of China becoming the world’s largest user of robots.
Similarly, Japan launched its own transformation project in 2017, called Society 5.0. This initiative aims to go beyond Germany’s 2011 Industry 4.0 initiative by considering the challenges that these new technologies will bring to society, rather than focusing solely on their use in manufacturing.
According to the World Robot Statistics, the world’s average robot density is 74 robots per 10,000 employees. The United States sits comfortably above this, at 189 robots per 10,000 employees. In 2016, the country began to climb the robot-density ranks, and today comes in at seventh in the world, behind South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and Denmark.
To read more : Winning the Robot Race
Source: newstomasnet.com
Photo credit : robotics.org