Manufacturing of electronic components including ICs and PCBs will account for 36% of collaborative robots to be deployed in Taiwan in the future, followed by metal working with 32%, retail logistics with 15%, food processing with 11% and shoe making with 6%, according to Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center under government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
While demand for all types of industrial robot in China, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the US kept increasing at a CAGR of about 13% during 2011-2017, global demand for collaborative robots alone hiked 89% on year in 2016, 75% in 2017 and is forecast to hike 65% in 2018, the center said. Human-machine collaboration functionally fills the gap between 100% manually operated production and completely automated production and is becoming the mainstream mode in the global industrial automation market, the center explained.
For manufacturing of electronic components, collaborative robots will paired with AGVs (automated guided vehicles) for feeding, cutting and moving of materials mostly, the center noted. For metal working processes, collaborative robots will be used in feeding, cutting, moving and carrying of materials as well as grinding, paint spraying, gluing and polishing, the center indicated.