Technology Show Featuring Universal Robots

The advantages of robot-human collaboration were already known with humans using robots to assist them at work since the 1970s. According to Jonathan Tilley, a McKinsey partner, in his 2017 paper Automation, Robotics, and the Factory of the Future, he says that in the next five to ten years, there will be a more fundamental transformation in the kinds of jobs for which robots can become both technically and economically viable.

Universal Robots is a company founded in 2005 by three university students in Denmark, with the aim to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible collaborative robots that are safe to work side-by-side with people.

Cobots, according to James McKew, Universal Robots’ regional director for Asia Pacific, are not a threat to human labour but rather will help to improve the quality of production and the ability of humans and robots to work together.

James says people have an inherent dread of robots since many sees machines replacing humans. However, he adds that Universal Robots was built on the principle of “empowering people” and moving away from “people working like robots” to “people working with robots.”

During the conversation, James shares a brief history and an overview of Universal Robots and also talks about;

who their key customers are and how their customers deploy the products
how the manufacturing industry leverage cobots during the pandemic
other emerging industries for cobots besides manufacturing and automotive
how does Universal Robots address the workforce fears of being replaced
the trends of cobots globally and especially in Asia
the checklist that a company needs to go through before they start thinking of increasing automation in their business
the return on investment