FANUC and Universal Robots with paradigm shift
A "star" at automatica 2022 was certainly the UR 20 with 20 kg payload and a reach of 175 cm, which was presented in Munich for the first time. A little in its shadow, the FANUC CRX-25 iA was presented. FANUC saw its new introduction primarily as an addition to the existing, which was pointed out, but nothing more. The new FANUC again outshines the Universal Robots with its reach of 189 cm and payload of 25 kg. The UR should be faster - if this is a criterion, please compare.
Quite apart from this, the UR has been redesigned internally compared to its smaller siblings and now consists of 50% fewer parts and is so much lighter than it would have been otherwise. The real innovation of the UR 20 might be the changed inner workings. (FANUC, in turn, has optimized its 35-kg-lifting Cobot CR-35iB).
Universal Robots told us that the new UR 20 will probably remain the only new product until the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, and that the Danes have already achieved half of their sales with the UR 10 and UR 16 models. The market either wants larger cobots or, in the lower range, competitors such as Franka Emika etc. are more in demand.
The new models are no answer to the shortage of skilled workers
Both manufacturers like to point to cobots as the answer to the skills shortage. This is true. But I doubt that a skilled worker is eagerly lifting 20 kg today. If this happens at all, it is an unskilled worker. It would then be a matter of the shortage of personnel per se. Ultimately, however, according to a FANUC representative, they also want to get into the area of palletizing solutions that are still in use today. In other words, either into special machine construction or to offer alternatives to industrial robotics. The original objective, collaborative work, is no longer emphasized, if only for safety reasons. Thus, I see the paradigm shift mentioned in the title. And this is actually threefold:
- Cobots as a deliberate alternative to industrial robots.
- These cobots no longer have anything to do with the employee (no cooperation, rarely relief)
- Increased dependence on economic cycles. While the existing cobot market is booming in isolation from economic developments, the "heavyweights" are likely to see an increased correlation with investment behavior. This is because existing plants are likely to already be largely automated. It would then be a matter of initial equipment.
New competitors
While the competition of Universal Robots with classic industrial robotics is obvious because ultimately customers who are already familiar with a UR want it, the behavior of FANUC is a little surprising. Because there is definitely a risk of partial cannibalization at FANUC. Instead of a FANUC industrial robot, a customer buys a CRX-25. Here, the main motivation is probably to follow the customer's request and to address customers who were previously unfamiliar with robots. Both Cobot models have to face competition not only from industrial robots, at least for palletizing, but also from Coboworx. The startup has presented a robot designed specifically for this task with a payload of 35 kg, which can also be rented.
Generally speaking, when the economy worsens, the shortage of skilled workers decreases
I think that against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the demand for skilled workers in manufacturing will decline. The times of broad growth seem to be over for the time being. Of course, skilled workers retire every year and cannot be replaced, but this will not require as much automation as in a strongly growing economy without material shortages. There will probably also be more bankruptcies than in previous years. Those who think this scenario is realistic should perhaps focus more on amortization and quality as a selling point again.
in the following video, it is again emphasized "This is the cobot redifined" (from Universal Robots). That's right. Cobots are getting closer to industrial robots and industrial robots are getting closer to cobots thanks to safety technologies.
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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises on almost all issues related to robotics incl funding/subsidies, but does not go in-depth into the technology. More about him can be found here.