DRV fireside evening - review
Yesterday evening, the first exchange of the newly founded German Robotics Association (DRV) took place with the virtual "fireside evening". The moderation was taken over by Robert Weber, who quickly created a relaxed and at the same time productive atmosphere. Robert Weber is well known in the industry, as is his podcast.
High number of participants
A 3-digit number of integrators, distributors, manufacturers, researchers (chairs) and also some users had dialed in. The users seemed to come more from the SME sector and not from the large spectrum of OEMs (e.g. automotive industry). The heterogeneity thus distinguishes DRV from VDMA. When the DRV was founded, the press asked whether there was a need for other stakeholders. However, the VDMA and the DRV differ both in terms of their target group and the focus of their work.
After the entertaining presentation of the board (on the photo from left: Christoph Ryll, Helmut Schmid and Olaf Gehrels) the individual departments were introduced. The following departments currently exist:
- Application technology
- Research coordination and funded projects
- Legal requirements, standardization and safety
- Investment promotion and corporate financing
- School education and extracurricular training
- Technology Radar "Smart Robotics for All
The departments call for participation and also see themselves as a service point for members. Their number has already reached 150.
Parallel Tesla to Universal Robots/ E-car to Cobot
The association is dedicated to the entire spectrum of robotics. Due to the general market growth alone, the cobot is currently a bit in focus. Here, Olaf Gehrels drew an interesting comparison: Tesla, like the first Cobot (Universal Robots), was first presented in 2009 and then needed around 10 years to become increasingly noticeable. This also applies to the Cobot, and no one really doubts the success of both technologies (e-car and Cobot) anymore.
Case study robotics in medium-sized companies
Getting to know each other personally with the exchange of goals and interests (e.g. founding of national groups) was presented as the use case robotics "Opdra". The hidden champion Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH solves the well-known problem of the shortage of skilled workers by means of robotics. The originally very complex approach (using Omron AI to operate machining centers) is currently being introduced to the market in a slimmed-down form: Camera reads a screen, digitizes data by recognition, so no interface is needed. As a result, robots can simply be controlled - without an interface or PLC.
Exchange of experience
Afterwards, the previous exchange was continued, among other things with completely contrary opinions on the Hannover Messe (also very positive) and expectations of the association, e.g. to emphasize the economic efficiency of small robotics for SMEs. This is now given especially as no-code programming becomes more and more tangible.
The next fireside evening will be held in two months. Given the positive feedback, the number of participants should continue to grow.
