How are the current political and economic crises affecting the market for lightweight robots and cobots?

We are not noticing much of this at the moment. Of course, our customers are feeling the uncertainty just as much as the rest of the economy, but the need for robotics and automation is there and demand is correspondingly high.

Which market segments is this demand coming from?

First of all, there is a shortage of well-trained technicians across all segments throughout Europe; the qualified "middle class" is missing. In the medium and long term, schools need to better enable children to exercise control over technology. In the short term, cobots can already provide relief today.

Welding tasks are a good example: On the one hand, there is a real shortage of qualified specialists in Europe, but on the other hand, we have significantly expanded the software for welding tasks in the meantime. Even non-computer scientists have access to extensive libraries of algorithms to easily compile welding programs for the cobot. This means that smaller companies can also use cobots for welding tasks.

Another example is machine loading: a classic robot task, but here too, advanced and more accessible software is opening up completely new application possibilities. If we look at the sectors, the automotive industry and its suppliers are of course still extremely important for us. But there is also a lot of growth potential in the plastics sector. New markets such as hospitals and the energy sector are also gaining in importance.

There is still a big gap between the need for cobots and their actual use. We want to close this gap.

Where is the trend in robotics heading - in general and at Universal Robots?

The most important trend is that robotics is opening up new markets and customer segments for which the use of robots was previously out of the question. The decisive factor for these customers is that they are looking for solutions rather than individual components. What they are looking for is a mobile, ready-to-use welding unit that can be integrated into the process immediately. Or a unit that can immediately load a testing device with samples. The customer wants a single point of contact who guarantees the smooth interaction of components and software. At Universal Robots, we take this into account through our systematically established partner network.