Robotics has become an essential part of the industrial sector around the world, its progress is unstoppable and it is a clear example of how digitization and new technological tools are an increasingly part of our lives.
And it is that within robotics, different fields of engineering come together , such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and biomedical engineering, along with other sciences such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computational sciences, in addition to disciplines such as mechanics, computing, artificial intelligence, home automation and programming or telecommunications.
The Royal Academy defines robotics as the technique that applies information technology to the design and use of devices that, instead of people, perform operations or work, usually in industrial facilities .
If we talk about robots, the RAE points out that it is a programmable electronic machine or device that is capable of manipulating objects and performing various operations .
Robot Evolution
Robotics and robots have been implemented in industry for decades , but their continuous development, even more so thanks to Artificial Intelligence , has become a crucial factor in Industry 4.0 .
The evolution of robots is in line with the evolution of technology, that is, it has not stopped growing , and this has also meant that its complexity has increased, with new elements such as motion sensors, video cameras, etc.
In this way, we have some robots with greater autonomy, precision and sensitivity, thanks to tools such as Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning , with which there is a great leap between those first robots and the current ones that are much more sophisticated and Prepared for all kinds of tasks .
Robotics in Spain
Since the first electric robot was installed in Spain in 1979, many things have happened in our country. Spain is among the main European countries in terms of the use of robotic engineering .
According to the World Robotics 2021 report by the International Federation of Robotics , it is the fourth European country with the most industrial robotics installations , after Germany, Italy and France, and the tenth country in the industrial ranking in terms of the automation of tasks in factories.
Robot operating stocks totaled 38,007 units in 2020, up 3% from the previous year. However, robot installations decreased by 15% to 3,387 units. It was the second year of decline after four consecutive years of record figures, with a maximum value of 5,266 units in 2018.
Spain was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but according to the Spanish Association of Robotics and Automation (AER), the demand for robots grew strongly in a range of +15% to +20% compared to the year above in the first half of 2021.
However, there is a certain peculiarity in these data, since over 50% of robots in Spain are part of the automotive industry , which leads to the idea that there is still a large margin for the implementation of robots in the Spanish economic activity. .
In terms of robot density -number of robots installed per 10,000 workers- in the manufacturing industry, Spain exceeds 200 robots/10,000, above the world average.
Globally, the World Robotics 2021 Industrial Robots Report notes a record 3 million industrial robots operating in factories around the world, which translates to a 10% increase . Sales of new robots grew slightly, by 0.5%, despite the pandemic, with a total of 384,000 units shipped worldwide in 2020.
Robotics Applications
The fields of application of robotics are very broad, although they could be simplified into industrial, service and social .
Industrial robots are the ones we find in industries and factories , especially in the automotive and manufacturing sectors. These are machines in automation processes, avoiding the heaviest tasks for workers.
As for robotics dedicated to services, they are those robots whose function is related to a specific purpose of service, usually to people .
It is about machinery that we have very close to us on a day-to-day basis, and can be used for domestic tasks, such as the already famous robot vacuum cleaners, those dedicated to research, whose field of action is laboratories or hospitals, or those called exploration, which are mobile robots, used to inspect and crawl environments.
We could also refer to other fields, such as social, now in high demand, thanks to voice assistants , which are increasingly present in homes.
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
The development of Artificial Intelligence and robotics go hand in hand , since AI is a step ahead of robots in terms of autonomy. But it is also decisive for them to be able to make decisions about what to do in a given work environment and under pre-established parameters.
Robots with artificial intelligence are not here to replace humans but to complement them , in the sense that their mission should be to help people do their jobs better.
Among the advantages of this relationship, it is worth noting that it prevents workers from carrying out risky tasks or making a great effort; preventing them from making mistakes or preventing workers from having to perform mechanical work.
It must be taken into account that when a robot has Artificial Intelligence algorithms integrated, it does not wait to receive orders to make a decision, but rather is capable of working on its own. To do this, previously, he had to pass a training phase.
Through Machine Learning or automatic learning , the robot is capable of learning, solving, understanding, reasoning or reacting optically.
Autonomous and mobile robots
The trend is not to have a robot capable of transporting weight, but rather to move towards autonomous and mobile robots, capable of intelligently collecting, processing and managing data , and making the best decisions regarding manufacturing or production.
In the development and expansion of these autonomous robots, the leading role of 5G arises , a new generation that represents a plus in connectivity , thanks to a lower delay in the transmission of a network ( latency ), compared to 4G and previous generations.
With 5G technology, massive machine-to-machine (M2M) type communications, there is an increase in the capacity to manage simultaneous connections , the high density of connected devices, real-time communication or the virtualization of network infrastructures will pave the way to that robots have more options to complement the human being.
Outside The Factories
The report " Digital Society in Spain 2020-2021 " by the Fundación Telefónica , has a section referring to robots and their future, now far from the confinement in which they were found until now, closed spaces such as warehouses and factories. And it is that they are automatons whose function will go further than that of mechanical tasks in an assembly line.
In this sense, the report highlights that the deployment of 5G networks in combination with edge computing are decisive to promote and transform the world of robotics in the coming years.
According to the report " Autonomous robotic systems " by the consulting firm Accenture , intelligent robots have great advantages for companies , such as increased safety, cut costs, increased efficiency, improved productivity, performed routine tasks and solved the lack of workforce.
One last fact, but not much less illustrative, is that -according to the report “ We, The post-digital people. Can your enterprise survive the tech-clash? ”, also from Accenture, within five years , city dwellers will have between five and ten daily interactions with autonomous devices .
Social Plugin