Communications of the ACM
Trends in Industrial Robotics to Watch in 2022
The next 12 months will set us on a path that may prove difficult to turn from. Changes happening now lead forward, and its unlikely we will ever come back from where they lead.
Credit: Depositphotos
Over the last decades, robots have transformed from expensive industrial exhibition pieces--in 1966, GM's Unimate played golf and poured a beer on the Johnny Carson show--into everyday workhorses. We've seen increasing adoption by diverse industries, from life sciences to electronics, to food and consumer goods manufacturing. This is primarily owing to new dexterity, better machine vision, as well as wider robotics availability. In fact, according to statistics from the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), Q4 2020 marked the first time non-automotive orders exceeded those by automotive vendors.
Meanwhile, the last two years accelerated ongoing robotic trends like AI integration, agile design, and widespread IIoT adoption. At the same time, new pressures from changing worker availability, supply chain disruptions, and ongoing pandemic concerns created a higher marketplace demand for manufacturing robots.
The next 12 months will set us on a path that may prove difficult to turn from. Changes happening now lead forward, and it's unlikely we will ever come back from where they lead. Here are five industrial robotics trends and how they will affect industrial sectors in 2022 and beyond.
From Robotics Tomorrow
View Full Article
No entries found